Chalmers makes some good points but the country is about evenly split between Left and Right voters. Ergo, unless the GOP can come up with an effective plan to offset about 5 million fake Dem registrations and as many fake votes, you’re spinning your wheels.

Also, you’re going to have to deal — one way or another — with the demoralizing issue of liberal GOP Senators ALWAYS voting with Democrats on key issue, or allowing Donks to prevail as they did on confirming judges. Me and my gang of 18 conservative activists left the GOP and registered as independents for those reasons. We voted for a couple of moderate Democrats in Election 2008. We will not return until the GOP can give us a modicum of assurance that if the GOP retakes Congress it will have some meaning.

I could go on about border security and how many calls, faxes, and emails it took to get conservative pretenders in Congress (like Elizabeth Dole) to finally stop voting for amnesty.

I think you get the point.

Good post.

With all respect to Melissa, and all of the other tech-heads out there, but the GOPs problems(and thus solutions) have not one single thing to do with technology. Nothing. Zilch. Zero. Nada.

A relative few people spend their lives making a living in technology-based political information dispersal(or in reading it). People do not make up their minds about political stance, and the basic underlying morality reasons for that stance based on up-to-the-minute cutting-edge developments in yapping online. In fact, a relatively few people pay attention to politics on even a monthly/yearly basis.

Given a choice between a politician who lies about his commitment to morality(keeping their word to voters)and paying for votes with everyone else’s money, and the ones that are shameless, and tell voters they intend to rob from others and give it to THEM(his voters), the one promising money to the masses of educationally retarded – and effectively amoral – is going to win over the liars who want to do undesirable things for everyone’s supposed good who then refuses ever after to do those things.

I have a news flash for those fantasizing that the Republican party is not an undead corpse, it is dead. It is rotting and fly-blown, and has given over its life to communists now in full revolution mode. The next step is the massive failure of the US gov’t and economy(as a result of “bailouts” and “stimuli” from both parties), and the throwing in with all of the world’s gov’ts into one kitty, of money and sovereignty. We are betrayed!

The only steps ongoing can be counter-revolutionary. A complete tax revolt, denial of the money necessary to enslave us, would be a very effective start.

All the fancy technology in the universe, short of outright mind-control, is not going to make liars tell the truth, or make people believe that they are NOW telling the truth.

All of the technology in the universe is not going to turn two generations of socialists, New Age visualizers, perverts, Welfare parasites, senile old Boomers who think they deserve to spend their children’s money, and just the blatantly ignorant products of public schools’ socialist propaganda and brain-washing into the morally courageous, personally responsible citizens necessary not only rescue the country short term, but to keep it running going forward.

As others have pointed out: it’s not about the technology; it’s about the ideas.

Here’s a simple one we can rally behind: Republicans will never tax internet sales and will work to repeal internet sales taxes.

Perhaps some policy changes?

1. How about supporting middle class tax cuts? The stimulus bill has a lot of those, and our representatives voted against it.

2. We need to be fiscally more responsible. Can we perhaps get out of Iraq and not try to start other regional wars?

3. Health care is a major cost to employers. If we had an attractive single-payer health care system, our companies could save a lot of money on health insurance premiums.

The goal is 60% which admittedly sounds insane, but better to aim high and not quite reach it than to aim low, and not quite reach it. Also, I think there is a tendency to avoid going after the real problems, but if we aim for astonishing success that will force us to go after the dragon in its cave rather than the little problems.

Figure out a list of items that exemplify Standard Full-bore Conservatism and go after them all, across the board. One problem we have is that we have activists saying “Oh, that problem, abortion, is not important.” Or whatever problem you can fill in the blank with. Garbage, just garbage.

Full-bore conservatism has three virtues as follows:
1. It avoids in-fighting.
2. It activates the extreme enthusiasm of the single issue people.
3. It tends to weed out the weak-kneed sorts who claim to be fiscal conservatives or some other thing, but when they actually govern tend to be liberal (see Gov. Schwarzaneggar).

When picking Exemplifying Issues, aim for two things.
1. Plan to deliver. Right now the RNC and the elite Republicans have a reputation as wusses who don’t deliver to live down. You have to show that you’re utterly serious. You have to prove you’re going to the mat, and then fight it to the bitter end if you fail. BUT plan on winning.
2. Pick issues that are enormously popular with the people. Abolishing partial birth abortion, ending affirmative action, standing for marriage, putting a fence up Quickly, cutting taxes, slashing spending, put in a ‘no earmark’ ban for Republicans and live up to it….these are all positions that vast numbers of the American people support or would support. A fence is supported by 70% of the American People. Standing up for marriage is more popular than the Republican Party.

You need one-three issues for each major single issue group in the R party. The larger and more active the group gets three issues so Social Conservatives get three, and Libertarians get one, Gun Owners get two, Home Schoolers get vouchers which is their one, and so on.

You pitch this issue to the single issue people. And when you do, you add a little trailer on the end where you pitch the whole Republican message to them because ultimately you want Flat Taxers to see that Illegal Immigration and Gun Rights are all part of the same idea, for example. And you pitch the Gun Rights people on lower taxes and pro-life, and so on.

As to the message, you search out conservative novelists, film-makers, and poets and try to arrange a Perfect Storm of cultural events set to coincide with the elections and with the issues you’re raising in the elections. You can do this by offering prizes in contests, and by offering a chance to write in the “American Short Story Monthly Magazine” and the “Dystopias Anthology” which would respectively cover good SF/Fantasy/Mystery for patriots, and would feature SF worlds where the liberals got their way (see Cyberpunk, a literary movement founded on slamming corporations and supporting drug use).

You can do this by talking to some of the bigger names in novels and in film that are sympathetic and seeing if they could put out a book a few months before the election. Michael Cricton did a whole lot of good with ‘State of Fear’ in puncturing the AGW nonsense. Imagine if Tom Clancy, John Ringo, and Dick Francis all came out with books that inspired conversations founded on conservative ideas across the nation in staggered fashion about once a month before the next election. Talk to the people at Baen Books for help. Talk to Robert Ferrigno of “Prayers for an Assasin.” and Orson Scott Card of “Empire” and Ornery American punditry.

Also, do this with filmakers. I’m saddened that American Carol didn’t come out before the election. It should have.

Talk to the pundits, and see if Ann Coulter and Rush could come out with books timed to hit before the election as well.

Have a weekly award for the best blog post that a senator will read into the Congressional Record on C-span.

I’m not an Ayn Rand-ite but they are one of the sub-groups (a very small but very intense one), but if and when the movie “The Fountainhead” comes out a bunch of US congressmen need to be there on the red carpet on opening night sharing big smiles with Angelina Jolie for national television. And bonus points if one of them can compare Obama to ‘the looters’ and mention his hankering for ‘Galt’s Gulch’.

Speaking of which, lets see some US congressmen out for the next conservative movie. Gran Torino is getting a lot of happy words by conservatives, and its likely not to get an Oscar because of it being too conservative. So have some maverick congressman nominate Eastwood for ‘best actor in America’ in the opinion of Sen. McCain.

What that is, is essentially, look for ways to be provocative, to be funny, and to clearly demonstrate the difference. Jab at them and laugh about it.

Tell Kathleen Parker that as long as she’s talking about the War on Men she’s got an audience, but as soon as she starts up talking about how we need to kick out 2/3rds of the Republican Party in order to win that you’re out to lunch and can’t be reached.

Form a precinct level organization of volunteers. I understand that the RINOs would prefer to rely on professionals who’s loyalty can be bought, but this is merely more proof that the RINOs don’t know how to win.

There are those who threaten to leave if we go boldly conservative. Don’t get mad at them, but go conservative anyways. It is the job of the party to excite the base, and then to have the base get out and enthuse and attract the mushy middle to the Republican side. It is true that we need to be able to speak conservative principles in dulcet tones to the mushy middle, but we do not go to them. They come to us. We attract them by our enthusiasm and by the bright picture we paint.

We do not “Vote for us. We’re not as pathetic as the other guy!” which was our battle cry in 2006 and 2008. This yields a base that stays home and a base that tells the mushy middle that our side stinks. And it offers no bright picture of the future. And in the end, the RINOs who clamored for it end up voting for the other guy anyways.

Let me go back to what we can do. Invite visual artists to have displays at the governor’s mansion. Its a remarkable thing, but conservative artists tend to produce things of beauty, and people are hungry for beautiful art instead of ugly ‘what on Earth is that garbage stuff I’m supposed to be acting impressed by?’ ‘art’. I’m also struck by poetry. I’m not a poet, nor a visual artist, but I’m of the opinion that poetry could be the next big thing. Its near dead, and near dead is a field ready to be planted for a glorious harvest.

If I were Michael Steel holding a brain storming session at RNC I’d want Tennwriter in the room.

With young people comes technical knowhow. Get them involved, and the rest will follow (I’ve never had to instruct my step-daughter on using any internet site…).

I think that our approach should be different when it comes to recruiting.

We have never been the “Party of Victims”, and we never will be, but young people respond well to ideas that rebel against the status quo.

Hence, we should begin a more concerted effort to show the youth what is going on in our country (and the world) by showing them the acts of “moonbattery” (H/T to Van Helsing) and making it very public and widespread. If a politician should demonstrate extremism, we should attach the message, “Look what your party is doing!” If the viewing individual is conservative, the reaction is, “Not my party!”, and if the viewing individual is liberal, the reaction may be (under increased frequency of exposure) “I don’t like that, that’s not me.” If we had a daily show on Fox News that ran in the afternoon that was solely based on what we bloggers find on a daily basis, this would sway more than a few people to re-consider their party ideology.

Another thing that we need to do is cultivate an image of the “Under Dog” without resorting to the victimization status so beloved by the Left. A “Neo-con Insurgency” has a connotation that is questionable, but is none-the-less a valid label.

Further, we should consider the poaching of ideals. Before you begin to demand my head on a plate, hear me out.

If we don’t compromise soon on some things, we will have some very unpleasant laws rammed down our throats.

So…

Instead of Gay Marriage, we should champion Civil Unions. Remove the ability to legislate our religion by making it a solely civil item. While it may hurt our sense of “wa”, we will be heading them off at the pass before they criminalize our ministers, pastors, and priests for refusing to perform something that conflicts with our beliefs.

Allowing Gays in the Military would remove the only other fang in the venomous bite that is the Gay-rights Extremist. If ANYONE believes that this country is good enough to die for, they should be allowed to serve.

A few other items are floating around out there as well, but these are the ones that have little political importance, but high visibility. Remove these from the Left’s back pocket, and not only will they be a little scared, but we can point to it as our version of “change” (as opposed to increasing the deficit) next election.

We need to weaponize our statements more (Not “Look what they’re doing now,” but “Look what you’re doing now.”), publicize like never before the extremism that occurs (we do it all the time on the internet, it needs to be shown on Prime-time TV), and poach the so-called constituents of the Left (if we do what they always promised but never did, we’ll look like the party of results while protecting our ideals before they’re completely overrun…).