Apologies for being somewhat radio silent these past few weeks. I’ve been traveling extensively doing campaign training workshops, speaking at events, etc.
And I’ve been actively working on getting a number of campaigns here in Nevada set up and ready to rock now that the filing period has begun.
Also, I’ve been commissioned to ghost-write a book for a campaign that has a deadline of April 1st. So right now, time is my biggest enemy.
In the meantime, Richard Viguerie – the “Funding Father” of the conservative movement – recently sent out an important memo detailing the challenges we on the right face – especially the critical absence of true leaders in the movement.
He’s allowed me to share it with you, and I think you’ll find it very informative. But please keep it to yourself and take it to heart. As he concludes, don’t wait for orders from above. If you want to get in the game…get in the game!
Cheers.
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CONSERVATIVES HAVE A MAJOR SHORTAGE OF BOLD, RISK-TAKING ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL.
MEMORANDUM
TO: Key Conservative Leaders
FROM: Richard A. Viguerie
DATE: March 4, 2024
RE: 47th Monthly Marketing Memo for Conservative Leaders
SUBJECT: CONSERVATIVES ARE LEADERLESS
Yes, conservatives are leaderless.
We’re not just leaderless. America is in a Spiritual Civil War that the left has been waging for decades and have now ramped up at unprecedented levels because our side (1) mostly doesn’t act like we’re in one, and (2) the left knows our leadership is lacking.
There’s no one national conservative that the grassroots looks to for leadership.
In fact, there’s not two or three that together provide leadership for the majority of conservatives today.
Yes, we’re fortunate to have a number of strong leaders for specific issues, such as life, the culture, foreign policy, national security, ballot security, constitutional and civil liberties, gender dysphoria, and education.
We have no Robert Taft, Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, or Phyllis Schlafly.
However, the Republican Party clearly has a leader—former President Donald J. Trump.
But Donald Trump is not a conservative. He’s a transactional politician and a world-class marketer. He had a strong first term as President, but he doesn’t speak for or lead conservatives.
And if Trump is the Republican Party’s nominee for president, I will do all I can to help him win and I hope all conservatives will do the same.
By the way, you may ask—how do you define a leader?
That’s an important question, because most well-known, popular conservatives are not leaders, they are spokesmen.
Leaders are not better, smarter, more important than spokesmen.
Spokesmen are not better, smarter, more important than leaders.
They are different and a strong, vibrant, successful political movement needs both.
A leader is seldom a radio/TV personality, journalist, author, columnist, or celebrity.
A leader has energy, passion, and strong commitment. They organize meetings, attend meetings, accept work assignments, and suggest work assignments.
They make sacrifices of money, time, resources. They attend boring meetings on Monday night. They organize, plan, and speak at rallies on Saturday morning.
They give up personal pleasures to travel, meet, talk, lead, and many times publicly take unpopular positions.
Barry Goldwater in the late 1950s authored a bestselling book, The Conscience of a Conservative. He travelled the length and breadth of America for the conservative cause to raise money and help elect Republican candidates, and was openly critical of ineffective Republican leaders.
He said, “President Eisenhower was running a dime store New Deal.” It was unheard of for a Republican U.S. Senator to say that a popular Republican president was acting like a liberal. By speaking out, Goldwater electrified the conservative grassroots.
In January 1964 when Goldwater announced for president (against his personal desires), he did it for the noble purpose of launching the conservative movement—and it had that exact effect.
He sacrificed himself for a greater cause—THAT’S LEADERSHIP.
Newt Gingrich was first elected to the U.S. House in 1978. In early 1979 he went to the House leadership and asked who was in charge of making Republicans the majority (House Republicans had been in the minority for 48 years, except for 4 years, and would continue in the minority for another 16 years). The reply Newt received was something along the line of, “A Republican majority? What are you talking about?”
Newt said, “Okay, so nobody’s in charge, I’ll be in charge.” And from that moment on, he began to lead and plan for a Republican majority.
In the early 1980s, Newt along with 5 or 6 other young Congressmen and 6 to 8 national conservative leaders came to our home in McLean, Virginia every Wednesday evening to spend 2 ½ to 3 hours over drinks and dinner strategizing and developing plans to advance the conservative cause, defeat Democrats, and elect Republicans.
Newt engaged in many, many other leadership activities that led to a Republican takeover of Congress in 1994.
Governor Ronald Reagan led conservatives in opposing the giveaway of the Panama Canal in the second half of the 1970s, which put the growth of the conservative movement into warp speed. In the 1970s Governor Reagan led conservatives in many other areas, including taxes, spending, etc.
Most people think of Phyllis Schlafly as the leader opposing the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), and she certainly was the leader in driving force to keep the ERA out of the Constitution, but Phyllis also provided major conservative leadership in foreign policy, economic, and cultural issues.
Phyllis is one of the best strategic leaders that conservatives had in my lifetime. She passed away in 2016 and no one has risen to replace her.
When I went to New York City in the summer of 1961 to run Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), the number one need conservatives had then is the same as our number one need today—LEADERSHIP. The left has so much more energy and so many more leaders than conservatives do.
Conservatives—if I may be so bold as to suggest—maybe part of our problem is us. As the famous cartoonist Walt Kelly’s character in a comic strip, POGO, said, “We have met the enemy, and it is us.”
What I’m saying is maybe we’re judging those conservatives who are speaking out on issues too harshly. Too many conservatives are quick to write off a potential leader because they disagree with them on an issue/position or two.
As the great Ronald Reagan said, “The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally—not a 20 percent traitor.”
For decades, I’ve urged conservatives—DON’T act as an arm of the Republican Party. Too often conservatives conduct themselves as if they are an appendage of the GOP.
However, conservatives need to act as a THIRD FORCE—NOT A THIRD PARTY. I say I am not a Republican; I am a conservative who acts politically in the Republican Party.
And it’s very important that we conservatives are active politically in the GOP. The left has captured total control of the Democrat Party and the only possible way we have to beat them is if we also have a political party.
So that means conservatives need to be actively engaged in taking control of the Republican Party at the local, county, state, and national levels. Each of us needs to decide at what level we want to be active. Some may want to be active in the Republican Party at multiple levels.
The left acts independent of the Democrat Party. They act as a THIRD FORCE pulling everyone in their direction. Think environmental issues, green energy, sexual issues, abortion, global warming, war on fossil fuels, etc., etc.
- Liberals have 20,000 single-issue nonprofits.
- Each with their own agenda.
- Each with their own leadership.
- Each with their own donors/source of money.
And they are focused on pulling the Democrat Party and America toward their agenda.
I strongly recommend conservatives also operate as a THIRD FORCE.
- Conservatives need to increase their nonprofits from 1,500 to over 20,000.
- Each with their own agenda.
- Each with their own leadership.
- Each with their own donors/source of money.
A huge advantage to having 20,000 conservative nonprofits like the left has is that they are a breeding ground for developing new leaders.
Because the left has over 20,000 single-issue nonprofits, they have a huge leadership advantage over conservatives with our 1,500 nonprofits.
Most liberal nonprofits will have a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, fundraiser, director of membership, director of public relations, etc. This provides the 20,000+ liberal organizations with a massive leadership pool. From this pool of 100,000+ activists/leaders come future Democrat candidates for City Council, Mayor, State Legislature, Congress, the White House, etc.
Remember, when Barack Obama was running for the U.S. Senate in 2004, he self-described as a Community Organizer.
You become a leader by doing.
Of course, it’s also important to read, read, study, study.
As Morton Blackwell says, “All leaders are readers, but not all readers are leaders.”
If you have a position of authority and responsibility in a nonprofit it will cause you to get out of your comfort zone on a regular basis, and that’s how you will develop, grow, and strengthen your leadership skills—by doing.
Leadership is contagious, it’s infectious. When you step out and provide leadership, it will be seen by others, and it will encourage some to follow your example.
The left has dozens of high-level, high-performing strategic leaders—think Eric Holder, John Podesta, Mark Elias, George Soros, Obama, etc.
Where are the national Republican politicians who are providing leadership on critical important issues, daily doing battle with the left, calling strategy meetings, organizing rallies, press conferences, etc. to deal with:
- The attempt by Democrats to keep their opponent off the ballot in 2024 by bankrupting him, putting him in jail, tying him up in legal knots.
- Opposing Critical Race Theory being taught to school children.
- Boys/men in girls/women’s sports, showers, bathrooms, etc.
- Democrats intentionally opening the border, letting in ten million illegals (unregistered Democrats).
- Attacking Democrats for rigging the 2022 election.
- Attacking Democrats for trying to rig the 2024 election.
- The merger of Big Tech with the Deep State.
- Weaponizing the criminal justice system against conservatives.
- Crime.
- Etc.
Ninety-nine percent of all the contact I receive from Republican politicians these days is asking for money.
But when it comes to getting out front and leading the opposition to Democrats who are destroying our Constitutional Republic, they are mostly silent.
At Lexington and Concord on the 19th of April in 1775, Captain John Parker and Captain David Brown each commanded a small group (75±) of American patriots to oppose 700 British Regular troops. However, over 90% (3,000+) of the patriots that fought that day were without a military leader, each grabbed a musket and ran to the sound of the guns.
When I arrived in Washington, DC in 1962, then as now I was full of energy and lots of ideas, but no one asked me my opinions, and no one invited me to meetings.
So, after a few years, I called a meeting and people came. The meeting was so successful that I called another meeting a few weeks later and more people came. Then they started inviting me to their meetings, but first, I had to put forth the energy.
No one picked me—I picked myself. I learned early on that you would be surprised how many people and important people will come to your meetings if you serve good food.
Also, no one in 2015 picked or urged Donald Trump to run for president—he picked himself.
So, wake up conservatives, the vast majority of today’s Republican politicians are not up to the task of leading the Spiritual Civil War the left has launched.
Don’t wait for orders from headquarters. Don’t wait for me, Donald Trump, or your favorite politician. RUSH TO THE SOUND OF THE GUNS.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“Nationwide, more than 100 elected officials were recalled by voters or resigned from office in the face of recall votes last year. This is the highest number of public officials given the boot in more than a decade. In California, voters in Deep Blue San Francisco recalled their radical George Soros-backed district attorney and three members of the city school board.” – Stephen Moore, Unleash Prosperity
Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, publisher of Nevada News & Views, and founder of CampaignDoctor.com. You can sign up for his conservative, Nevada-focused e-newsletter at MuthsTruths.com. His views are his own.