Let's Have a Ball

“A good tactic is one that your people enjoy. If your people are not having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic.”

That is a quote from Saul Alinsky and from his book “Rules for Radicals”

I went to and was involved in the initial Tea Party thing and I still feel the sense of community I felt in Lansing on the steps of the Capital with a few thousand people who felt as I did. Never have I felt that same sense of community. I ENJOYED IT. IT FELT FUN. At the same time I felt as if I was doing something worth doing.

I’ve talked with some who went to the Tea Party in Muskegon and though smaller they still felt that same sense of shared Community.

Using our Freedom is exhillerating and empowering. No matter what side of the fence you are on it can be a good feeling to find a group that shares your basic beliefs. If that group has “fun” doing what they do, it will probably gain new members; if not people will stop coming.

The Republican Party needs to understand that. The leadership if it is to capitalize on this Conservative movement has to learn how to first have fun then ask for the donations. To paraphrase the old ad; the Republican leadership has to “Make money the old fashioned way, they have to earn it.”

Andie Collier and Daniel Libit wrote an excellent article in Politico titled “Conservatives Use Liberal Play book. That is where I lifted the Alinsky quote. See link below.

—–link—–
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27285.html
————–---

Note if you will, the title said “Conservatives” not Republicans. Being active in the local Republican Party as a Precinct Delegate and a Conservative I am constantly reminded of the differences.

A fellow local blogger and I once agreed with one of the conclusions of the article; namely that if we were born in an earlier time, we may well have been on the front lines in the early labor movement. Having just said that, I and he I’m sure he would agree find no hypocricy in the fact that we both in our ways are on the front lines of the Conservative movement now.

All movements go through different stages; but they all start with “radicals” the in your face abrasive types. These are the ones that stir up the emotions and bring out the people that are mad but have nowhere to turn. Once they are massed, then Alinsky’s advice works it’s magic.

The Most important thing however is that the “Radicals” of what ever stripe have a message that resonates with a lot of people in the first place. Simply yelling and screaming about the color of the sky will not become a movement. Yelling and screaming will if it ressonates with the inherrent distrust Americans have for government and the fear they have of losing their freedom to bureaucrats.

That feeling started before our country did. It is the reason for our country. It started way before Alinsky put his spin on it. People have been spinning that message for a long time. Now it is the Conservative’s turn. We can take a page from Barry Goldwater who said. “Never forget there was only one freedom on which this nation was founded; that was freedom from government.” -Barry Goldwater …

Again the Alinsky quote is valuable.

—–quote from article—–
And, according to Alinsky, that’s one of the keys to a good uprising: As he put it in “Rules for Radicals,” “A good tactic is one that your people enjoy. If your people are not having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic.”
——————————-

What can the “Five Counties” do?

Have events that center around enjoying our freedoms by using them. The 1st Ammendment enshrining “Free Speech” comes to mind, mix that with picnic type of thing and “Free Assembly” and we’re off and running. Get a fiery speaker who talks for 10 min. not two hours and good food and some “fun” activities and we will be starting to get the message.

In this way we can build a community of Republicans. As the article alludes to we need to take the best from the liberal play book. We need to build a Republican Underground that is always popping up hither and yon with events and activities centering around enjoying and promoting our freedom. But we need to do it in a “FUN” way.

Last month Muskegon started having the following event after after each business meeting. This is a good example of building a community through fun things. Last month’s “Monday Madness” was a success. The main thing as with all of this is to keep the community we’re building as open as possible and encourage new members. See side bar “calendar”

My kudos to my blogger buddy for coming up with this idea. After the meeting everyone gets a chance to talk and let off steam about politics over something good to eat and a libation if wanted.

We as any minority have to use hit and run tactics. We are smaller, we use that as our strength because we can be quicker, more agile and react faster than our politically bogged down opponents. We ourselves need to become not bogged down.

We can stop worrying about embarrassing ourselves and more about getting the word out any way we can.

Talking about things popping up lol. Well Muskegon recently had an “Adopt a Highway” program. I just got a pic from Hank about Mason County’s “Adopt a Highway”. See pics below.




I’m wondering if Newaygo, Lake or Oceana have similar “Adopt a Highway” programs. If so send me a pic and I’ll put it up and we can make a new Gallery of the sign pics.

Also Lake has had success with putting up some yard signs with their Republican Party name and contact #s. We could add something snarky like “Had Enough” Join The Republican Party and Contact #s. Keep moving them get our membership involved, have fun. Have a “Had Enough” party. The conversation has started in Lake and gone to the Oceana Party business meeting, and just at our last Carmen group there was talk of yard signs. Word of mouth does get around. Well you get the drift.

Things need to be constantly popping up, the type of things that people will talk about and invite others to come to. The list is limited only by our imaginations. Some will fail, some will succeed, some will start to get old; We need to Act accordingly.

But as Saul says, “Let’s Have a Ball Doing It”

Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative