As I read conservative media, I see a huge absence of content that would even remotely point the way that the average conservative Joe or Jane might engage with the civic dysfunction that’s going on around them. Maybe they don’t see that as their mission, very likely in fact, but I suspect that it’s because the writer’s mind comes up short on that topic. Sure, all politics is local, but my lifelong observation of local politics is that the crowd tend to be quite parochial, maybe because the crowd has felt disenfranchised for so long. With so many more people now interested, what can an individual practically do to re-engage with civic life?
Here is a list of things that you can do to engage as a conservative.
Be a poll worker: After the 2020 Presidential election scam, some have suggested that elections as we know them are over and we’re now of similar stature to corrupt nations that routinely rig every election. I’m not ready to concede that – yet. Certainly, some states and municipalities can now be dependably hijacked at will, yet our duty is to make sure that those precincts are localized into oblivion. We must own our own turf. Some anomalies of the 2020 election will not be easily repeatable in 2022, at least if conservatives beat down the doors of election administrations. I’m planning on it.
Know your representatives: This piece of stock advice has been around forever but ironically, it’s harder now. A summary web search will yield all of this information but so many people’s focus is just torn elsewhere. Facebook isn’t going to tell you! In the old days of a local newspaper universally read by all in a jurisdiction, civic news was at everyone’s fingertips. Those days are gone, so look it up and pin it to your refrigerator.
Start a small group: Seriously. You don’t need an incorporated organization to find others to create critical mass for your civic inclinations. Chose a beverage: tea, coffee, beer, bourbon. Meet informally over your choice of beverage to discuss how your county school board, your governor, you congressman is either burying you or leading the way. This can only lead to better things: another vote, another letter to the editor or congressman, or even tangible support for a candidate.
Network: After meeting your friends, cross pollinate with someone else’s small group or organization, compare notes.
Support $ a local candidate: This is a difficult thing for a lot of people that are inclined to think that money is the corruption of the whole system. It’s hard to find exceptions; nevertheless, unless you’re already inclined to be a power broker, start with the smallest donation to lowest office candidate being sought representing conservative values. Maybe it will be someone tied to your small group or network.
Write: Unfortunately, writing is a commodity that’s so not scarce anymore, particularly in the digital space, that it doesn’t have same effect that it used to. Your individual letter or Facebook may just be a grain of sand in many instances, and yet, together with a thousand others, or ten thousand, it will still make a difference. Numbers mean something.
Use spell check: Nobody is going to make perfect compositions but don’t be that one person that leaves an impression that your comment or letter was made by someone missing lots of teeth. And while you’re at it, don’t be the one that spouting personal threats and hateful innuendo. You earn an instant loser badge the moment you call someone ‘Hitler’. Leave that rhetoric to the loser left.
Don’t stay silent: It’s incumbent on all that value their freedom to stand up and speak. There’s a saying spoken by an early 20th century leftist activist, Rosa Luxemburg, that with great irony, is actually far more applicable to American conservatives today: “Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.” Doing nothing will assure your eventual and ultimate enslavement by dictatorial Progressive government.