VANGUARD: Actions Have Consequences: or, How to Advance Your Beliefs By Helping a Candidate (fwd)

[Jim Choate]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 14:41:15 -0800
From: "TheVanguard.org" <Vanguard at theVanguard.org>
To: "TheVanguard.org" <Vanguard at theVanguard.org>
Subject: VANGUARD: Actions Have Consequences:  or, How to Advance Your Beliefs By Helping a Candidate



[EDITOR'S NOTE:  In honor of the approaching election year, we take this
opportunity to distribute the following article by Rod D. Martin, founder
and chairman of Vanguard PAC.]

==========================


Vanguard of the Revolution
http://www.theVanguard.org


ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES:  or, How to
Advance Your Beliefs By Helping a Candidate

by Rod D. Martin
© 27 March 2001


    Conservatives forever complain about their political leaders.  But they
don¹t do a lot about it.

    Liberals (or more precisely, Leftists) are quite different.  Coming as
they do mostly from distinct interest groups possessing activist political
cultures and a sense of victimization (be they unionized workers, civil
rights activists, feminists or whomever), leftists grow up on a steady diet
not only of ideas, but of the strategies and tactics necessary to win.  From
cradle to grave, they look to the state as a sort of political savior, and
they learn early how to get from it what they want.

    By contrast, conservatives do not and never have thought in these terms.
Generally, conservatives just want to be left alone, and see government as a
necessary evil, nothing more.  Their lives focus elsewhere:  business,
church, family, civic groups, almost anywhere but politics.  They see
political activity not as a perpetual opportunity to gain advantages, but as
an arena where (every so often) they must defend themselves from the latest
government encroachment.

    This difference in culture is staggering, and accounts for much of the
Left¹s success in the 20th Century.  Conservatives do not think politically;
Liberals do.  And while the Left hones its strategies and tactics year after
year ­ spread across millions of individual people and thousands of
institutions ­ conservatives wake up periodically, notice there¹s an
election, expend a little half-hearted effort, and go back to sleep.

    Because of this relative detachment, conservatives demonstrate a
remarkably persistent naiveté.  Not only do they rarely understand the
system (or what the Left has done and continues to do to them); they also
subscribe year after year to the Sir Galahad theory of politics:  "our ideas
will win because our hearts are pure."  This foolishness costs their
movement not only elections but innumerable volunteers (and donors) every
year, good men and women who cannot understand why their sheer rightness has
not persuaded and conquered all.  Meanwhile, the Left marches on.

    The hard truth is, however wonderful our ideas may be, it is not those
ideas but the actions they inspire which have consequences in the real
world.1   And all those whiney conservatives, waiting for Trent Lott (or
whomever) to effortlessly give them their hearts¹ desires, are getting
exactly what they deserve.  The concept is as old as the Bible:  those who
do not work, shall not eat.


INFLUENCE AND POWER

    At times almost despite themselves, conservatives over the past
generation have come to hold tremendous influence.  They have also held some
power.  The confusion of these concepts has lead to much needless
consternation.

    In Morton Blackwell¹s words, "Power means you can make things happen.
Influence means that those with power will return your telephone calls and
seriously consider what you suggest. Only those with power govern."

    The aim of any political movement is power, power for the purpose of
implementing the movement¹s beliefs.  All the influence in the world will
not replace this power.  In the 1990s, many conservatives became highly
disillusioned with their leaders, who seemed to constantly compromise.  They
failed to understand that though Republicans held the Congress,
conservatives were still a minority.  They had gained tremendous influence,
but only a share of the power.  Having a seat at the table, they could
dicker, but they could not dictate.  They needed numbers.

    There¹s only one way they will ever get those numbers:  they must elect
more conservatives.  Not Republicans; conservatives.  This is no slap at the
Republican Party:  it is simply a recognition that the two ideas are not
synonymous, however much overlap there may be, and that if conservatives
want that to change, they¹ll have to work for that too.  Furthermore, it¹s a
statement that the party primary often matters a great deal; and that ­ as
the Left has always known ­ the political cycle is year-round, every year.
In that never-ending fight, it is the candidates who go out to do battle,
who bleed and sweat and die for your beliefs.  And at the end of the day,
they ­ and only they ­ will have a chance to make and execute the laws.

    Most people will never be candidates.  At most they will only have
influence (which is certainly not to be despised), and many won¹t even have
that.  But they can give their ideas power ­ and exercise a measure of power
themselves ­ by working hard for a candidate who shares their views.  In
fact, there is absolutely no more effective way than this by which the
average person may bring about meaningful political change.


SO WHAT CAN I DO?

    The question for many, therefore, becomes:  "So what can I do?  And what
could I possibly offer."  The answer is, "Quite a lot!"  For all the talk of
big money in politics, the truth is that most campaigns are run on
shoestrings, with the lion¹s share of what cash there might be going to
television ads at the very end, leaving all the real work to be done on
almost nothing.  Nowhere is this more true than in a challenger race, where
a (usually semi-unknown) candidate tries to make headway against everything
the other party can throw at him, and often everything his own party can
throw at him too (this is not a criticism:  parties shouldn¹t just give away
their nomination, after all).  This is usually your candidate (we¹re trying
to gain seats, after all):  tired, broke and pummeled from all sides.

    Yes, there¹s quite a lot you can do for this candidate.  Even a handful
of truly faithful people could change his world, and the outcome of the
election.

    Speaking as a former (and future) candidate for the U.S. House, I submit
the following items you can and should do for the standard-bearer of your
choice.  The list is not exhaustive, but it will keep you both busy and
effective.

1.  PICK A CANDIDATE.  With all due respect to those wonderful men and women
who yearly work in support of every candidate in sight, there remains great
wisdom in Christ¹s words that no one can serve two masters.  The average
volunteer has neither time nor mental energy for more than one race, at
least not beyond a superficial level.  Hence, if you don¹t pick one
candidate on whom to focus, you will do a bad job for everyone, and advance
the cause very little.

    Picking a candidate is a matter of taste:  who excites you, who believes
most like you, who is running for an office you care about, who is running
against someone you really want defeated.  The issue is not whether you
throw yourself wholeheartedly into a campaign for Congress or for Justice of
the Peace; rather, the issue is whether you pick one and follow through.

    Finally, make your choice early and stick like glue.  The early phases
of a campaign are generally its most tenuous, with limited support, little
or no money, and the most overwhelming task of all:  getting noticed and
breaking out of the pack.  Likewise, later on, the campaign will certainly
face any number of challenges, from run-away success (which often leads to
complacency and defeat) to persistently low polling numbers (which are often
misleading, but run away crucial support) to crippling allegations (which
may or may not be true) to internal incompetence or strife among the
volunteers or staff.  Murphy¹s Law was specifically written for political
campaigns, and you need to be there through thick and thin, working like
everything depended on you.  When the smoke clears, and hordes of others
have fallen away, it may just turn out that everything did.

2.  PICK THE RIGHT CANDIDATE.  Since you¹re going to be working so hard and
so long for this person, you really need to pick well from the start.
Again, this is a matter of taste; and yet most conservatives have very
specific ideological views they want their candidates to share, and insofar
as possible this should be determined up front.

    This is not to say that the candidate owes you limitless time; neither
is it to say that you have a right to treat him rudely or "examine" him like
a professor.  But if he¹s written extensively (and some candidates have),
read what he¹s written.  Call him on the phone or email him:  some
candidates respond very well to this.  If he¹s reasonably accessible, feel
free to ask him to dinner (and buy his dinner:  he¹s broke.  He¹s giving up
all his time, income and personal savings to work around the clock for you).
Don¹t get offended if he¹s not available, either (and expect to be passed to
a scheduler):  he has a family, possibly a job, and literally thousands if
not millions of other people also seeking his time.  If worse comes to
worst, you can usually speak with him at or after political meetings or
speeches.

    But somehow, get to know him, not necessarily like you know your best
friend, but well enough to determine whether you think he¹s a good guy,
whether you trust him, and whether you want to see him win.  When the chips
are down, these feelings and impressions may make the difference between
victory and defeat.

3.  CUT HIM SOME SLACK.  Once you¹ve picked him, remember that the candidate
is human, just like you.  You make mistakes, you sometimes fail to think
before you speak, you don¹t always know everything about everything, and
every now and then you do something really wrong.  So does your candidate.
Take it for granted.

    Now admittedly, if the candidate turns out to be an axe-murderer, you
might want to re-think your support.  But short of that, it¹s important to
be very realistic:  just as when you married, you picked this guy for better
or worse, and you know on the front end he¹s going to have unseen warts.
Bailing at the first sign of trouble ­ or at the first policy disagreement ­
is not only bad form, it¹s cowardly.  And if you¹re looking for a candidate
who perfectly reflects your own views, go run yourself.

    Now of course, you may certainly seek to educate your candidate:  maybe
he just doesn¹t understand, or hasn¹t ever thought about what you believe,
or is getting bad advice.  Look for an opportunity to politely, concisely
and effectively present your side.  But don¹t take it personally if you fail
to convince him:  you may well do so later, and even if you don¹t, if you
picked him in the first place, chances are that disagreements on one or two
issues are nothing compared to all the things about which you agree.

    4.  GIVE MONEY, EVEN IF IT¹S ONLY A LITTLE.  No matter what you can or
cannot give, this matters, more than you know.  And the earlier you give,
the more it matters.

    Everyone knows that campaigns run on money; what they don¹t always grasp
is that a successful candidate must spend at least half his time just
raising that cash.  Challengers have a special problem, in that the people
who can most help them judge their viability by how much they raise early,
and from how many different donors they raise it.  Your $25 check is a vital
part of building the support your candidate needs from so-called "major
donors", from the party committees in Washington, from potential endorsers,
and from the media.  It will also buy about 167 desperately-needed bulk-rate
stamps.

    Obviously, it is essential that you give as much as you can.  Far fewer
people are giving than you think, and your candidate is spending enormous
time (and money) reaching them.  Your early help will make his work easier,
more effective, and more concentrated on actual campaigning.  Oh, and one
other thing:  if a candidate tells you he¹s in a financial crisis, don¹t
just assume it¹s a sales pitch.  It¹s almost always true.

5.  LET THE CAMPAIGN KNOW YOU¹RE AVAILABLE, AND FIND OUT WHAT IT NEEDS.  As
important as money is, nothing you can give is so valuable as your time; and
the campaign could never pay enough people to replace its better volunteers.
Be one.

    How do you do this?  Call the campaign and let them know you want to
help.  Below I will give some specific ideas which you should offer (the
campaign does not always know what it needs, since it¹s almost always
understaffed and under-funded); however, you should also make yourself
generally available, and be open to the specific requests the campaign may
make.

    Who do I mean when I say "the campaign"?  There¹s no one answer.  It
could be a campaign manager, a volunteer coordinator, a scheduler, the
candidate himself, or any number of other people.  And it may well shift
from week to week.

    Don¹t let this daunt you.  Just go with the flow, and be patient.  If
you¹ve offered yourself and the campaign hasn¹t gotten back with you,
politely offer again, and again:  chances are, you¹ve gotten lost in an
almost impossible shuffle (and if you have time and organization ability,
this may be your cue to volunteer as an office manager).  Don¹t be foolishly
offended by the chaos that characterizes every campaign.  Instead, view it
as an opportunity to make a desperately needed difference.

6.  HOST AN EVENT.  More than anything else, candidates need exposure and
money.  Kill two birds with one stone and host a coffee (or something
bigger).

    Nothing is as important as these events, whereby you bring your
candidate and your friends together.  The friends will come for your sake;
the candidate will gain credibility with them because of you; and if you
pass the plate, you¹ll raise some money, all for the cost of some Folger¹s.

    Many successful candidates learn to book three to five of these a day,
which should tell you how vital they are, and which should also tell you how
many people are going to have to agree to host them.  Don¹t wait to be
asked:  volunteer early, and often.

7.  MAKE PHONE CALLS.  Phone banks cost a lot of money, but are a
phenomenally effective tool, for polling, fundraising, getting out the vote
and a thousand other things.  You can save the campaign tons of cash by
being a phone volunteer.  It¹s not the most pleasant work you¹ll ever do,
but it can be very rewarding, and is vital to the effort.  Make sure the
campaign provides you a script, and practice it a few times before you start
your calls.

    Separately, you can and should use your phone to help the campaign in a
very obvious and simple way:  talk to your friends about how wonderful your
candidate is, and how proud of him you are.  This sort of casual,
day-in-day-out effort ­ no different from talking about how excited you are
about your favorite team ­ is the stuff of great victories.  When people
start talking like this, a certain "win psychology" develops, and real
momentum builds:  momentum money could never buy.

8.  USE EMAIL EFFECTIVELY.  At least as powerful as personal phone calls,
personal emails to friends are taking a greater and greater role in
campaigns.  Spread the word to your friends, by forwarding campaign emails,
news stories, and your own personal thoughts to your personal address book.
You send all those people lame jokes:  why not the good news about your
candidate (and your worldview)?

    Moreover, it may be that you are specially talented with email or the
web and wish to help in a more formal way.  Most campaigns need quality
people who can create and maintain an online presence, be it a website, an
email list, a chat room, or a prayer team (and just for the record, no one
has used the internet more effectively than Pat Buchanan¹s Linda Muller,
with Jesse Ventura¹s team running a close second).  If you¹d like to help
this way, you¹re needed.

9.  WRITE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.  Everyone talks about this, but no one does
it.  No one except winning campaigns, that is.

    The truth is, everyone reads the letters to the editor, and much of the
word-of-mouth side of the campaign develops there.  What¹s more, this is
absolutely free media, and being from "regular" people, it is far more
persuasive than a campaign news release (which few ever see anyway).

    A smart campaign will organize a large number of people to regularly
write letters to the editor, and mail them to all the local papers.  Don¹t
wait to be contacted:  call the campaign yourself, preferably the press
secretary.  If possible, write about the message the campaign is focused on
that week.  And if you¹re a good writer, find some of your friends who would
be willing to sign a letter but are afraid to actually write one, and draft
letters for them as well (be sure to collect them and mail them too:  people
promise, but often forget).

10.  STUFF ENVELOPES!  No part of the campaign is so important, especially
in an under-funded race where most or all of the direct mail has to be done
in-house.  At the same time, stuffing and addressing envelopes is some of
the most tedious work you can do, and people hate it.  It¹s not sexy, and
it¹s not fun.  Volunteers tend to flee.  You can not only make an enormous
difference but prove your value and loyalty as well by always being
available for this duty.  You can often save the campaign hundreds or
thousands of dollars through your work, and candidates remember their
envelope stuffers more fondly than anyone else (very important later when
you want to "educate" them on the issues).

11.  HELP WITH THE SIGN EFFORT.  Obviously a crucial part of the campaign¹s
advertising, the need is not so much for you to put up a sign in your own
yard (which of course you should do), but to help put signs up all over your
candidate¹s district.  Ideally, your candidate will want to put a sign in
every available yard, all on the same night.  Anything you can do to find
willing property owners or physically put up signs will make a huge
difference.

12.  GET OUT THE VOTE.  Conservative candidates have an alarming tendency to
run winning campaigns, only to lose on election day.  This is because the
Left is extremely effective at getting out their voters, while we generally
are not.  One reason for that effectiveness is that Left-leaning labor
unions teach and encourage get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts.  Conservatives
have no similar resource.

    Talk to the campaign about what you can do.  Hopefully, they will have a
carefully laid out plan, which will probably include early canvassing, an
absentee ballot effort, poll watching, phone banks, and any number of other
things.  Be flexible and pitch in.  If you don¹t, you may throw away a
couple years¹ work.

13.  PRAY FOR AND ENCOURAGE THE CANDIDATE.  As noted at the outset of the
article, conservatives complain a lot, and never more than in a campaign.
But campaigns run on morale, and complaints are among the most
self-destructive things under Heaven.  And it¹s not just the other campaign
workers and volunteers who need a lift:  it¹s the candidate himself.

    The candidate ­ if he¹s worth supporting ­ is killing himself.  You may
at times think he¹s arrogant, and sometimes he may be; but he runs on
adrenaline and supports himself with brave words that rarely resemble his
fears, and from early in the morning till late at night, he has to sell a
million skeptics ­ from CEOs to coffee shop clerks ­ on himself as a person
and his ideas as a program.  He is the ultimate "man in the arena", facing
every manner of outrageous attack and betrayal every day, working himself to
the bone, trying to juggle finances and family and every aspect of this
small industry the product of which is himself, all in pursuit of a goal far
greater than he.  The smallest word of encouragement at the right moment can
be that one thing which allows him to go on.  In point of fact, it often is.

    Likewise, no one needs your prayers more than your candidate and his
family.  The Bible clearly commands prayer for our leaders, but most people
forget to do it.  You mustn¹t.  He needs you.  And more than anything, he
needs the grace of God.

14.  UNDERSTAND THAT WINNING ISN¹T EVERYTHING.  Finally, it¹s well worth
remembering that most candidates lose, and often lose several times, before
they win.  This dispirits lots of volunteers (and even more candidates), but
it shouldn¹t:  it¹s just the way of the world.  The early races are often
learning experiences and opportunities to build an organization and the
candidate¹s name ID.  This is a good thing, no matter how much more fun it
might be to win every time.

    The wise volunteer will work as though victory is just a matter of doing
that one additional thing within his power; but he¹ll also know when to take
his co-workers and his candidate aside, place his hand on their shoulder,
and tell them it¹s all going to be okay, we¹ll get Œem next time.  That wise
volunteer will also follow through on his words, and stay the course for
round two.  Few decent candidates come out of a well-fought but losing race
weaker; most are in a better position than they¹ve ever been in their life,
if they¹ll learn from their mistakes and move on.  You can be the person who
gives them the strength to do it.  And in so doing, you will advance your
cause concretely, genuinely doing the hard work of freedom.


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NOTE

1.  Needless to say for those who have actually read him, Richard Weaver ­
whose Ideas Have Consequences has in its title lead many astray at this
point ­ understood this perfectly; and his short but powerful book remains
one of the truly essential works of conservatism.

PURCHASE RICHARD WEAVER'S EXTRAORDINARY "IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES":
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0226876802/vanguardoftherev/

---------------------------
 



-- Rod D. Martin is Founder and Chairman of Vanguard PAC.  A 
former policy director to Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, he 
is an attorney and writer from Little Rock, Arkansas, and a 
past candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives.

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