The results of the senate election recount in Minnesota should leave no doubt in anyone's mind that we are engaged in an all out war for the heart, soul and future of this great nation.  Like so many others, I have felt frustrated and at times downright enraged as I watched the left operate under street fighting rules to advance their agenda while the right seems bound by gentleman's rules.  This can not continue.

However, I would not advocate stooping to the level of the left.  We do not need to lie, cheat, steal and otherwise debase ourselves to ultimately prevail, point of fact, I think that would hurt our cause more than aid it.  As in all such conflicts, a highly disciplined, professional fighting force will destroy a mob, no matter how impassioned.  For all the noise, bluster and technological savvy, the left's forces are more an energized rebel force than a disciplined, professional army.  Thus, our response should not be try and raise our own impassioned rebel force, but to build, from the ground up, a highly disciplined army which will fight these mobs with ruthless efficiency, but without engaging in the lowball tactics we've seen from the opposition.

How do we raise such an army?  After truly realizing who the enemy is, what they are truly after and how serious the challenge is, I think we must first come to a consensus on who we are.  Quite frankly, the success of the last quarter century has made the forces on the right, in particular our "leaders" intellectually fat and lazy.  We must articulate a vision of where we want to take the country.  It must encompass all aspects of the:  social, fiscal and defense.  If we can not articulate where we want to take the country and why it is the best vision for the country, how can we expect people to vote for our candidates and expend resources on our behalf.

After this, we need to develop a mobilization infrastructure which will enable our forces to bring the numbers needed to win confrontations wherever they erupt.  From a political party aspect, this means vastly strengthening the state parties and ESPECIALLY the county parties.  These need to be connecting people and providing a forum to exchange ideas, coordinate activities and keep informed on events important to the movement.  However, the movement is bigger than the party and grassroots organizations focused on issues should be coordinating and collaborating more effectively.  Some of the religious initiatives have done this fairly effectively, but could stand to be updated for the new century.

I'll expound on this more in a later post, but for now, suffice to say, this is a war and we need to be ready to fight it.  We should not, can not lower ourselves to the mob tactics of the left, but there is a vast difference in professional, respectful, Augustine ruthlessness in our fighting and the free shots we have been letting the opposition take in recent years.

Gargoyle