Advancing To Nowhere

"He's a real nowhere Man,

Sitting in his Nowhere Land,

Making all his nowhere plans

for nobody"

~The Beatles, "Nowhere Man"

This song has swirled in my head over and over since hearing The Advance.  I've talked with some fellow YRs who did not go and we were thinking over what the Advance means and why it would be worth going.  I just cannot see the point.  One of the bigger problems facing the state GOP is a perception that we are a closed party, not open to everyone.  So what do we do for our big post-election get together?  We go to the middle of nowhere in one of the most sparsely-populated corner's of the state, to an exclusive resort that costs a lot of money.  Not Northern Virginia or Hampton Roads or Richmond, mind you, where we need to help build our party.  Oh now, we make people pay a lot of money for the honor of taking part in the future of our party.  So this year only something like 500 people showed up to discuss the future of the party.  That worries me greatly.  That means that we aren't growing right now, rather we are receding, and we are keeping our party structure closed to new Republicans, young Republicans, and regular Republicans who don't have deep lobbyist pockets to afford this.

Remote.  Exclusive.  Expensive.

That is the message the "Advance" give to Virginia.  

So what are you going to do, Chris?  Well, I would set up regional open houses in all the main areas of the state where party leaders meet with local leaders, hammering out ideas and solutions for the party with regard to each region and their specific needs to help forge a truly unified platform for the party.  In doing so, the party reaches out to the entire state allowing more people to have a hand in building the party.  And when people are active, they take ownership and will be more winning to volunteer and get organized.  All of this would culminate in a Christmas-time meeting in Richmond (preferably the Convention center) where major candidates have suites, candidates and leaders give speeches, and party presents its ideas and help hammer out a platform.  It would also give the party valuable time to allow its members to not only vent their frustrations but be brought into the process.  

So instead of the party hierarchy, elected pols, well-financed lobbyists, and whatever activist and scrape together the funds to pay to go to the Advance; we should fan out across the state and reach out to activists and Republicans and bring them into the fold, help them feel like they own a part of this party.  

I doubt this will happen, but we can't keep going the way we are.  We just can't.  Not only are we losing elections, but new voters, young voters, and minority voters are quickly turning away from us and I'm worried if we don't act fast we risk losing them for good.  Want to hear a disturbing fact?

McCain-Palin outpolled Bush-Cheney in 2008 in Virignia.  But Obama-Biden outpolled Kerry-Edwards by nearly 500,000 votes.  Look at this:

GOP
2004  Bush-Cheney:  1,716,959
2008  McCain-Palin:  1,725,005
NET:  +8,046 McCain-Palin

DEM
2004  Kerry-Edwards:  1,424,742
2008  Obama-Biden:    1,959,532
NET:  +534,790 Obama-Biden

There were 542,836 new voters in Virignia, over half a million.  They broke for Obama 66 to 1!!!.  Now that these voters are engaged, do we just surrender them?  What do we do to reach out and offer them an alternative, once the wunderlust of Obama wears off?  Going to an exclusive resort and making them pay too much money sure sounds like the ticket to win these new voters!  What are we doing to answer these voters questions, what conservative solutions are we offering, how are we reaching out?  Are we recruiting candidates who have deep community ties, are we encouraging minority and female candidates to run?  Are we building our conservative platform based on solving the problems of our constituents today or are we getting into glorified pissing contests over who's more like Ronald Reagan?  And for some perspective, I am 27 years old.  I was born on inauguration day 1981.  I think its time to evolve from Reagan, into a 21st century conservatism.  Young independents I am sure can't wait to get involved based on Ronald Reagan!  We need to apply our conservative philosophy to 21st century problems and offer real solutions.

Instead, like the Beatles sang, we are running around making nowhere plans for nobody.   

Comments

[Anne]

The Republican party will evolve and move forward. Or it will cease. I guess not everyone has figured out yet that the big meteor has hit and that the dinos' days are numbered.

[200 Grande]

You said it, dawg! Well-put!

[GOP4Ever]

The Advance is an absolute waste of time! I came to this conclusion right after the Allen election. The Advance has become a social gathering for a bunch of "out of touch" political losers to drink, complain, and socialize. What galls me the most is to watch folks position themselves for fancy titles associated with the a losing effort. It like watching folks plot and scheme for first class seats on the sinking Titanic. .....How sad and pathetic.

P.S. I am sad to hear that many of the YRs are frustrated. There goes another demographic that the Party is losing.

P.S.S. I heard that the majority of the minority GOP did not turn out too.

FOLKS THE TITANIC IS SINKING!!!!!

[Known Disenter]

I'd like to see a post on why in God's name anyone puts faith in or belongs to either political party.

[Archibald Mercer]

To assume that all the votes that went to Obama will continue to go towards the Democrats is risky to say the least. The reality of the excess half million who came out is that they were an energized youth base who cared about the rpesidential election, followed by an out pouring of people who were oppossed to Bush and saw McCain as their punching bag. Odds are, the numbers are going to be much lower. if the Democrats hope to repeat these same numbers a second time around, they will be sorely disappointed.

[novamiddleman]

Nice Post Chris sums up what I am have been trying to say for the past couple years since I moved here

Hopefully we can take what McDonnell/Herritty are doing in terms of energy and solutions oriented campaigning and start a new chapter. Staying the course is the road to extinction.

P.S. I was born in 1981 also

[novamiddleman]

Archibald,

Ok those things are partially true but sitting back and saying everything is fine is exactly why we have lost the past couple years.

Furthermore people tend to continue to vote the same way. See the Regan Generation and the fact that even today people in the 35-50 demographic are more conservative and Republican than the rest of the population. Giving up on an entire generation is extremly shortsighted.

[Crystal Clear Conservative]

I agree with your statements. You made some great points.