How about some "In Your Face" Activist Conservatism?

We as Conservatives have been reluctant to take public stands in the past. To actually go out and take it to the streets. What would a Conservative protest look like. Well as I blogged about a lot earlier we in Muskegon had a mini protest over the “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” protest started by Newt Gingrich.
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http://bottomuppolitics.blogspot.com/2008/07/energy-freedom-march-is-done.html
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Was there details of that protest email campaign by Newt that you didn‘t like? Probably. Some Conservatives probably felt it too over the top. Don’t shake the boat on this some said. We probably can’t do much anyway, we have to pick our fights more wisely. Plus remember Newt sat down with Nancy Pelosi.

Well Newt had his way and over a million signatures flowed in. More importantly Congress was flooded by outraged calls from people saying they had enough. Well guess what? The moratorium on drilling ended. A victory, at least for awhile. Now it looks like it will come back. But the point is we won a battle that most said we by all right should of lost.

We did it by uniting behind a concrete example of how government intervention doesn’t help solve a problem, it only makes it worse. The people knew it and they used the leverage of the election year to force their voice to be heard. I was happy some in Muskegon were a part of that effort.

Recently in response to the Stimulus Bill, a stock guy blew up and ranted on National TV. Although he was ranting, he was echoing the thoughts of many in the country. Was there anything wrong with the message? Could it of been different? Did he represent all the diverse groups of the Republican party? Well he represented something that resonated and something the people could relate to.

We in Michigan had a Lansing Tea Party. Nick at Right Michigan was there and took pictures and wrote a good article about it.
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http://www.rightmichigan.com/story/2009/2/27/124743/081
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Others around the country had similar “Tea Parties”.

What I have learned from all this and which the CPAC reinforced for me was that as a party we can not turn away from the good because it’s not perfect.

As we try to come up with solutions to the problems we face, remember that we are Conservatives and if we base our solutions on our core principles then for example we should be able to attend either a school voucher rally or a home school rally or even a public education reform rally. All three would help the education system. Like free enterprise, let them all be tried and base our opinion on what they actually accomplish.
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Edreform.com
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I add a quote from Pope John Paul II
“Parents are the primary educators of children.”

Haley Barbour said we should count as friends anyone who agrees with you 80% is your friend.
President Reagan sand anyone who agrees with 90% is not your enemy.

Both were talking about building a coalition.

We as Conservatives need to see the good in each of our different solutions, get behind other solutions and other people’s ideas if they are conservative in nature. Forget our own righteousness once and awhile.

What this means in conservative politics and education reform as mentioned above in particular, is that while vouchers and charter schools are not as government free as home schoolers, we should not lose sight of the fact that all of these are better than the record of public schools.

On CPAC I heard a home school activist say that his enemy is the same that the charter school and voucher programs face. Why he asked should we not unite also. He talked of one success and how it works in a cross pollinating sort of way with the others. We in other words should be gaining strength from all our success as conservatives.

This is the new face of Activist Conservatives. Actually it has been around for hundreds of years, but it is new in this big everything age.

Got a protest of any sort based on Conservative principles? Give me a call. I’ll try to make it.

Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative.