Growing our party

As I've been campaigning for the National Committeeman's position, I've had several people ask me my thoughts on the best way to grow our party. More often than not, this question comes from someone in one of our rural counties...which tend to be heavily Democrat.

I think the short version of the answer to this question is to reach out and bring other conservatives into our party. But in order to be effective in doing that, those conservatives need to clearly understand the differences between ourselves and the Democrats.

We already know why we're involved. We're involved because we care about something - some issue or group of issues. Because there are things we want to see happen - or not happen - with our government. In short, we're here because we care. And it's because we care that we donate our time and resources.

But there are a lot of conservatives out there who don't yet consider themselves Republicans. In fact, polling data almost always demonstrates that, when you compare self-identified conservatives vs. liberals, and self-identified Republicans vs. Democrats, conservatives are always the biggest group. In other words, there are more conservatives than there are Republicans - and it's our job to show them what our party stands for and how they can make a difference by getting involved.

I believe as Ronald Reagan did...that the best way to grow our party is to paint the differences between ourselves and the Democrats in bright, bold colors, not pale pastels. We have to hold our conservative banner high and let them know that the Republican Party is the party that stands for the sanctity of life, lower taxes, limited government, traditional marriage, stronger immigration policies and better border security, and a strong national defense.

Also, we have to understand that we're in competition not just with Democrats, but also with every other non-partisan political group and political action committee out there. Any group or organization that helps conservatives have an impact on the things they care about is a competitor, in the sense of competing for the time, attention, resources and passion and activity of potential volunteers and grassroots supporters.

People only have so much time in the day and money they will contribute. We have to do a better job of getting our share by educating them on our platform and showing them how activity in our party can impact the things they care about.