Getting Republican Party Attention
Stephen Bainbridge has posted "On Becoming a Problem Child" wherein he notes the Republican Party's view of conservative bloggers seems to be "somewhere between an irrelevance and a minor nuisance." and asks what can be done about it.
My suggestion was to promote primary challenges for the upcoming election season. After all, they won't take withholding party or incumbent campaign contributions as seriously. Neither will they take too seriously a threat to cut your own throat by not going to vote. Both are all or nothing approaches and the nothing approach -- sitting things out -- has a fairly low retention rate as election day approaches, especially when the alternative is the other party's candidate.
But promoting primary challenges changes the game board. That is a threat to those who think you are an irrelevance or mere nuisance. And there is greater chance of success in getting attention particularly if the challenger wins.
Those who think that current incumbents are not measuring up can direct their monies and votes to the challengers. They stay involved and use your vote in a constuctive way, particularly in getting their point across.
Usually, this doesn't doesn't work too well as a commonplace approach across the board. Usually, it needs a groundswell of resentment on a very major issue. I don't know that the Miers nomination -- the reason prompting Prof. Bainbridge's lament -- is one. But that does not mean it can't be grouped with some other issues that attract adherents. One issue that could be twinned to it is the utter lack of Republican responsiveness to the PorkBusters Campaign. And both are core conservative issues the goal of which is smaller government.
As for the subject of being more than a mere nuisance in the more practical sense, one requirement is to be noticed and popularly read. In this vein, I can't say praise Edward Morrissey's column in the Washington Post (though I know that it will go into the deadtree version.) for shining light on so many conservative blogs and the debates that go on there. That's always good. It almost seems stealthy for it to be in the Washington Post.
My suggestion was to promote primary challenges for the upcoming election season. After all, they won't take withholding party or incumbent campaign contributions as seriously. Neither will they take too seriously a threat to cut your own throat by not going to vote. Both are all or nothing approaches and the nothing approach -- sitting things out -- has a fairly low retention rate as election day approaches, especially when the alternative is the other party's candidate.
But promoting primary challenges changes the game board. That is a threat to those who think you are an irrelevance or mere nuisance. And there is greater chance of success in getting attention particularly if the challenger wins.
Those who think that current incumbents are not measuring up can direct their monies and votes to the challengers. They stay involved and use your vote in a constuctive way, particularly in getting their point across.
Usually, this doesn't doesn't work too well as a commonplace approach across the board. Usually, it needs a groundswell of resentment on a very major issue. I don't know that the Miers nomination -- the reason prompting Prof. Bainbridge's lament -- is one. But that does not mean it can't be grouped with some other issues that attract adherents. One issue that could be twinned to it is the utter lack of Republican responsiveness to the PorkBusters Campaign. And both are core conservative issues the goal of which is smaller government.
As for the subject of being more than a mere nuisance in the more practical sense, one requirement is to be noticed and popularly read. In this vein, I can't say praise Edward Morrissey's column in the Washington Post (though I know that it will go into the deadtree version.) for shining light on so many conservative blogs and the debates that go on there. That's always good. It almost seems stealthy for it to be in the Washington Post.
Posted by Dusty at 4:01 PM
1 Creaks:
Hey Dusty,
I think that the pols are getting the message. especially the ones who are up for election in 2006. If the base stays home the midterm elections would be a nightmare for the Republicans. It would be a real lost oppotunity.
At this point, I have to wonder what Meirs is thinking. She must know the controversy her nomination is causing and the potential for disaster it might cause her party? The louder the chorus calling for her withdrawal and the longer this drags on I have to say it is her responsibility to withdraw and save her party from the turmoil. That is, if she cares about the big picture. And there is the rub, if she doesn't that shows she is more concerned with herself and that leads me to conclude she is a poor choice. Definitely a heads we win, tails she loses scenario but true nonetheless.
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