If you haven’t had a chance to listen to Saturday’s Grizzly Fest, it’s worth your while to listen to it here. Sarah Palin supporters are finding their way forward after her decision not to run for the presidency. Roderic Deane and Nicole Coulter co-hosted the broadcast which focused on organizing for the year ahead. The push will be on to get common sense Constitutional conservatives elected to Congress. Sarah Palin, who was instrumental in helping get candidates elected in the 2010 midterms, will once again be active in getting more elected in 2012. The program was broken up into three segments with three sets of panelists who discussed various aspects of the future of the Palin movement.
From GrizzlyFest.com:
Panel 1: Success of the Movement So Far – 2-3 p.m. ETThe Palin army remains a well networked force for change in America. Even though Sarah Palin is not running, the group is sticking together in order to move forward with the work necessary to save the country. The values, the ideas and the political philosophies of the people who came into the Palin movement were already there. Without a leader to rally around, many have been wandering leaderless in the wilderness since Ronald Reagan left the national stage. As Tammy Bruce said, “each of us became Ronald Reagan” after his passing.
Tammy Bruce, conservativeradio host and author
Jedediah Bila, conservative columnist and author
Josh Painter – blogger, creator of Texans for Sarah Palin
Tami Nantz – blogger outreach coordinator of Smart Girl Politics, founder of Moms4SarahPalin
This panel will discuss the historic nature of the Palin movement, both in the blogosphere and in organizing, and the impact Palin supporters had on the historic 2010 midterms. Plus, what potential we have to make a difference in 2012.
Panel 2: The Restoration Agenda – 3-4 p.m. ET
Steve Bannon, film producer and radio host
Jackie Siciliano, coordinator of Team Sarah
Stacy Drake, editor at Conservatives4Palin
Whitney Zahnd, Illinois O4P coordinator, blogger, and part of the Central Illinois 9/12 Project
This panel will identify the main themes we relate to as Palin supporters, and how we can continue to make these issues front and center going forward in 2012 and beyond.
Panel 3: Future of the Grassroots Movement 4-5 p.m. ET
Peter Singleton, Iowa O4P coordinator
Janne Myrdal, North Dakota Tea Party Caucus
Thomas Schmitz, California O4P coordinator
Kristen Hendershot – Alaska resident, O4P coordinator
This panel will discuss the “boots on the ground” aspect of the Palin movement, and how we can continue to deploy for good causes.
We didn't know each other before Governor Palin was chosen to be John McCain’s running mate. This writer remembers the weeks prior to his announcement of her. It was a dismal time. Coming to grips with a GOP presidential nominee who was speaking over the crickets at his sparsely attended rallies in the face of the impending socialist onslaught which the Obama campaign represented was probably the lowlight of my political life.
In the days leading up to McCain’s announcement, this blogger was having conversations with his friends about the end of America as we knew it and about the end of conservatism as a major political force. As bad as things are now – and as depressing it is to consider that Sarah Palin will not be president in 2012 – it is still better than it was then. There is a future ahead of us because Sarah Palin reignited the conservative movement and the army that formed from her inspiration is a political phenomenon that one rarely sees in American politics.
In the past three years, I have raised one question a number of times. Is it 1964 or is it 1976? The answer is obvious. It’s 1964. What Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan did for the conservative movement in 1964 was done again in 2008 by Sarah Palin. She, as Reagan did, took a dying brand of conservative and revived it. She renewed it, and now we are on the process of restoring it.
This restoration now falls on our shoulders. Because Sarah Palin was nominated to run as VP, we all met. Since 2008, we have all become politically active – many of us for the first time. The internet exploded with pro-Palin and conservative blogs and websites. I spoke with Jedediah Bila for the first time as a result of a BlogTalk Radio show that April Liesel was doing at the time. I was invited to be on another show and that’s how I met Thomas S. Schmitz. These people inspired me to start my own BlogTalk Radio show and it was my honor to have had all three of these people on as guests.
Roderic Deane had me on his show. I’ve been on Dr. Gina Loudon’s show and she has been on mine. I’ve had Ron Devito, Stacy Drake, Whitney Pitcher, Adrienne Ross and Jackie Siciliano as guests. I could go on and on, but the point is that all of us have had the same experiences. We have gotten to know each other through our devotion to the ideals of Sarah Palin and because of our participation in the Palin movement.
It brings me back to the “old days” at Team Sarah where I would correspond with Thomas S. Schmitz, Ron Devito, Adrienne Ross and so many others. During the height of the smear campaign against Sarah Palin, we got most of our information from each other. Rather than take mainstream media accounts of the lies, rumors and innuendo at face value, we researched. We looked deeply into the smears and found clear cut facts that showed how false and misleading they were.
Conservatives4Palin became an instrumental site in debunking the lies and the myths of the anti-Palin movement. While the Left was concentrating on why Sarah Palin couldn’t be president, we were out there exposing them as the lying sacks they are. We’ve taken on many established journalists and media personalities and their credibility has suffered for it. Yes, we – a rag tag army of volunteers, many of whom were not professional journalists – destroyed Pullitzer prize winners and other highly recognized journalists who chose to toss their journalistic integrity aside in order to defecate all over themselves out of fear that Palin might actually become president.
We stood tall. We were the Patriot missiles of the blogosphere. Palin smears were being shot down left and right. There were many days when Politico would post their daily hit on Palin in the morning and by early afternoon it was debunked on Conservatives4Palin and blogs across the Palinosphere.
Josh Painter’s Texans for Sarah Palin was also a big go-to site. His Quotes of the Day posts were instrumental in keeping all of us Palinistas informed about what we were all writing and saying about her. So many ideas came from our interaction with each other. It was there we were able to see what was being said and written about Governor Palin. If you wanted links to truthful articles and posts about her, you went to Texans for Sarah Palin.
The numerous blog posts and articles coming from our side washed out and pushed back all the hit pieces. Without us, the internet would have been filled with lies about Sarah Palin with no rebuttal. It was on Team Sarah that I met Gary P. Jackson who publishes A Time For Choosing. His readers would hit the comment boards on articles about Sarah Palin to correct the record. It was war with the Left and the media. The Leftists were rumored to have been paying bloggers to leave negative comments about Palin on articles. We were real people, defending her for free.
All of this work does not go for naught just because Governor Palin is not running. Today, the movement is strong. There is no reason for it to stop working toward fixing America's problems.We can't just pack up and go home now. It's time to move forward and finish the job. Governor Palin needs to know that although we are greatly disappointed by her decision, we respect it. She also needs to know that if we continue with our work, we want her to consider running in the future. We will continue to fight for the ideals that she represents with a suddenness and relentlessness that will be necessary to bring about the needed reform.
In the third segment of the Grizzly Fest broadcast, the panelists addressed the future of the grassroots movement. The segment started off with a call to Sarah Palin's brother, Chuck Heath, who spoke about campaigning for candidates in 2012. The panel discussion was moderated by Peter Singleton. The discussion was geared toward what Organize4Palin will be doing going forward.
Peter Singleton nailed the whole thing when he said this:
We have formidable adversaries - the left, the media and the crony capitalists. They all work together. They are all opposed to our core values of free markets, constitutionally limited government and individual liberty. However, the vast majority of the American people agree with us on the issues. Despite the fact that we are the majority of the American people, we could never establish an enduring electoral coalition that can restore the balance between the government and the people that the founders envisioned.
As I see it, there are three reasons for that. First of all, the Republican Party stands for Constitutional conservative values and has a great platform. Much of the Republican establishment does not and it appears to be aligned with the other side... Second, the mainstream media has immense influence in shaping voters' views. Third, on the practical sense, the Left has much better voter data bases and data bases on their activists, and they have mobilized their much smaller percentage of the population vastly better than we have mobilized our much larger share.
We all know that our country is in grave peril and that we are at a tipping point economically, politically [and] socially. That's not the bad news. The bad news is the left and the crony capitalists - who work together by the way - have a playbook they're working off of and they're planning to take advantage of this looming crisis. And, we must mobilize. This is a call to action. We must mobilize and now or lose our freedoms and lose those freedoms forever.
Janne Myrdal talked about the power of one. Kristen Hendershot talked about traveling and being politically active. Thomas S. Schmitz talked about how the world is changing and how we don't live in a top down movement anymore. He talked about it as being a bottom up world now. He pointed out that whoever has the strongest ground team wins. "We're the real leaders," he said.
America is not going to be restored by the faculty lounges at Harvard, Princeton and Yale. America's not going to be restored by the permanent political class; its not going to be restored by panels of experts and entrenched out of touch party machines. America is going to be restored by people listening to this show.Schmitz talked about building the the ultimate ground team to affect elections. Emphasizing "boots on the ground" and "fingers on the keyboard," he encouraged listeners that we have to be empowered, confident, bold and prepared for action. He said it was important that we be an engaged citizenry.
Dr. Gina Loudon came on at end of show. "Conservatives never had the verbiage to define the narrative." she said. "That is what Sarah has led on and that as what the governor has really become a beacon for in this country. That is what all of us continue to be a part of."
As we move forward, the Palin movement can continue to be a strong advocate for pushing the Republican Party back to its platform and holding their feet to the fire. Defeating the forces of socialism and crony capitalism is the calling for those of us who want to fix the Republican Party and fix the nation.
Listen to Patrick's World USA tonight at 11pm ET 8pm PT on Blogtalk Radio. My guest is Thomas S. Schmitz who was a panelist on Grizzly Fest.
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