Whether the Democrats call themselves liberals, progressives, or socialists, they are fast moving America towards the darkness of Marxism/communism.
Sound unrealistic? It’s been said many times by communists that “the goal of socialism is communism.”
So why are most national, state, and local conservative leaders AWOL in the Spiritual Civil War raging in America? The Democrats have so much energy, at times it seems you can almost cut it with a knife—not so with most conservative leaders.
The motto of the Catholic charity The Christophers is, “Don’t Curse the Darkness, Light a Candle.” In recent decades, conservatives have been good at cursing the darkness of the Democrats’ ideas, policies, and programs but have failed at effectively opposing them.
My friend Kevin Gentry, vice president of Stand Together, said to me, “The lack of experimentation and risk-taking is maddening. Have our folks lost the will to win?”
One afternoon a few years ago, I was ranting to Kathleen Patten, president and CEO of our company American Target Advertising, about how badly conservatives are losing, and how the Left is not only winning but is gaining ground and leaving us behind. Kathleen said to me, “Most conservative leaders have low energy.”
Wow, I thought, that’s it—most conservative leaders lack the energy of the Left.
In 2019, I was in a meeting with about 18 national conservative leaders, and I made this exact point about “lack of energy by conservative leaders.” The president of one of our very best organizations joined in and agreed with me. He said that he had only been able to identify about 12 national conservatives who had high energy. Later, I did my own list, and I could only get up to about nine or 10, not 12.
Those who oppose liberty (Democrats) are winning, not by the superiority or success of their ideas, policies, or programs, but by the weakness of Republican politicians and the inactions of conservative leaders.
America is about half Democrat and half Republican, so how can we be losing so badly to ideas, policies, and programs that have always failed? Why is half of America voting for socialist/Marxist candidates? Is socialism/communism more appealing than liberty/freedom?
There are a number of reasons, one of which is that the Left, for over 100 years, has had a plan and an agenda, and conservatives have not.
There’s an old saying that the person with a plan, an agenda, and limited resources will accomplish far more than the person with greater resources who has no plan, no agenda, and acts intermittently.
Since the early 1900s, the Left has had a plan, and they are working their plan. They won the cultural war years ago—today the hard Left controls all of the commanding heights. The leadership of every major institution in America is arrayed against conservatives, including Big Media, Big Tech, Hollywood, entertainment, national radio and TV, the nonprofit community, the legal community, higher education, lower education, Big Business, Wall Street, unions, organized religion, and of course the massive bureaucracy of government, including the Justice Department, IRS, the military, the FBI, and the CIA.
Because there are a number of reasons we are losing—and I can’t cover them all in this book—due to my expertise in marketing, I’m going to focus on marketing as one of the major reasons and explain how we can reverse the move of America towards Marxism and move America back to the ideas brilliantly stated by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence.
About every six weeks I write a marketing memo that I send to ten thousand conservative leaders, marketers, activists, and major donors, with advice, suggestions, and recommendations about how to grow conservative organizations, launch new ones, raise more money, acquire more supporters, BRAND themselves and Democrats, become more effective, and govern America.
After four years of writing the memos, I’ve seen very little growth in the conservative movement, but I see a lot of continuing growth and energy on the Left. So, I decided to put my ideas, suggestions, advice, and recommendations into a book that will be available to all conservatives.
Hopefully, many good things will happen as a result of this book, including . . .
conservatives (mostly under age 40) will launch 20,000 new single-issue nonprofits,
hundreds of thousands of conservatives will volunteer to help these new organizations with leadership and significant financial support and/or help in whatever way they can,
leaders of existing conservative organizations will be encouraged to significantly grow their nonprofits—some by 100%, others by 1,000%,
members of boards of directors of conservative nonprofits and major donors will pressure their organization’s leadership to sow bountifully in order to reap bountifully, and if not, to replace them with high-energy, effective leadership,
many conservative leaders and candidates for public office will learn how to market their organizations and themselves better, build a large team of supporters, raise lots of money, BRAND themselves and the Democrats, and win.
Soon after I launched the world’s first ideological/political direct mail/direct marketing agency in January 1965, conservatives quickly and quietly began to dominate grassroots marketing. That continued through most of the 1980s, not only through my agency but also as some of our executives went out to start new organizations or their own agencies.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, most of the Left ignored grassroots marketing and relied on unions, foundations, and the government (taxpayers) as their primary source of money. However, today the Left dominates grassroots marketing, so much so that conservatives are not competitive.
In the last eight presidential election cycles (1992–2020) the GOP received less than 50% of the popular vote in every election, except one (2004).
Since Trump’s presidency in 2017, the Left annually raises about 700% more money than conservatives ($21+ billion vs. $3–4 billion) for their ideological organizations from about 700% more donors (21+ million vs. 3–4 million).
Consider these examples:
The Democrats Have Left Conservatives Far Behind in Grassroots Marketing
From July 2016 to June 2017, Planned Parenthood added 1.3 million new donors to their file (Planned Parenthood 2016-2017 Annual Report, p. 17). Know any pro-life organizations with even 100,000 new donors in the last 12 months? Me neither.
The ACLU raised $93 million online in the first 12 months after Trump was elected president vs. $5.5 million the 12 months before (Politico, “ACLU to Storm 2018 Midterms,” Jan. 6, 2018).
ActBlue, in the 2019–20 presidential election cycle, had 13.4 million people who gave them their credit card information to make quick and easy donations to liberal candidates and causes. ActBlue, in the 2019–20 presidential election cycle, raised $4,318,377,981 (that’s billions) (Actblue.com, “Billions raised online since 2004”; OpenSecrets.com, “ActBlue 2019-2020 Cycle).
In 2019, all Democrats running for the Virginia House of Delegates and the State Senate had 274,000 donations of $200 or less—all Republicans had 19,000. Any wonder why the GOP lost the Virginia House of Delegates and the State Senate in that election (Virginia Public Access Project)?
I estimate the Left has about 20,000 single-issue nonprofits, and conservatives have about 1,000–2,000 (Progressive-sites.net; SourceWatch.com; Wiki list of Progressive Organizations/Conservative Organizations). Every nonprofit needs a president, vice president, secretary/treasurer, fundraiser, director of membership, media, events, etc., which provides the 20,000 liberal organizations with a massive leadership pool. From this pool of 100,000+ activists/leaders come future Democrat candidates for city council, mayor, state legislature, Congress, etc. Remember, Barack Obama’s job description before running for the U.S. Senate in 2004 was “Community Organizer.”
At age 88 (born September 23, 1933), I still work/focus 12–13 hours a day, five and a half days a week (never on Sunday). I don’t personally know anyone at any age who keeps up with me.
I’ve been blessed with good health and enjoy what I do. I’m at the top of my game—I’ve never been better—I’m a better marketer today than at age 80 and significantly better than when I was 70.
I try to follow, and I urge you to do the same, Jesus’s instructions: “When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required” —Luke 12:48 (NLT), and
“He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” —2 Corinthians 9:6 (NKJV).
The Lord is telling us that we have an obligation to be bold in order to have a big harvest. God has entrusted us with His blessings of Liberty. Are you doing what you need to do to be a good steward of these blessings of Liberty?
Saint Paul said, “We have different gifts . . . if your gift is . . . teaching then teach . . . if it is to lead, do it diligently” —Romans 12:6–8 (NIV).
I’m going to be bold and paraphrase Saint Paul and say: If you have the gift of teaching, then be a great teacher. If your gift is leading, then be a great leader. If your gift is supporting a leader, then be a great supporter. If your gift is writing, then be a great writer. If your gift is working in development and asking for major gifts, then be the best.
With this introduction, I hope you’re encouraged to read on and see where you can best apply your talents—keeping in mind Christ’s last words on earth as He ascended into heaven, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations . . . ” —Matthew 28:19 (KJV).
Free Speech
conservative leadership
conservative grassroots organization
political marketing
branding
political fundraising
issue advocacy