Just when we thought we could take a break…
Posted on Friday, November 7th, 2008
When I look back at the past few years, I see an enormous amount of time and energy spent by myself and hundreds of activists/political junkies whom I know personally. I remember spending all of 2006 working on campaigns out west, then in 2007 I worked with Citizen Outreach developing internet strategy and planning for CLC07. I remember when Mitt Romney, Bob Barr, and Duncan Hunter spoke at CLC last October. At the time, the Republicans were battling it out for the top spot on the GOP ticket.
Then came 2008… a whirlwind of a year that required countless hours of work on our part. Some of us spent the entire year working non-stop on the campaign trail, the rest of us spent the year developing online information tools and new media communities. Have no doubt, those of us working on politics, both paid and volunteer, put in a staggering amount of work leading up to this point in time.
And for what? If you were working for a Republican campaign, chances are you had your tail end handed to you on a silver platter. If, like me, you work in the free market movement, you witnessed some of the largest surges towards outright Socialism that our country has ever seen.
Last Tuesday night, I sat in Manchester New Hampshire pondering the next step as I watched the elections unfold. I remember bouncing around between polling locations in Manchester that morning, thinking “in just 24 hours I’ll be able to slow down and rest”. I remember thinking about how different things would be now that campaign season was coming to a close.
I was wrong.
The 2008 elections taught the center-right movement a valuable lesson. It’s a lesson that many of us already knew, but hadn’t until now fully grasped. That lesson is that Republicans aren’t going to do anything to advance the center-right movement. In fact, many of them, if not most, are actively trying to destroy it.
Let’s face it folks, the GOP is about as effective as a lead balloon in engaging people in citizen-powered politics. I realize that some of my friends on the right feel they have a chance at rebuilding the Republican Party, but I don’t share their optimism. Not to say that I completely give up, but we have to understand that the GOP has backed itself into a monster of a bureaucracy that will take years and years to tear down and rebuild.
Years that we as a movement simply do not have.
It’s time that we as a movement develop our organizational structure outside of the party. It’s time that we begin planning a full scale offensive assault on corrupt government at all levels. Local, state, and yes, even federal.
It’s time that we begin hammering school boards with fiscally responsible candidates. It’s time to move in on city councils and state legislatures. It’s time for us to call for incumbent power to end. Immediately.
We can no longer standby and watch our rights and freedoms be torn to shreds by politicians who make it their profession to find loop holes and remain in power. It’s time to end the game of favor exchanges and power plays using our hard earned money.
It’s time, friends. This political party nonsense has to be shoved to the side. If we’re going to be a movement, then we’ve got to move.
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Friends - I have a problem here, and that is the name of this project. “Don’t go?” Heck, I wish they would go, and stay gone!
OK, what about the specific context, which was a Republican political stunt last summer to exploit high gas prices for partisan advantage. That’s not hugely inspiring either, notwithstanding my agreement with the immediagte “drill drill drill” issue underlying it.
“Move on” originated as a scold against those who objected to the continued persecution of Clinton’s sexual exploitation of a young powerless woman. Frankly, if I were a leftie I wouldn’t find that very inspiring either, but it has nevertheless been very effective, so some might tell me, “Get over it.” Maybe . . . just sayin’.
I must tell everyone that this is a movement that was indeed born from a few members of the house standing up to house leadership. I don’t think of it as a stunt but an awaking of sorts. After speaking to a number of those house members I got a very real sense of they know, understand, and appreciate that they work for the people that sent them there.
All of that as well as this election cycle has brought me to the point that change must come my side of the aisle. There are many people here in this movement that are hoping for many different things but what we are hoping for most is an end of the vilification of conservative values. We have the message America needs right now.
But we found having the right message is not enough. I think what I found was that we under estimated the power of participation. For those or you that are looking for blame, look in the mirror. to be cont….
Willie, at least one of of the repub reps who was a high-profile don’t-go noisemaker is from my state, and I know for a fact that he’s mainly a cynical opportunist who will always be on whatever side of an issue serves his political self-interest best. In this case “drill drill drill” was smart politics, so he was all over it.
You use the phrase “standing up to leadership,” but that’s a misnomer - the phrase means going against your own caucus leaders, not the other party. This individual never has done that, including when a few brave souls were fighing earmarks. Worse, he has been just as vocal for really bad things when they are useful. The point is, I doubt his unsavoriness is unique among those involved in the stunt, even though some may not be as bad as the rest.
So once again I personally can find no lasting inspiration in that event, fun though it was while underway. However, I respect the people behind this website, and don’t want to overemphasize this point either.
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“It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonoured by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government . . . In the name of God, go!”
Oliver Cromwell to Parliament, 1653