What special powers does Mr. Blackwell have to make the Republican party the party of limited government? Republicans are so far from the the limited government ideology that many southern Democrats look more conservative than the Republican party leadership.

I disagree with the Republican party on foreign policy and the domestic war on terror. Yet I might support Republicans in spite of this if they would become the party of limited government again. After all, a truly limited federal government is less of a threat to its citizens and their prosperity.

I know that in my state we need better technology and I assume that is the case in others as well, but that tool, and it is only a tool, is only a part of issues facing Republicans. Putting the best communications system in the World up doesn’t help if we don’t have anything useful to communicate. We lost the last two elections because we don’t stand for anything much and are certainly not consistent nationally about what we stand for and because we have demonstrated that we do not know how to competently run the government.

With Gingrich’s downfall and the election of GWB, it is clear that Republican candidates and officeholders have been free to do their own thing on issues. Mr. Blackwell addresses this issue by his requirement that any supported candidate must swear fealty to the Party’s National Platform. That’s going to be tough because what gets you elected in one place gets you killed in another, but we do have to do something about all the free agents and self-styled mavericks flying a Republican flag of convenience. Both in my state and nationally it has been very evident since the ’94 Revolution that we had attracted quite a crop of “born-again Republicans” who were better suited to sell used cars than to hold office.

So, more active local and state organizations and more real representation of state organizations at the RNC level will help to put together platforms and policies that have a broader appeal than those put together by largely self-selected leadership cohorts and self-serving consultants. A well developed Platform and insistence on fealty to that Platform is the essense of restoring our good name.

But a good name isn’t enough; we have to know how to run a government and how to turn a Platform into policy and a policy into a program and make that program actually work. Sure the Democrats lied and the MSM swore to the lie about Katrina, WMD, and the various scandals, but we gave them the openings with poor appointees, poor performance, and in all too many instances poor character. It doesn’t matter that the Democrats are far more corrupt; they’re better at being corrupt and the people who vote for them expect it and don’t care. They’ve had 50 years of almost untramelled power to make most of their corruption into nice legal non-profits and community action organizations. We don’t have those, so our bad actors are reduced to outright stealing. If Duke Cunningham had just hired a good accountant and started up some non-profits, he’d be a very respected millionaire senator instand of a convict.

In any event, I think some ethics standards for officeholders and some training in ethics standards should be an RNC iniative as well. Most of our candidates and officeholders come from the private sector where having your name on the door gives you the right and power to do anything you want pretty much. In my experience, few Republican officeholders and appointees understand the arcana of ethics standards they’re subject to. This either causes them to freeze into fearful inaction or to just ignore all that stuff until they wind up on the front page of the paper that hates them most.

The other thing I’d like to see emphasized is some Government 101 training at the Party level for candidates and officeholders so that on being elected or appointed, our officeholders are not at the mercy of Democrat controlled or leaning permanent bureaucracies.

Anyway, before this becomes a book, those are some of my thoughts on reading Mr. Blackwell’s well thought out plan.

The other thing I’d like to see emphasized is some Government 101 training at the Party level for candidates and officeholders so that on being elected or appointed, our officeholders are not at the mercy of Democrat controlled or leaning permanent bureaucracies

This would do more to help young Republicans, such as myself, to get active in the local sphere and move up in the ranks. I know where I stand on principle, and I know pretty much what policies are realistic and which aren’t, but what I don’t know is the ins and outs of gov’t. I never took a civics class beyond high school, this is my own fault because I never really considered a career in politics, but if the local party offered mentoring and classes I would be more than receptive.

to ask my opinion on a couple of matters and then ask for my support. Of course, I told him I was quite willing to entertain him as RNC Chairman, but he didn’t seem to hear me.

Proper grammar saves lives.

Let’s eat Grandma.
Let’s eat, Grandma.

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Activists Taking Action: Unified Patriots

Blackwell is the guy. I’ll have to research him a bit to see if he can actually deliver on any of this, but in theory I like what I read very much.

It’s got something for everyone. I especially lilke his emphasis on the need to build the party at the local level. We can’t win the big elections unless we can build support at the local level first.

the ones published by Anuzis and Steele WEEKS ago. Has RS linked/analyzed those as well? Is Blackwell doing anything other than recycling other folks’ ideas?

I also like that all congressional seats will be challenged. No freebies to the dems. This should have been true every time.

Not sure this goes far enough but its better than anyone else has. And Mike Duncan and his ilk have to go, even if it means making the tent a bit smaller.

This really condemns what Karl Rove has been doing the last 10 years and its about time Karl was exposed as the Master of Disaster.