LIBERTY RISING

2012 WILL BE A HOUSE TO HOUSE FIGHT AGAINST STATISM

If you think that the progressive left is pinning its hopes for victory on Obama this fall – think again. In fact, they’re adopting the same approach conservatives started taking in 2009. National progressives, known for their outstanding ability to organize and mobilize, are stealing a page from the Tea Party and focusing on a more bottom-up strategy to promote their values rather than let Obama’s performance drive the train. Tea Party members and conservatives need to double-down now on the same approach, which has yielded countless electoral victories in the past three years for liberty-minded Americans. Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but progressives sweeping in and erasing conservative gains at the local and state level is a complement Americans can do without.

Any effective attempt to embed a set of values into government must be a multi-tiered effort. Progressives are grumbling privately – and some publically – about the Obama Presidency. They’re not going to lie down and leave the future of their flawed, anti-American ideology to their once “great savior.” To the contrary, the left is renewing its efforts to impact state and local elections in 2012. 

Familiar players like the well-funded Moveon.org, the New Organizing Institute, Democracy for America and other leftist groups recently committed to finding 2,012 progressive candidates for state and local elections. Their efforts are going so well that they have now raised their goal to recruiting 5,000 progressive candidates for this year. Progressives are trying to ensure that every conservative candidate from school board to town council and county commissioner to state legislature has an opponent that will help drive the cause of bigger government. 

Over the last year, as part of American Majority’s commitment to effect change at the state and local level we have been promoting the New Leader’s Project, seeking to have local conservative groups pledge to recruit 10 candidates for local or state office from their area. To date more than 530 Tea Party and other conservative groups have signed the pledge to recruit more than 5,000 candidates. American Majority will be working with these new leaders to train them to be effective at articulating fiscally-conservative policies and organizing for victory.

Conservative activists have a jump on the left. What we need to do now is keep building on those efforts in every town and every city. Everyone knows that government isn’t operating within its means in Washington. Overreaching, invasive government is the biggest crisis America faces today and a major cause a host of other problems from unemployment to high energy costs. 

But the problem isn’t limited to Washington. American conservatives banded together in 2010 to bring an end to the Pelosi Congress. They will likely do the same for Harry Reid’s do-nothing Senate this year. They will be joined by independents and conservative democrats in turning out a President committed to moving the nation toward statism. Even if change happens in Washington – and it won’t overnight under any circumstances – that won’t lower your property taxes. It won’t lower your school taxes. It won’t lower your state income taxes. It won’t decrease medical costs in areas that lack tort reform. It won’t move new energy projects burdened by state and local regulations.

Only state and local officials can make that kind of an impact. Yes, the Presidential campaign is sexy and exciting, but local races can have a far greater impact on our daily lives. Every conservative candidate for town council who beats back a big government liberal is potential mayor, state senator, governor or congressman. That’s the way real systemic change happens. 

Conservatives proved in 2009, 2010, and even 2011, that they can mobilize from the bottom-up and have real political success. To beat the Tea Party and the conservative grassroots, the national progressive movement is entering the local electoral battle. Conservatives need to renew their efforts and be ready for a block-by-block, house-to-house political fight.