In recent months, Barack Obama has adopted the term “shovel-ready” to describe easily implementable programs he intends to use to stimulate the Economy. Some even sound pretty good! He’s talking about “Tax Cuts”, for example. Insofar as they really are “Tax Cuts” and not more “lipstick on a pig” mischaracterizations of dangerous Economic Policy I’ll be happy to see them enacted.

The question, of course, is how do we know what the truth is? How can we tell if Obama is cutting taxes or merely cutting deeper into American’s paychecks? Are bail-out plans emptying water from the lifeboat or just banging on the boat’s bottom, widening the hole and scuttling her faster? The MSM, of course, is keeping Americans informed with cracker-jack economic reporting, detailed accounts of what’s been tried and what worked, voting records and running down the final destinations in the always popular “Follow the Money” game.

In spite of this, some still believe MSM coverage is more “Cracker Jacks” than cracker-jack; sounds like Economics more than it actually is Economics, and; cares only for a final stop for money consisting of their wallet! So, for you diehard Economic skeptics, the #Don’t Go Movement is excited to announce the reactiviation of one site and the launch of another, both guaranteed to shine lights into corners Government and the MSM would rather remain dark!

Speaking of lipstick on pigs, The Oink Report is back and better than ever. The Obama administration is taking up the Bush Administration’s handing out of billions of tax dollars. Americans need a trusted source to knock out bail-outs, hand-outs and stand-out examples of financial irresponsibility. The Oink Report does just that! Now, Government can’t tell you this-or-that spending is necessary or good for America, knowing no one will check. TOR highlights the worst excesses of wasteful Government spending so you can put your time to more profitable pursuits, like asking elected representatives what the heck they’re doing! Neil Boortz regularly referenced TOR and we look forward to his enthusiastic use of TOR while pointing out dirty government financial dealings. Of course, we know bloggers, talk-show hosts and (when they can’t ignore it any longer) the Press will also use the information TOR puts out.

How does one turn over the dirt exposing Government fraud, waste and abuse? With a shovel, of course. We’ll need a big one as the Federal Government proposed spending over $3 trillion dollars in fiscal 2009. Not to worry, our 2nd site, Grab A Shovel, is plenty big for the job! Dedicated to the proposition that many holes Government digs for “Shovel-Ready” programs need to be backfilled ASAP, Grab a Shovel will start filling as soon as Government construction crews are notified “break time” is over. GAS will identify wasteful Government stimulus programs. When they break ground, we’ll let taxpayers know so they can “grab a shovel” and bury bad “shovel-ready” spending by writing, calling and doing what responsible citizens do - serve as informed watchdogs and gadflies to Government.
Alternatively, they can shovel out what The Oink Report piggies produce. But that’s a mental picture for another email.

Visit The Oink Report and Grab A Shovel to discover what Government is doing with your money. Bookmark them and visit often. Tell your family and friends - after all, it’s their money, too! Most important, use the information you find to remind politicians pouring money into Government troughs and digging financial holes so deep we’ll never get out that you demand better and more fiscally responsible representation. Tell them the “without representation” in “No taxation without representation!” means “bad” representation as well as “no” representation. Tell them you’re not opposed to a little revolution now and then.

Written by Blue Collar Muse

On Monday, December 8th, The #dontgo Movement (www.dontgomovement.com) unveiled the Tennessee News Platoon.

The website, Tennessee News Platoon (www.tennessee.newsplatoon.com), will work to promote local government transparency and accountability, provide a news platform for local activism networks, and aggregate the top news stories happening across the state.

State Representative Stacey Campfield (TN-18) states, “I look forward to #dontgo getting together; we’ll be able to finally get out our clear concise message that will push for open government and good conservative values. Now more than ever we need people out there rallying conservatives to get more involved and to spread our message. I strongly feel that #dontgo will be able to help in making this happen.”

#dontgo originally began as a simple Twitter tag that the founders used to track the energy debate by the US Congress on August 1st. Hundreds of activists, including members of Congress, began using the tag not just to track the energy bill, but to energize supporters and champion fiscal conservative values. Soon thereafter the site http://www.dontgomovement.com/ was created and to date has over 30,000 opt-in email subscribers.

The #dontgo Revolution uses web-based strategies and tactics to advance free-market values. Its mission is to develop a fifty state strategy of blogs and internet social networks that would activate more free market conservatives in their communities leading into the 2010 elections.

###

Tonight’s show is big… real big!

During the first hour (7:00 PM Eastern) we’ll have our normal show with Tricia Cunningham and I hosting, but we’ll be joined by social media loving candidate for United States Senate, Chuck DeVore.

For those who don’t know, Chuck DeVore is running against Barbera Boxer in 2010. Chuck is a candidate of interest to the #dontgo Movement because A) His campaign is quickly becoming fully immersed in new media/social media, and B) He is a strong supporter of free-markets and offshore drilling.

During the second hour (8:00 PM Eastern) we’ll be hosting a few Tennesseans with our official launch of the new #dontgo Movement’s Tennessee project. This is a HUGE announcement and you don’t want to miss it!

Please retweet this announcement and invite everyone you know to join us during the show tonight. Callers and chatters are welcome, and we hope to talk to all of you during the show.

Click here for the Blog Talk Radio show page.

Call in at (646) 595-2816

-Eric Odom

It’s wild to think that 2008 has just about come and gone, but indeed, this morning we celebrate yet another Thanksgiving holiday. And today, the #dontgo Movement has much to be thankful for.

First, we’d like to thank the thousands of activists, bloggers, and concerned voters who have reached out to us since August 1st. I’ve personally spent many years working in community development, collaborative politics, new media and online activism, and I’ve never seen anything remotely close to what we have happening with the #dontgo Movement.

It’s encouraging to know that I’m not alone in my quest to push back against bankrupt liberal policies and those who seek to destroy everything the free-market movement has acheived since this great country began.

To each of you who have emailed us, sent us words of encouragement, and offered your assistance, we thank you and wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.

Secondly, we’re in the unfortunate position as a country to literally have to watch Nationalism and Socialism roll out right before our eyes. Bad Government is now dominating in Washington, and people who have no clue what they are doing are throwing hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars, along with enormous amounts of government involvement, in to the free-market realm.

This is a dangerous attack on our free-market system, and we need to make sure that those who are truly representing the taxpayers by opposing this madness know that we appreciate them.

So, to each and every member of Congress who opposes anti-American bailouts, we thank you!

And finally, a HUGE thank you is in order for the core group of individuals who have worked to bring the #dontgo Movement to where it is today.

#dontgo Movement Board
Allen Fuller, Elizabeth Blackney, Sherri Reese, and Richard Disney.

Communications
Juliana Johnson

Tech/Web Dev
Ali Akbar, Aaron Marks, Darrin Dickey, Bradley Hankins, and the group that hasn’t yet started working but have agreed to.

Oh… and Leslie Harrington for her AMAZING graphic design ninja skills.

SEO/Marketing
Brian Horn, Kelly Berry, Beth Cleaver and Michael Martin.

News Platoon Team
Matt Wolking, John McJunkin, Ken Marrero, David West, Chris Arndt, Willie Lawson, Scott Thornberry, Truman Bean, Joshua Arrowood, Nathan Moore, Rob Shearer, Krystle Weeks, Doug Welch, Dillon Roark, Josh Shroeder, Michael Emlong, John Brodigan, Alo Konsen, David Hill, Shanan Glandz, Kimberly West, Anne Winkler, Michael Francis, Martin Stytz, Andrew Cardarelli, Walt Gilbert, Dawn Maldonado, John Olsen.

#dontgo Radio
Tricia Cunningham and Nikki Star (who ROCKS btw…)

There are many, MANY who have not been named here, but I can assure each of you that you’re on our thoughts as we work to develop one of the most ambitious TRUE grassroots, collaborative movements our country has ever seen.

That being said, THANK YOU and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

And to everyone not on the list, to everyone on Twitter, to anyone celebrating Thanksgiving today… HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

The discussion on the right over the past few weeks, with regards to the state of the center-right movement online, has been fascinating to say the least. The way the Obama team took the most successful offline community organization campaign our country as ever seen and blended it in to a flawless online infrastructure, that in turn translated in to offline political success, has left many on the right scratching their heads.

Often times, especially over the last few years, the right has gotten far too caught up in the ?we’re behind online? chant. In doing so, we’ve completely been ran over by a true collaborative movement that we don’t understand, nor do many of us seem willing to explore.

Last month, while speaking on a panel at AFP Summit in Washington, D.C., I caused a stir with a few friends of mine in political circles by claiming that we aren’t at all behind online. In fact, one could argue that we’re running right alongside the left when it comes to technology and the tools it provides.

Let’s take a look at some of the sites and tools on both sides.

Daily KOS vs. RedState
Daily KOS is still THE MOST read political blog on the web. It’s a diary site where anyone can start a blog and throw their voice in to the mix. Well, RedState not only provides the same platform, RedState provides a BETTER platform.

Indeed, RedState is clean, crisp, well designed, 2.0, and on and on and on. I would argue that apart from traffic, RedState is a much better site than Daily KOS.

Act Blue vs. Slate Card
Act Blue raises millions of dollars for liberal campaigns. Slate Card, a new system, but one that is state-of-the-art with a plethora of features that should be embraced by the entire right online, hasn’t been able to come anywhere close to the level of fundraising currently enjoyed by Act Blue.

Digg.com vs. R-igg.com
Love or hate Digg, you have to admit that liberal eActivists have been able to pass around enormous web influence using Digg.com. If you’ve been on the front page of Digg, and I have, you know that a link there is worth at least 15,000 unique visits within a few hours.

The left has been able to master the art of finding a small liberal blog with 20 or so visitors a day, and almost instantly, using Digg, take that blogger to stardom. I mean, depending on the title, the time of day, and the amount of Diggs, a front page story can result in thousands of new feed subscribers, hundreds of new bookmarks, and tens of thousands of new readers.

And while Digg.com isn’t necessarily ?liberal owned?, the left has dominated the Digg community and the right has done very little as a collaborative effort to respond. When will we realize that we too can be VERY competitive in this realm?

We actually DO have a site on our own site that uses the Digg philosophy of crowd powered news over at R-igg.com. R-igg was developed by a brilliant young mind of the right in Aaron Marks. But there has been no collaborative movement to help it reach critical mass. Why not? How hard can it be for 500 center-right eActivists to collaborate and help this Beta site rise in predominance?

Answer = not hard at all. All it takes is mass collaboration.

There are many, MANY more sites and tools that I could talk about here, but hopefully you get the point. And that point is that we have the technology know how on our side. We understand the tools, we get social media (just look at #dontgo and how it started on Twitter, for example), and we know what our political goal is.

Why can’t we achieve political success as an online movement then?
In my opinion, it is because we fail in the collaboration realm. But before I can explain why I feel that is, let’s look at some efforts from our friends on the left.

Twitter Vote Report
I had the privilege of being on the Google Group as well as the wiki for the Twitter Vote Report Project. Mad props go out to the collaborative effort it took to develop this resource, and being in early on helped me realize just how badly we’ve missed the boat.

About a week before election night, if you were to visit the Twitter Vote Report website you would have seen… wait for it… nothing. It wasn’t there. There were a few people working on putting a blueprint together, but for the most part, it had yet to come in to existence.

Then, all of a sudden, and seemingly out of nowhere, the beta site goes live. The very first design, as it went live, was basic and almost looked like a blank canvass. But, the second this group saw the project and realized the vision behind it, they dropped EVERYTHING and attacked the project like a pack of wolves.

They instantly had a VOLUNTEER team developing code using JSON and the Twitter API, they had developers writing code for the iPhone application, they had coders cleaning up the site framework and streamlining the system, they had graphic designers working to design a visually appealing and professional template, they had organizers building teams of grassroots ?promoters?, and they had groups/organizations coming on as sponsors to help spread the word about the project.

They built this all for FREE. Then, they let us all use it… for FREE!

Mass collaboration designed, developed, and marketed a major web activism project in less than a week, with no cost attached.

Now I know the argument many on the right will provide because I’ve heard it time and time again. ?But I don’t work for free… I have to put food on the table?. No offense to my friends on the right who do this for a living, but that sort of thinking is archaic and outdated. A dying frame of mind, if you will.

Just because you work for free does not mean you don’t get paid. As a Capitalist, I’m all about making money, but I believe the financial reward is there when I least expect it.

Let’s look at a recent post by Seth Godin, a guy whom I’ve studied for years and have great respect for in the marketing world.

Make money: not by building an internet company, but by using the net as a tool to create value and get paid. Use the internet as a tool, not as an end. Do it when you are part of a big organization or do it as a soloist. The dramatic leverage of the net more than overcomes the downs of the current economy.

The essence is this: connect.

But is it really that simple? YES! In fact, I actually HIRED a guy who was working on some coding for the collaborative project mentioned above to help me code a script last week. I never would have known he existed, nor would I have seen his work had I not watched him work to build a powerful FREE tool for the online community.

Connect the disconnected to each other and you create value.

* Connect advertisers to people who want to be advertised to.
* Connect job hunters with jobs.
* Connect information seekers with information.
* Connect teams to each other.
* Connect those seeking similar.
* Connect to partners and those that can leverage your work.
* Connect people who are proximate geographically.
* Connect organizations spending money with ways to save money.
* Connect like-minded people into a movement.
* Connect people buying with people who are selling.

Connect people and you create value. Did you catch that?

It used to be that if a piece of software costs $500.00, it MUST have value, right? But now FREE software is becoming some of the best software available. Wordpress anyone?

But… but, how can the folks behind Wordpress make money by giving away their product for FREE??? They create value.

And because of that value, because of their ability to organize a collaborative effort to create a powerful tool for free, they’ve been given MILLIONS of dollars to work on other projects.

Back to the right’s inability to collaborate
Now, back to our current state of the right when it comes to building online infrastructure. I can tell you from personal experience that almost every highly skilled tech guy on the right will respond one way when I ask for help with something related to tech… “what’s your budget?”

I’ll tell you what my budget it… ZERO. I’m not an organization. I don’t have donors, and thanks to extremely high taxes, I have very little money. How on earth can I afford $10,000 to have a massive social media community developed?

I can’t.

In fact, the #dontgo Movement is an all volunteer movement. We have no money. Heck… I’m now about $700 out of pocket to get the site you’re reading and the other various projects of #dontgo up and running.

Fortunately for us, there are guys like Allen Fuller of Flat Creek Strategies and Aaron Marks of Three Group, LLC who get this and are helping us in every way they can, but most on the right instantly send me a financial “proposal” when I ask for help.

So the first problem we have is that the people on our side who get and understand the technology and tools, aren’t willing to blend minds in a collaborative effort to help build community style networks and social media tools.

Like I said, it isn’t that we don’t understand the technology of the internet; Rather, it’s that we don’t understand what needs to happen in order to make it truly succeed.

Our second problem, which also involves collaboration, is the pride in taking credit for online success. The elites of the right online are so caught up in getting credit for online political success that they would rather not see success than to see someone else get credit for it.

There is an intense level of “I didn’t think of this so I won’t be working with it” going on in the right. I’m not going to mention names because I’m not writing this to start a fight, but trust me… it’s out there. And it’s a BIG problem.

At some point, we on the right, myself included, have GOT to stop bickering and “competing” with each other. It’s past time we move our pride out of the way and come together with wide open minds and start with a clean slate… a fresh drawing board if you will.

And last, but certainly not least, we need to knock it off with the “messaging is king” junk. No, it isn’t. Messaging is KEY, but in no way is it KING.

The REAL king of online political success that translates in to offline political victory is COMMUNITY.

How many times have we on the right watched a $40,000 website go live, only to fall flat on its face a few months later? The problem is the assumption of community.

In the past we’ve built our web properties on a foundation made of tools and technology. We need to start building our web properties on foundations made of PEOPLE. You know… bloggers, activists, donors, and voters.

People need to be given a say at the very beginning of web projects. We need to be given OWNERSHIP… our own little “I did this part” to take pride in. When people have a personal investment in something, they want to see it succeed.

We need to stop thinking “I need to make my project succeed”, and we need to start thinking “we need to make our project succeed”.

It’s all about community… and it’s all about collaboration. We can talk about the party, the message, the narrative, the tools, the players and the movers all day long, but until we get in to a collaborative/community based frame of mind, we’re not going to win.

That’s my rant for the day…

-Eric Odom

As the Republican Party goes about deciding what it?s going to do in order to regain the influence it once had, there?s a subterranean movement afoot among free market, low-tax, low-regulation, pro-personal freedom activists seeking to reassert the influence their ideals once held in the GOP. Some elements are explicitly party-centered, while others have abandoned the notion that the Republicans can be changed from within and are seeking ways in which they can promote their beliefs among the voting public in order to force office seekers to come their way.

The #dontgo movement is one of the latter stripe, which started as a relatively small number of activists using the social media service Twitter to broadcast updates on the floor protest among House members opposed to the leadership?s decision to go into summer recess before passing an energy bill. The name comes from the tag, #dontgo, which was inserted into each update to enable supporters of the protest to more easily follow the debate?s progress. By entering the #dontgo identifier into Twitter?s search function, activists could easily follow minute-by-minute updates from people on the ground at the site of the protest, which in many cases included House members and their staffs.

Also, by using the #dontgo tag, activists from across the country were able to communicate with the people on the scene and provide feedback from the grassroots. As interest grew, a web site was constructed which provided an opportunity for activists to opt-in to email updates. The number of email subscribers now stands at over 30,000 ? a movement in its nascent stages, set to grow as it mobilizes to set up a 50-state organization on the Web to facilitate action at the grassroots level.

With the recent decline in oil prices easing the energy issue out of the national spotlight, one might expect a similar decline in relevance of the #dontgo movement. That would be a mistake, however. The rationale behind #dontgo has far less to do with oil and energy issues themselves than it does with a general belief that regulation and government interference in free markets exacerbates problems more often than it alleviates them. In the particular case of the energy bill, #dontgo fought to have government restrictions on drilling lifted which contribute to high fuel prices by constricting oil supplies.

Seeing an opportunity to broadly promote free market principles, #dontgo has expanded its focus to include other areas where government intrusion has a negative effect on freedom. In resisting alignment with a particular political party, #dontgo has chosen to promote its ideas among the voters themselves at the grassroots level. The underlying rationale is that entrenched powers among the political elite long ago ceased to be concerned about ideas and voter concerns and, instead, have put establishing their own entrenchment at the top of their priority lists. This desire to grab and hold onto power at the expense of basic principles became all-too-apparent to many free market advocates during the massive bailout of financial institutions this fall, and is becoming more so as corporations like General Motors increasingly turn to the federal government to remedy their self-inflicted woes.

Noting the effectiveness with which Democrats utilized social media and Web 2.0 to spread the message of the Obama campaign, the #dontgo movement is currently engaged in a push to replicate that success in promoting free markets, lower taxes, less regulation, and government transparency. At its web site, along with signing up for the movement?s email newsletter, users can view the ongoing Twitter stream that launched the movement, as well as join the #dontgo Facebook group, which currently has just over 1,800 members.

This is just the beginning of an overall strategy to use the latest online technology to reach voters and bring them into the process of forming an anti-tax, pro-growth, pro-individual liberty agenda. The ultimate goal is to completely reform the way agendas are shaped. The need for this was perfectly captured in the days following the GOP?s defeat at the polls on November 4, when a small group of conservative leaders gathered for a closed-door meeting to decide what direction the conservative movement should take going forward. This stirred considerable angst among the conservative online community because it showed a complete misunderstanding of what brought about the recent string of Republican failures.

By not including any of the emerging talent from the conservative online community, the establishment demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of political activism in the digital age. This, of course, is nothing new among failed establishments. Having been successful in the past, and earning the deference of the rank and file over time, they become complacent and arrogant. The current conservative leadership serves as an object lesson in that phenomenon.

Rather than struggle with the powers that be within the existing structure, the #dontgo movement has chosen create its own structure and set its own priorities. Operating independently of the current regime, it will be able to allocate its resources where they will have the most impact rather than in ways that will placate those who cling to the old order of things. As an independent entity working directly and in constant communication with its rank and file, this new movement will be able to impose the will of the people on the current leadership, rather than perpetuating the status quo wherein the leadership makes promises in exchange for support, and then does as it sees fit and then counts on a short public attention span.

One of the integral parts of this movement ? and one that has been woefully neglected by the conservative movement in recent years ? will be the establishment of a citizens? corps of investigative journalists, set to begin in January 2009. As currently conceived, each state will be a bureau unto itself, with state-wide coordinators and editors monitoring and managing contributors, potentially down to the precinct level. State editors will be responsible for aggregating and promoting content to highlight reporting that is most likely to have an impact on advancing #dontgo?s pro-freedom agenda. By exposing corruption, mobilizing public sentiment against initiatives that limit individual liberties, combating government intrusion into free markets, and working as an advocate for taxpayers, the #dontgo movement will send a message to the political establishment, regardless of party affiliation, that the American people have had enough.

More than anything, this movement provides an opportunity for all advocates of personal liberty, government accountability and free markets ? after an election that can only be seen as a major setback ? to rally around ideals rather than the same political parties that have failed them time and time again over the years. By promoting pro-freedom principles among the populace rather than engaging in a futile attempt to entice the establishment into promoting those principles in the corridors of power, the #dontgo movement is sending the message that the lip service that inevitably gets paid to the precepts enshrined in our Constitution by the Founding Fathers as Election Day draws near will no longer suffice.

Notice has been served: the #dontgo movement is underway.

For millions of Americans, the results on November 4th were sad but not surprising. They signaled the failure of an ideology which held power for years, promised much and delivered little.

To some, the failure was due to problems inherent in Free Markets, Capitalism, Limited Government, Social Conservatism and the rest of the foundations of Conservative thought. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Barack Obama?s message was electing John McCain meant ?4 more years? of George Bush. He was right. Unsaid was that electing him would be worse! Apart from the War on Terror and SCOTUS picks, what Bush accomplishments would Obama have problems with?

Bush has grown Government with a GOP controlled Congress for 6 of his 8 years. Obama is unhappy about that? Congress passed the Medicaid spending increase. Obama is unhappy about that? Congress passed Kennedy?s Education Bill. Obama is unhappy about that? Social Security Privatization failed. Obama is unhappy about that? Immigration? The Bailout? Obama is even talking about Welfare disguised as Tax Cuts for heaven?s sake! One could go on and on.

On too many issues and at too many levels, Conservative principles did not fail, Conservative principles failed to be upheld!

There were bright spots. The defeats of Harriet Meiers? nomination, the Immigration Reform bill and the Dubai Port Deal come to mind. Common to these successes was the grassroots involvement of everyday Americans refusing to allow Government to take the nation in the wrong direction. We did it then, we can do it again.

This morning, the #dontgo Movement gives us that opportunity! #dontgo was founded by Eric Odom and Allen Fuller on a Friday in August when Nancy Pelosi and Democrats turned off the lights in the People?s House and went home. Big Government and Democrats didn?t have time for you. But many GOP House members believed different! They stayed and told Democrats, ?Don?t Go! Come back and finish the People?s business!? With no cameras or microphones, those voices went basically unheard.

Until Odom and Fuller put up a Twitter hashtag - #dontgo. The word started trickling out. Until Odom and Fuller put up a website #dontgomovement.com so cellphone video, pictures and blog posts could get out. Until the MSM picked up what grassroots, New Media activists were doing and for the next month, the message ?Don?t Go!? followed Nancy Pelosi from book signing to book signing! Better, tens of thousands of people rallied to one of the most successful grassroots efforts on the Right in years.

That was 2 months ago. While the issue birthing #dontgo is no longer a rally point, people are still looking for a voice to speak to Big Government to foster change! Good news. Odom and #dontgo didn?t stop working and growing when the microphones moved on to the next issue. This morning brings us this:

?Center Right Movement Heats up the Internet?
Conservative Bloggers See Netroots As Key To Advancing Policy

On Monday, November 10th www.dontgomovement.com will host an e-launch party to celebrate its fully-functional website and new online radio show devoted to advancing conservative netroots activism.

#dontgo originally began as a simple internet tag that the founders would put on their blog posts while tracking the energy debate by the US Congress on August 1st, quickly it became used by hundreds of activists including members of Congress not just to track the energy bill, but to energize and push conservative values. Soon thereafter the site was created and to date has 30,000 opt-in email subscribers.

The #dontgo Revolution takes web-based strategies and tactics that Democrats used in the last election cycle to advance conservative views and values. The mission is to develop a fifty state strategy of blogs and internet social networks that would get more conservatives active in their communities leading into the 2010 elections.

Communications Director Juliana Johnson states, ?As we witnessed in the 2008 elections web-based strategies are imperative. Conservatives have time and time again failed to use the internet to attract voters and get more people active. We hope that with the launch of this website we will be able to effectively wage the battle of ideas with the left in cyberspace.?

Monday?s radio show (online) will air at 5pm CST. In order to listen please go to www.dontgomovement.com and on the right there is a button ?listen to #dontgo radio?.

CONTACT: Juliana Johnson, Director of Communications
(312) 575-9500 (office)
(847) 691-9278 (cell)
julianatjohnson@gmail.com

If you?re a an eActivist - a blogger, vlogger, podcaster, internet radio host or wiki editor - head to dontgomovement.com and sign up. If you?re a traditional activist - a door knocker, phone caller, envelope stuffer, poll watcher or election day driver - head to dontgomovement.com and get involved. You?ll be building the state-by-state, city-by-city, block-by-block structure needed to rein in Liberals regardless of Party. And you?ll enable the election of politicians who won?t just campaign to the Right, they?ll govern that way, too!

This is not just a hope! We?ve seen people work together, they can bring real change. Your passion has moved you in the past. #dontgo gives that passion an effective outlet. Come join us!

Blue Collar Muse

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.

So let’s get moving.