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So the drumbeat has already arrived. Some quarters of the Republican Party of Virginia, already drunk with the idea that all the kings have been smashed, know that it’s their opportunity to rise.
…and will do anything — and use any excuse — to come to the fore.
Rumblings coming from the RPV Advance are already talking in tones of “Why don’t we nominate a black/Hispanic/woman candidate for U.S. Senate?” as if this somehow wipes out the Republican Party’s absolutely horrendous record on outreach.
There’s a name for that folks. TOKENISM.
Ladies and gentlemen, the reason why we are getting our butts kicked is because the grassroots are (1) lazy, (2) ineffective, and (3) unwilling to fight for their beliefs in the same way liberals are willing to fight for theirs.
As for the top-side of this equation, the powers-that-be (4) need to quit sending the grassroots into the arena armed with a ping-pong ball and a slingshot when the opposition is using tanks, (5) need to figure out what the conservative movement is for, and (6) need to quit thinking of their own skins and start thinking about what sort of America we want to see in 20 years.
At the moment, the liberals know they can divide and conquer. The smaller our units — whether those are denominational, or a fraction of the conservative movement (fiscal, social, national security, or Tea Party), or our smallest automatons as libertarians or sovereign “individuals” — the easier it is to carve us up.
…but let’s not assume that one candidate, because they have certain attributes — be it the color of their skin or their sex — fixes the very deep problems we have within the Republican Party. In fact, quite the opposite. Such choices made solely on the basis of skin color or sex betray a certain racism or sexism latent in a few unlit corners within the Republican Party.
What should we look for?
- An ability to raise serious money.
- An ability to understand basic communications management.
- An ability to organize grassroots.
- Experience within Virginia and an understanding of our unit committees.
- Someone who understands new media and the power of social media as a force multiplier, not a silver bullet.
- A national presence, not a parochial one.
- Above all else, a willingness to unite the party by leading it, not by appealing to the lowest common denominator or ripping apart one leg of the four-legged table (fiscal, social, national security, or Tea Party).
Gain these qualities, and we can win against a Mark Warner whose luster has seriously dimmed in the light of Obamacare, his anti-gun reactionary policies, and his slow slide into Obama-style progressive politics.
But if we merely put on the airs of diversity rather than seriously focus on the problem? Well… we deserve the results we got last time. Damn shame if that’s what we take away from the 2013 RPV Advance.