I remember back in 2004, while working with the Bush campaign out in Nevada, getting in to constant arguments with the Nevada GOP about web activism, new media, and the need to integrate it with the party.

In fact, I had stayed up two nights in a row to design and develop a website that would rally conservatives in Washoe County to get out the votes for Bush. My website was located at washoerepublicans.com, the official website was located at washoerepublicans.org.

I had created the website, with full intentions of giving it to the GOP so they could use it to help get Bush elected. I was young, excited, and thrilled to have designed a state of the art website unlike anything the Nevada GOP had ever seen. Granted, the site was terrible when compared to today’s standards, but back then it was a pretty good attempt at building a tool that could foster online community.

In fact, this is what the Washoe Republicans had at the time… this is what I was providing.

One would think that the GOP would have been excited about this new site, especially considering the fact that a 24 year old kid walked in off the street and built it for free, right?

Wrong.

Instead, Jane Maxfield, a terrible excuse for leadership, called the Bush campaign guy and demanded that I immediately remove the website. You see, Maxfield couldn’t fathom the idea that someone had built and understood a platform that utilized the power of the web without the GOP having a say or understanding of it themselves. So instead of embracing my actions and integrating it into their plans, they kicked me to the curb and insulted my work for them.

That was my first time volunteering for the Nevada GOP, and from that day on I felt like I was at constant war with them when it came to engaging new, young individuals to be politically active while using the internet to organize.

But that was 2004… surely things have changed, right?

Well, yes and no. Yes, because the GOP at least acknowledges a need for online infrastructure/organization/activism. No, because the GOP still believes this is a realm they need to control.

Note to GOP… you cannot control new media. The second you think you can is the same second you FAIL.

Today I found, via Leslie Carbone, another prime example of the GOP establishment’s complete failure to understand new media. For the record, I believe that it can be seen as innocent to misunderstand something such as new media, but I also believe that if you refuse to admit you lack the understanding, and instead assert yourself king of the realm, you FAIL.

As you can see, the Virginia GOP establishment, along with several key GOP insiders, have committed the ultimate new media sin. They did this by attempting to inject themselves into the Virginia blogosphere as a dominate resource that, according to them, will be the “ONLY major Republican blog in all of Virginia”.

This ultimate FAIL action was committed by the Hampton Roads GOP. While they’ve since changed the language on their website and removed the assertion of being the “ONLY” major Republican blog in all of Virginia, they still have what I would consider offensive comments.

Such as “Yes there are numerous blogs on the web currently; however, we are a venue for Republicans.”

What is that supposed to mean? Is BearingDrift not a venue for Republicans? Is it just one of those “numerous blogs on the web”?

BearingDrift, in fact, called Hampton Roads GOP out on this.

There are two ways the Hampton Roads GOP could have responded to this.

A) The right way
HRGOP should have written a post of apology, admitting it was badly worded and admitting that they should have worked with the Virginia blogosphere as a network of people looking to promote free-market conservatism.

b) The wrong way
HRGOP should enter the comment war happening on the post, dig their heels in, and defend their pitiful attempt to assert themselves king of new media in Virginia.

The HRGOP chose to go with option B. Read through the comments on the post at Bearing Drift and you’ll see what I mean.

The GOP has a hard lesson to learn here. In summary, that lesson is that you can never, under any circumstance, control new media. You can’t control the message, you can’t control the technology, and you can’t control the people. You can’t “use” new media, and you can’t make it push your agenda.

And you can never, NEVER insult the blogosphere and then expect it to embrace you.

The real trick is to roll your sleeves up and immerse yourself. Don’t claim to be a “professional”. Instead, claim to be someone wanting to learn and build relationships. Work to develop networks and build friendships. Work to help people trust you.

Then, and ONLY then can you launch a website and integrate it safely in to the center-right blogosphere. As an individual you can do whatever you like, but as an organization with a partisan agenda, you have everything to lose.

And in this case, HRGOP… you lost.

As a final parting note, I would like to offer this last list of ideas. When pitching yourselves as “A project of the Republican Professionals Network”, you should probably be professional enough to consult with actual bloggers to ensure you know the following.

1) A site built by Yahoo Hosting is not ground breaking in new media. In fact, it’s rather archaic.
2) A site with no RSS feeds that claims to be a “blog”… really?
3) A “Helpful Links” page that doesn’t link to a single Virginia blog is not really helping your pledge of being a new media source
4) If you’re going to ask me to volunteer, perhaps you should tell me what I’m volunteering for, and what I can do to help.
5) You should really have a phone number somewhere on your website
6) Admit you were wrong, get over it, and move on

Nuff said…

-Eric Odom

Establishment Republicans are using the GOP’s election losses as an excuse to declare conservatism dead. But it wasn’t conservatism that was rejected by the people; it was Republicans who rejected conservatism who were rejected.

Last week, Nevada state Sen. Warren Hardy (R-Las Vegas) declared that Republicans have to run moderate candidates who can attract Democrat voters if they ever want to win again. You know, like moderate John McCain (lost), moderate Rep. Jon Porter (lost) and moderate state Sen. Joe Heck (lost). Great strategy, Senator.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio (R-Reno) declared that the Republican Party has “gone too far to the right.” The moderate Republican added that the “far right message does not sell.”

Really?

Conservative Nevada Rep. Dean Heller – who, unlike moderate Jon Porter, voted against the $700 billion Wall Street bailout – won handily. And at least six ballot measures to raise taxes were crushed by Nevada voters last week. So it’s not that the conservative message won’t sell, it’s that too many Republicans aren’t selling it. Instead, they’re selling us Democrat Lite.

Many of you will remember Lyn Nofziger. He was a close adviser to Ronald Reagan dating back to his days as governor of California. And without question, Lyn would be considered “too far right” by establishment Republicans today. Here’s how Lyn defined what it meant to be a conservative…

“Allowing for differences I would define a conservative, first as one who believes in the Constitution as it is written. That takes care of free speech, freedom of religion, the right to petition the government, the right to keep and bear arms and, in the words of William O. Douglas in one of his saner moments, ‘the right to be let alone.’

“Second, a conservative believes in small, limited government at every level. Along with this he believes strongly in individual responsibility. That is, a person or a family should take care of itself and turn for help to government only when all other means have been exhausted. It also means that society, before government, has a duty to take care of its own. Government should be a resource of last resort.

“Third, a conservative believes taxes should be levied for the purpose of financing the limited responsibilities of government such as providing for the common defense, catching and incarcerating criminals, minting money and filling potholes. Taxes should not be levied for the purpose of redistributing wealth.

“That’s about it. I know there are those who say a conservative should be pro-life, which I am, but I’m not sure a person has to be that to qualify as a conservative. Nor am I sure that a person must be opposed to pornography, which I am. In both cases there are questions of individual rights and responsibilities which are arguable.

“One other thing I think a conservative believes is that the parents, not government, are and should be responsible for the upbringing and behavior of their children.”

Now you tell me voters won’t “buy” that message. If Republicans would only run on that common-sense, all-American conservative platform - and then govern like they meant it once in office - not only would it “sell,” but our state and the country would better off for it.

Or Republicans can take Sen. Hardy’s and Sen. Raggio’s advice and water-down their philosophical beliefs just to get elected. But riddle me this, Batman: Why should voters vote for a Republican who’s only going to grow government a little slower than the Democrats and raise taxes a little less than the Democrats? I mean, if you’re going to hell in a hand-basket, wouldn’t you prefer to get the ride over with as quickly as possible?

Nevada Republicans have come to that proverbial fork in the road. It’s gut-check time. Will they veer off to the Left with Sen. Hardy and Sen. Raggio, or will they bear to the common-sense Right with Lyn Nofziger and Dean Heller? Decisions, decisions.

Written By: Chuck Muth

The well-known definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. House Republicans appear to be insane.

When then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) stepped down in 2006, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) was elected to replace him. Boehner went on to lead Republicans with a bland, lame, uninspiring legislative agenda. Voters, led by conservatives who sat on their hands, rewarded him by kicking Republicans out of the majority in November of that year, hoping Republicans would wake up and change their evil ways before the White House was on the line.

They didn’t.

Learning nothing from that Election Day massacre, House Republicans re-elected Boehner as Minority Leader. He - and they, collectively, under his leadership - went on to bore the electorate with an unimaginative legislative agenda in opposition to a Democrat-led Congress under Speaker Nancy Pelosi which was even less popular, if you can believe it, than President Bush himself. Under Boehner’s leadership, Republicans couldn’t even agree to back a moratorium on “earmarks” and ended up backing that larded-up $700 billion Wall Street bailout.

Custer-like, Boehner then went on to lead his troops this week to yet another embarrassing election defeat against the most unpopular Congress in modern polling history. As conservative columnist George Will pointed out this week, Boehner has now lost some 55 seats in two short years.

“These are the worst Republican results in consecutive elections since the Depression-era elections of 1930 and 1932,” Will reminds depressed Republican voters. “If, as seems likely at this writing, in January congressional Republicans have 177 representatives.they will be weaker than at any time since after the 1976 elections, when they were outnumbered in the House 292-143.”

There are two things to take from Will’s point: One, Boehner has really stunk up the court; and two, under Boehner things could still get WORSE.

I’m not saying Boehner is a bad guy or that he’s not necessarily a good conservative. I’m saying that when a coach has back-to-back seasons as rotten as Boehner, the team usually fires the coach.

But not Team GOP.

Indeed, word coming out of Washington this week indicates Republicans are about to commit yet another act of political insanity by electing Boehner once again as House Minority Leader.

But don’t blame all conservatives in the House for this insanity. It appears it may be only ONE conservative responsible for this pending disaster - just like it wasn’t all of George Washington’s officers who sold out to the British.

Recognizing that Boehner, clearly enamored with power, was unwilling to do the right thing and step aside graciously, House conservatives, especially those who belong to the Republican Study Committee (RSC), were planning to run one of their own - highly regarded conservative Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) - for Minority Leader. Among those planning the conservative challenge and participating in the strategy sessions was former RSC Chairman Mike Pence (R-Indiana).

And then Pence sold them out.

According to a source close to the situation in Washington, on Thursday - unbeknownst to House conservatives - it was discovered that Pence had cut a deal to support Boehner for yet another term as Minority Leader in exchange for Boehner backing Pence for the #3 leadership position as Republican Conference Chairman. If true, Pence put his own personal ambition ahead of the best interests of the conservative movement and the Republican Party.

If this “deal” was indeed struck and is affirmed in the leadership elections scheduled to take place in a week, House Republicans will not only continue traveling down the now well-worn path of electoral failure, but Pence’s betrayal will divide the GOP ranks even worse than before. So movement grassroots conservatives, if they have any hope of turning their fortunes around in 2010, need to give John Boehner the old “Harriet Miers” treatment.

As you’ll recall, President Bush tried to name his longtime friend and highly under-qualified Harriet Miers to the United States Supreme Court to replace Sandra Day O’Connor. The conservative movement was furious and rose up in unified opposition, eventually forcing Miers to withdraw from consideration.

Conservatives need to rise up and oppose Boehner’s re-election as the House GOP Minority Leader in the same manner - or forever hold their peace. Let the calls, emails and faxes begin!

Written by: Chuck Muth

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.