Heads Up
P.R.E. meets Thursday June 9 at 7:00 pm.
Bite-Size Action
Fantastic work in the primary, Patriots!
Here are some thoughts I had in another thread about grassroots politics and where I've observed groups tend to bite off more than they can chew… and this is where I think we can be a breath of fresh air in the Liberty-minded conservative politics scene:
It is good to hold people accountable, but you want to be careful to not make sworn enemies out of anyone unnecessarily. Even the foul-mouthed Watertown Senator Lee Schoenbeck will suddenly become a good ally if something pro life crops up! Keeping the political heat on is key, but stay open to relational politics.
When I lived in Dallas, I attended an interview with former Dallas Cowboys players discussing how the game had changed over the years. They spoke about how the game in the 70s and 80s was all about grit. Hit that guy as hard as you can every play.
Over time, players became more savvy about putting themselves physically in a position TO hit someone, then seeing that player adjust his decisions to avoid the hit. And so the game really has evolved into power position placement as much as hard hitting when the time is right.
You've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, know when to run. — The Gambler (by Don Schlitz) sung by Kenny Rogers
We have to think of politics this way as well. Know when to strike and when to position ourselves without striking. If we negotiate with hand grenades... pick a fight with everyone, everytime, on everything... we will exhaust our finite energy, make enemies of everyone, and accomplish little. The big business conservatives demonstrate this temperance very well, though they don't stand on liberty principles in the same way we do. If we can find the secret sauce to be both savvy AND principled; we can channel that Ron DeSantis energy.
The other part of becoming DeSantis is backing everything up with action. Which is why our motto is "acta non verba." Thank you to everyone who is collecting affidavits today, ran for office, canvassed, was a poll watcher/worker, etc. Effective action trumps all. Even if you didn't win, you made your opponent work hard and spend resources fighting for something they would have normally taken for granted. Though we’re completely new at this, we secured more victories than losses yesterday! See you at our meeting tomorrow night. Ripple on. — Adam Broin