Future of Conservatism

The next session is about to start (and I have yet to type up all my notes from breakfast!). This one is "Future of Conservatism." Scheduled to speak are Richard Viguerie, the founding father of modern conservatism; Grover Norquist, president Americans for Tax Reform; Ruth Samuelson, NC Representative from Mecklenburg; John Dodd, President, Jesse Helms Center; Karen Rotterman, Republican Media Consultant; and Thomas Stith, Vice President of the Civitas Institute.

Speaking first is KarenRotterman:

Karen Rotterman -- worked for Reagan Administration. Press secretary for Jim Martin who was running for governor of NC.

True conservative leadership is compassionate, common sense, thoughtful, careful, and visionary.

Compassion because we want people to live the American Dream -- but it should never come with a free price tag. We want people to know the history of this nation -- both good and bad. We owe it to every single children to have the opportunity for education. We want our kids to stay in our classrooms so they don't end up in our courtrooms -- that is a conservative idea. We need to get back to basics because that is what people understand.

We need to listen as much as we talk. NC is one of the few states that puts the burden of medicare on counties -- causing the counties to raise taxes and divert resources from schools. These counties cannot thrive with this burden on them. The media is going to tag conservatives: "gun-toting;" "right-wing;" "crazy" -- but we have to bring them home to the reality that we are common-sense conservatives who want less government. We need to explain what we have common. We need to make it clear we want to protect our country.

We need to tell people that we want a North Carolina's Driver's license to mean something. There are various states today that will not accept a North Carolina driver's license as identification. Illegals are breaking our laws, driving on our roads, causing accidents, and killed our citizens. We need to convince people that conservatives are going to work for people and make things right: "You've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything."

To get our message out, we need to make it simple and funny. People remember funny ads. But we do need more funding.

Next up, Grover Norquist:

Heath Shuler just voted to increase taxes. But he likes his mother and dislikes bad language, so that should make up for it. This tax increase will cost the average North Carolina resident $2,671.96. Blue dogs have conservative voters, but they vote with the liberals -- Shuler voted for the tax increase, he voted to put Nancy Pelosi in charge of everything, he voted to support unions over people.

We used be to the Lincoln party -- now we're the Reagan party. Conservatives stand for smaller government. Who are these people?

Taxpayers who don't want their taxes raised.
They don't want their property rights violated.
Gun are important. (This brought a lot of applause). We just want to be left alone with our own second amendment rights. We don't insist that every 4th grader read a book about "Heather has two hunters."
Business owners who want to be left alone to run their business.
This is the "Leave us alone" coalition -- including various religious people who just want to be left alone to raise their children the way they see fit. They want the freedom to raise their children in their faith without government interference.

Nobody wants anything from anyone else on these issues. Despite the 2006 bad year, the coalition is staying together much better than the coalitions on the left -- they can hang around and be friends as long as there is more money coming in from government to their table. If conservatives do their job right and take government money from the statists, their coalition will dissolve and break up because it is made up of competing parasites, not friends. Our job is to force them to gnaw on each other, not us.

All taxes take money from Republicans and give it to Democrats. The conservative coalition is interested in freedom above all else.

2006 we spent too much money; the Iraq war chased away independents; and there was too much corruption. We need to spend less. None of the members of the coalition leave when government spends more. There is no group that really cares today when government spends more. There is no NRA for government spending that can move votes.

Next is John Dodd, president of the Jesse Helms Center.

Republicans lost because they showed arrogance and were Republicans first and conservatives second. As conservatives, we first have to be conservatives -- that's what Jesse Helms did. In 1972 he was working with a group to determine if conservatives should start their own party or try to remake the Repbulican party. The committee decided to attempt to make the Republican Party the conservative party. It is imperative that we remember that and think about that.

As conservatives, we need to get back to our basics and support leaders that will stand by their convictions and their bold ideas. Privitizing Social Security and the Flat Tax were introduced by Jesse Helms back in the 1970s. Helms used to say, "We don't have to win every battle, but we have to keep fighting." My messasge is: let's get back to the basics.

It only takes a few dedicated powerful people to make changes in this world.

Next up, Thomas Stith:

We stand on principle and many times that means we stand alone: and I'm okay with that.

Are we a conservative state? Over 45% of the population self-identify as conservative, only 14% liberal. Issues: public education, taxes, and controlling immigration. We are conservative as a state, voters are conservative, but we do not have conservative leadership in this state.

We can connect with younger voters with the issue of taxes. People need to understand how much the current leadership in North Carolina wants money that they earn. Since 1985, NC spending has increased 318%.

Being illegal in this country is NOT a civil right (again, much applause).

I would agree that education is the new civil right. Over 1/3 of our children in NC don't graduate from high school. We're going to have to come up with conservative solutions to healthcare -- but that's not socialized or univeral healthcare.

We cannot afford at the local level to forget our principles. We need to stand by those principles even if it means standing by ourselves. We need a partnership between the thinkers and the politicos -- working with elected officials (and those who want to be) to develop policy. There needs to be a defined leadership for conservatives in North Carolina. VOTERS in this state don't know who is running the state. We also need to expand our base and reach out to those individuals who share our values.

We don't need to compromise, we are right.

We are about to get into another census where gerrymandering will continue. We need to develop a strategy now to determine how we're going to lead this state and stop the gerrymandering. We need to start right now, today -- because the other side is already making plans. If we don't develop the plans now, we are already behind.

One member of the audience, a current Representative said that we need a unified message. In the mountains, people think Jim Black is a Republican. We need a message across the state to tell people what Republicans really stand for. We don't have a way to show and tell people across the state what the conservative and Republican position is. Republicans in this state are not putting out a unified message.

Another audience member asked how in the world that Karen could say that there is ANY student in the entire state that is denied any educational opportunity. And he asked if it were reasonable to expect every student to have and earn a diploma. She talked about the governor and being a teacher and charter schools -- and absolutely did not answer the question at all.

Posted by: Ogre at 01:36 PM

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