This has been such an encouraging week. Out of the wreckage of the Republican Party, so many voices have risen to speak for the need to return to our core principles. From the ashes, a conservative renaissance is leading the way back to the foundation on which Ronald Reagan built the Party during 1964-89.

But naturally, like any movement rooted in truth and hope, it has its nay-sayers. One theme that these nay-sayers echo is the idea that the world has changed so much over the last 20 years that the themes that worked for Ronald Reagan won’t work any more.

Hogwash.

Yes, the world has changed, in some good ways, and in some bad ways. But not in any way that affects long-term fundamentals.

Economic and political freedom, individual responsibility, and finite government are not matters of personal preference. Nor are they matters, as the wealth-spreaders like to claim, of greed, unfairness, or un-neighborliness.

They are principles that work. They foster prosperity, in the full sense of the term.

If this understanding has diminished, if these principles have lost some luster over the last two decades, that’s in no small measure due to the big-government Republicans who gave them lip service while collaborating with liberals in undermining them. And this craven collaboration is part of why the world faces economic trouble.

Republicans can continue to kow-tow to the whiners who want government to kiss away all their boo-boos, to bail them out of the consequences of their own irresponsibility, to regulate life into comfort and fairness.

And they will continue to lose. The dream of life enveloped by state-sponsored cushions is more than just the cop-out of weak and cowardly souls who think everyone else is responsible for taking care of them. It’s a prescription for impoverishment. When government micro-manages peoples’ lives, when it spreads the wealth around, when it overturns the natural justice that rewards virtue and punishes vice, it makes life worse; it dampens the human spirit, and human flourishing diminishes.

When government adheres to its proper, finite mission, the people prosper. A party that leads the way to prosperity is a party that can win.

Ronald Reagan once said, “I wasn’t a great communicator, but I communicated great things.” Those great things are true, and they don’t change.

Brilliantly written by: Leslie Carbone

It’s 1:09 on Saturday morning and I’m drinking coffee… so I figured now is as good a time as ever to weigh in with my thoughts on the state of the Right Online.

A lot of the brains on the right are engaging in some deep conversations regarding our use of the internet to advance free-market ideology. While I agree there is a major gap in our message, and I concur with the idea that we haven’t, to date, used marketing in any coherent manner, I think a lot of us are missing the simplicity involved in succeeding with online activism.

But first, I want to opine on our use of technology. During the past three months I’ve had the opportunity to speak on quite a few panels at conferences and events across the country. In almost every one of the panels I’ve participated in, someone suggests that we’re “behind” when it comes to technology.

Personally, I feel this couldn’t be further from the truth. The idea that we’re behind in technology simply doesn’t fly with me. We have, in my opinion, some of the smartest people out there with regards to knowledge of the internet, the technology available today, and how social media creates the perfect vessel for ideas to spread and flourish.

We have guys like Patrick Ruffini, Micheal Turk, Erick Erickson (and everyone else at RedState), Katie Harbath, Aaron Marks, Ali Akbar, Jess Thomas, Allen Fuller and many more. This group has a full understanding of modern technology, social media, and how the two create the perfect marriage.

No, we’re NOT behind when it comes to technology. Where we ARE behind is community.

A major problem on the right is the apparent assumption of community. We have some brilliant developers and tech gurus who can crank out state of the art web properties that cost a fortune, but they build these sites without a community… AKA… foundation. In the end, tens of thousands of dollars are wasted on sites that sit dormant, with its few visitors being donors who are left feeling ripped off and cheated.

How many times have we heard about a new group looking to be the “MoveOn.org of the right?” Yet, when these big budget projects go live they fall flat on their faces because, well, because they do NOTHING to engage online communities. They launch their sites and say “come promote us”.

Well… Thanks, but no thanks.

The alleged leaders of the conservative movement have got to get off the couch and get their hands dirty. They need to be out in the states meeting face to face with bloggers. They need to be on Twitter, Facebook and other networks actively participating in online communities. They need to develop personal relationships with online activists, and they need to allow these relationships to drive projects… allowing the activists to take ownership of the project as it develops.

I’ve had enough of hearing about “new beta projects that will rival DailyKOS and MoveOn.org.” I don’t want to hear about another “new media organization” launching that is ran by people who wouldn’t know the new media landscape if it walked up and back handed them in the face.

I want organizations, political organizations, politicians, and parties to personally reach out to me as a blogger and get to know me. I want to be listened to and I want to play a part in whatever it is they’re working on. I want to have input, and I want ownership in the part I help build.

And I don’t think I’m alone on this.

We have some great minds like Jon Henke, Justin Hart, Joshua Trevino, Rob Bluey and many others who are currently having a solid debate on message, but the rest of the movement needs to drop everything they’re doing and start thinking about developing a crowd powered, community based movement.

Community is where the success in online activism is, and community is an area where the Right Online has completely missed the boat.

My two…

-Eric Odom