Written by John Biver

It might be a tired old cliché, but politics as we know it today is a tired old arena, so I don’t mind using the line since it applies perfectly: The definition of the word “insanity” is doing more of the same and expecting a different result.

It looks like conservatives are going to run more presidential candidates than ever — will they split the vote even more so that a rino can waltz into the nomination?

Conservative PACs will raise ever more money during the 2016 election cycle — will they succeed in doing much more than making political consultants richer and electing Republicans that accomplish little?

Conservative think tanks will produce a lot more op eds, reports and analysis — but will a higher percentage of their work be seen by the uninformed and misinformed?

We closed our last post with the basic outline of the answers to the questions “what can be done” and what can I do?”

1. We must get all conservatives to understand that they must give time to the political arena.
2. We must construct a place for conservatives to engage.
3. We must get about recruiting candidates for all offices, volunteers and donors to get them elected, and an army to help bring information to the uninformed and misinformed.

Let’s expand a bit on each.

1. Few conservatives were raised to see direct activity in the political arena as their duty. The assumption was always that plenty of ambitious and/or politics-loving conservatives would man the barricades. Surely by now we must all know that was a faulty assumption.

2. We need a place for conservatives to engage. Let’s face it, the GOP today has an “ick factor” attached to it in many (if not most) places across the country. Many people that would like to get involved prefer to avoid the no longer “grand” old party. Yes, ultimately, since it’s the organization with the ballot line, we’ll have to have people fighting in and for the party. But there’s plenty of work that can be done outside the party. So what, exactly, is that “place” for conservatives to engage?

3. That place is a structure where concerned Americans will be welcomed in to help out in the massive undertaking of mobilizing the army and sending it off to win the information war and must the necessary political power to bring about needed reform.

Sounds a little vague, doesn’t it? Of course it does. Few conservatives actually engage in street-level political activity so the whole political arena is vague to them. From way up in the bleachers all they know is that it’s made up of opportunistic consultants and talking heads, rah-rah “activists” who do “grassroots activities” (whatever that is), and those odd and often problematic people willing to run for political office.

It’s just a guess, but I doubt that many folks would contest my argument that more conservatives must get involved. It’s an easy guess to figure that many would, however, think my call to action is idealistic, unrealistic, and frankly pure fantasy.

Let’s review the field. We live in a country where citizens get to elect their representatives to advance policies they support.

Complicated, eh?

Okay, how does the citizenry decide what policies they want?

Here’s our old friend Abraham Lincoln again:

With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed. Consequently he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed.

Who is shaping public sentiment? Earlier in this series we mentioned the big ones: the K-college system, Hollywood etc., the liberal media, and non-profits and labor unions that spend big money to sell their side of the story to the public.

If you think Republican elected officials, candidates, the GOP, or conservatives talk radio and organizations will match the onslaught of information coming from the left, please send me a note and explain what, exactly, will change to miraculously make that so.

I don’t believe we can wait for that miracle to happen. We must get about organizing so we can get rank and file conservative citizens into the fight.

It is easy for conservatives to imagine the worst in politics — that the insanity of the past several decades will continue to accelerate. It’s not as easy for them to see how they or their fellow conservatives can start to fit constructive political action into their lives.

They can see what amazing things people can accomplish — from medical advances to high tech to complicated world trade. Oh, but reaching voters — that’s something only crazy people think is possible.

Baloney. The liberals do it all day long, every day, through all means possible — from social media to TV sitcoms, from the kindergarten classroom up through the hallowed halls of higher ed.

Up next: Let’s examine the “place” (see #2 above) in a little more detail and then provide a partial list of the work conservatives must start getting done.

Originally published at JohnBiver.com