Few conservatives will disagree that we have lost our voice in the public arena. This all began when we elected George W. Bush in 1999. President Bush promised a New Tone™ in Washington. He had worked successfully with both parties as the Governor of Texas, and would continue to do the same as the leader of our nation. He would eliminate the partisan bickering that always seems to accompany our political arena and finally be able to pull everyone together to lead our nation forward.

This idea never really had a chance, and many of us knew it wouldn’t work in the long term anyway. The election fiasco of 2000 in Florida put Bush on the wrong side of the media from the outset (selected, not elected), yet Bush was never able to adjust as he needed to. Good sports coaches adjust their strategy when they see the playing field has changed. Bush’s greatest strengths, his steadfastness, lack of micromanaging leaders under him, and compassion became his greatest weakness.

Over the course of the past eight years, our Republican leaders have relinquished their voice to the constant shrill of the mainstream media. Although there were a few bright spots along the way, including a few recently (SCHIP, Immigration Reform & Drill-Baby-Drill) the Democrats have owned the ears of the American people. Bush and our Republican leadership stood by and allowed us to be painted as bitter, old, fascist meddlers. Probably the greatest example of this is the recent success in the war in Iraq, and how we’ve been kept safe. Only a few voices such as conservative radio and the blogosphere have been talking about it, but it’s like trying to have a conversation at a rock concert. You can’t even hear yourself sometimes. We will never improve our situation unless our voice is heard.

To this end, I make the following recommendations. It starts at the top.

1. We need new leadership for the Republican National Committee. We need someone that can present our conservative ideas to the public in a way that they can understand. Small government. Fiscal and personal responsibility. Strong, but wise defense policies. This is what is important to the core of our nation. There is such a man that can do this. He ran in our Presidential primaries, but was unsuccessful mostly due to his inability to put together a functional campaign strategy. Most everyone agreed he had the best and right ideas to lead our nation forward, but simply wasn’t the person for that job. This man is Fred Dalton Thompson.

Sound-bites don’t work for him, but we don’t need sound-bites at the RNC. We need solid policy ideas, and a respected voice that can articulate them. This is the ground game, and Fred Thompson most definitely is the right man for this job.

1. We need new leadership in the House and Senate. I’ll be the first to agree that we’ve been our own worst enemy in Congress over the past eight years, and the current leaders inherited a good portion of this mess. That said, we’ve hired them to do a job, and while I was willing to let them slide in 2006, they had two years to stop the bleeding and were unable to do so. They’ve had no voice. It doesn’t matter that the MSM has been screaming liberal talking points all along. They know the lay of the land. They’ve got to find a way to get our voice out in such a way that people will hear it, or they need to get out of the way and let others give it a chance. What they’re doing now isn’t working.

I believe these are the men that can bring our voice back to the Capitol:

• Senator Jon Kyl (AZ)
• Senator John Cornyn (TX)
• Congressman Paul Ryan (WI-1)
• Congressman Eric Cantor (VA-4)

We can no longer allow the Democrat party to control the narrative. We have to be out there, in every way that we can telling the American people how our government should be. We need to emphasize the right policies, the ones that work. We need to respond quickly and succinctly to the lies and distortions of the left. Imagine if you will how differently this thing would’ve turned out if we’d been relentless in telling the American people about the looming financial crisis for the past eight years, and who was responsible.

We’ve got to have leaders that are willing to bypass the machine in Washington and take our case directly to the American people. There are media outlets that will cover this. The message can be put out there, if we can only find leaders that are willing to do it. Constantly. Relentlessly. Tirelessly.

Once we have this voice from the top, those of use working in the trenches can begin to work at the State and local level to bring up the grassroots support needed to bring this Country back to where it needs to be. Every great organization needs great leaders. We’ve been lacking that for several years, and it’s time to get them back again.

Night Twister