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

[Bill Stewart]

Jim, I'm really surprised that you forwarded this spam to the list.
I received it directly also.

While he does have some useful comments about political organizing,
some of what he says about liberal/conservative differences is a pure crock.
We're in the middle of a radically activist right-wing statist 
administration -
they're doing far more than the Reaganites ever accomplished as far as
building up the political power of the military, reducing civil liberties for
citizens as well as non-citizen residents and travelers, strengthening the 
police agencies,
and moving power away from Congress and into the Executive Branch.

And yet this spammer Martin talks about conservatives not being activists.
To the extent that he's talking about the public rather than the
party activists and the elected and appointed officials,
conservatives today are less activist than during the Reagan/Bush 
administration
and the early Clinton administration, but the new Administration
is the most activist we've seen in ages, whether or not they
were actually elected.  One of the technologies for getting
grassroots and astroturf support that both big parties developed extensively
over the 80s/90s is the use of direct mail for fundraising and
generating letters to politicians - the conservatives
and particularly the Religious Right Wing were probably more effective
than the various sets of liberals.  This looks like an attempt to
do similar things on the net.]


At 10:29 PM 12/28/2001 -0600, Jim Choate wrote:
>---------- 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
>don9t 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
>Left9s 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 there9s an
>election, expend a little half-hearted effort, and go back to sleep.
>
>     Because of this relative detachment, conservatives demonstrate a
>remarkably persistent naiveti.  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 hearts9 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 Blackwell9s 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 movement9s 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.
>
>     There9s 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, they9ll have to work for that too.  Furthermore, it9s 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 won9t 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 lion9s 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 shouldn9t just give away
>their nomination, after all).  This is usually your candidate (we9re trying
>to gain seats, after all):  tired, broke and pummeled from all sides.
>
>     Yes, there9s 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 Christ9s 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 don9t 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.  Murphy9s 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 you9re 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 he9s written extensively (and some candidates have),
>read what he9s written.  Call him on the phone or email him:  some
>candidates respond very well to this.  If he9s reasonably accessible, feel
>free to ask him to dinner (and buy his dinner:  he9s broke.  He9s giving up
>all his time, income and personal savings to work around the clock for you).
>Don9t get offended if he9s 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 he9s 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 you9ve picked him, remember that the candidate
>is human, just like you.  You make mistakes, you sometimes fail to think
>before you speak, you don9t 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, it9s 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 he9s going to have unseen warts.
>Bailing at the first sign of trouble - or at the first policy disagreement -
>is not only bad form, it9s cowardly.  And if you9re 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 doesn9t understand, or hasn9t ever thought about what you believe,
>or is getting bad advice.  Look for an opportunity to politely, concisely
>and effectively present your side.  But don9t take it personally if you fail
>to convince him:  you may well do so later, and even if you don9t, 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 IT9S 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 don9t 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 he9s in a financial crisis, don9t
>just assume it9s a sales pitch.  It9s almost always true.
>
>5.  LET THE CAMPAIGN KNOW YOU9RE 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 it9s 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"?  There9s 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.
>
>     Don9t let this daunt you.  Just go with the flow, and be patient.  If
>you9ve offered yourself and the campaign hasn9t gotten back with you,
>politely offer again, and again:  chances are, you9ve 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).  Don9t 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, you9ll raise some money, all for the cost of some Folger9s.
>
>     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.  Don9t 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.  It9s not the most pleasant work you9ll 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 Buchanan9s Linda Muller,
>with Jesse Ventura9s team running a close second).  If you9d like to help
>this way, you9re 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.  What9s 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.  Don9t
>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 you9re 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.  It9s not sexy, and
>it9s 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 campaign9s
>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
>candidate9s 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 don9t, you may throw away a
>couple years9 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 it9s not just the other campaign
>workers and volunteers who need a lift:  it9s the candidate himself.
>
>     The candidate - if he9s worth supporting - is killing himself.  You may
>at times think he9s 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 mustn9t.  He needs you.  And more than anything, he
>needs the grace of God.
>
>14.  UNDERSTAND THAT WINNING ISN9T EVERYTHING.  Finally, it9s 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 shouldn9t:  it9s just the way of the world.  The early races are often
>learning experiences and opportunities to build an organization and the
>candidate9s 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 he9ll also know when to take
>his co-workers and his candidate aside, place his hand on their shoulder,
>and tell them it9s all going to be okay, we9ll get em 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 they9ve ever been in their life,
>if they9ll 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.
>
>
>---------------------------
>
>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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>
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>
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>
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>
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>
>================================================================