Go Local

Like me, you are probably frustrated by the direction your country has taken, especially when it comes to politics. Ballooning budgets fuel an increasingly intrusive government, while the political process focuses on unimportant side issues. The liberal media and even more liberal President don’t even hide their zeal for statism any more.

Continuing to talk online with other right-minded people is necessary but not sufficient to make you an effective player in turning our country around. If all you do is talk online, you wil go one of three directions: 

  1. Become more and more bitter, turning away to go back to sleep
  2. Follow every new outrage and conspiracy theory, escalating into unusable radicalization
  3. Become cynical, looking to get yours while the getting’s good 

The way forward is through action. You must do something that requires you to move physically out of your comfort zone and engage in your local community.

Most readers probably are already doing that, but for those that aren’t, you are out of time to procrastinate. Perhaps 2012 wasn’t a loud enough message for you?

It’s a good time to join the local party of your choice. Joining a political party is something anyone can do, and is something every activist should do.  Whether you become involved in your party or not, you can work on a legislative issue, start a petition for a ballot initiative, or start meeting the people in your local area to build a team of activists.  

Your influence is strongest where you live. And, if they know you, your character and your involvement, they will listen to your message. Listening to them and their concerns is important, they must first believe you are on their side. How does your issue help them?Similarly, anything else you have in common with the people you are trying to influence will allow you to establish that you are on the same team in some way.

Included in going local is a powerful bit of leverage.  The more you work on local issues, the more anticipation you generate among the voters about their own next chance to do something. For a lot of them, that something will be voting.

Municipal elections pass by unnoticed, and only the most dedicated voters show up. Sometimes as few as a dozen people can swing the results of local election.

Heading into 2014, people who have voted in those off-cycle municipal elections are much more likely to vote in a primary. Primaries also generally have low turnout, yet since most areas are dominated by one party or another, the primary is the real election. Again, people who vote in a primary are more likely to vote in the general election.

Here is the leverage: every person you get to vote in a local, municipal election will be easier to get to vote in the general election. In addition, those local voters cast ballots in the local races and ballot initiatives you’re focusing on, but will also vote for conservative candidates all the way up the ballot.

We always said we were in this for the long haul. It wasn’t just about one election, we said. Now is our chance to prove it. 

And the best way to do that is to go local.