Winning more than one election at a time

(Great thoughts from CRNC executive director Ethan Eilon. -Patrick)

It wasn't the senior staffers to Barry Goldwaters 1964 campaign who would go on to change this party and this country.  They certainly did a great deal to set the stage, but in reality their greatest feat was to activate an army of young, engaged, thoughtful conservative activists. Young men and women who could think, who could execute, and who recognized the mission ahead.

As it stands, we are failing ourselves as a party for lack of investment in our own survival.  I'm the first to admit a bit of bias because of where i work but I think if we as a party want to pull things back together we need have a vibrant, engaged youth component.  When you look at the voter skews from 2004, 2006, and the disparity in primary results in 2008 one thing sticks out above all others. Younger generations are voting against the Republican brand.

We are very lucky, in my opinion, to have a candidate like Senator McCain, who has a strong enough personal brand to attract some of the people we would otherwise lose: but our congressional candidates rarely have that same appeal, and we as a party are certainly not guaranteed candidates of that ilk in the future.

We need to get very serious about making our brand more appealing to young voters, and to get young people bought into the overall concept of what this party is about: limited government and individual liberty.  This is not a hard sell, but when the Democrats and their affiliates are outspending us in the demographic by 25 to 1 we are going to have an uphill battle.

So what are some realistic solutions?

Short term:

• Get youth activists involved in your campaigns and organizations - Talk to College kids about your candidates/orgs and let them know about opportunities available.  Young people are attracted by other young people.  Show that your campaign is open to people of all ages, and that responsibility is doled out on merit not on longevity.
• Hunt where they eat - Use the mediums young people like, namely the internet.  Facebook and MySpace need to be more then afterthoughts, they need to be active, up to date portals for information and connection.

Long Term:

• Get some active young surrogates - We need young people out there speaking on behalf of the party--candidates and activists--talking about the message.
• Put out ideas on the issues young people are talking about - We have solutions to problems like college affordability, and healthcare, we have better ideas then the ones that are out there, but we don't do enough to package them for a youth audience.
• Get more input from the youth wing of the party, give them a bigger audience among party leaders and they will tell you what they need to make an impact.

Now, I'm not naive enough to suggest that we make these changes and all of a sudden we are going to win the 18-19 vote 80/20, but we don't need to.  We just need to not lose it by that margin, which is exactly what current trends, if left unchecked, will yield.

The Millennial generation is going to be the largest voting bloc in this country very soon.  We need to be ready with a solid pitch if we want to be competitive and that means message and messenger.  The CRNC is doing some great work, we are getting people engaged online, we are turning out serious bodies for GOTV operations, but this effort will have to coalesce from the bottom up just as much as from the top down.  It will need the conscious support of county party chairs on up, and the understanding of candidates and campaigns.

It's not easy, but long term we either invest today or lose tomorrow.