Earlier this week, I attended the Benton County BPOU’s precinct caucuses. To say that there was an electricity in the air is understatement. In 2004, 97 people attended the precinct caucuses. This year, 313 people voted in the straw poll.

The thing that excited me most was the massive influx of first time attenders. A significant portion of Mitt’s supporters and a majority of Rep. Paul’s supporters identified themselves as first time attendees.

From my perspective, the most significant thing about that is the energy they brought to the event. Frankly, it’s an energy that’s been lacking in the GOP this year. When I submitted a resolution on the healthcare constitutional amendment that the DFL will put on this November’s ballot, Paul’s supporters and Romney’s supporters vehemently disagreed with the notion of healthcare as a constitutional right. That’s the type of energy that we’ll need going forward, both toward the conventions and towards rebuilding the GOP from the ground up.

Earlier this week, Michelle Malkin wrote the conservative’s rallying cry. Here’s what I’m talking about:

Some on the right advise their readers and listeners to vote Democrat or sit home. My advice is exactly the opposite: Get off the couch and walk the walk for conservative candidates and officeholders who need all the help they can get defending free markets, free minds and secure borders, no matter who takes the White House in November.

Dissatisfied with the flawed crop of GOP candidates who lacked the energy, organizational skills and ideological strength to carry the conservative banner and ignite your passions? Then pay attention to the next generation of Republican state legislators who do vote consistently to lower your taxes, uphold the sanctity of life, defend marriage and cut government spending. Support their re-election bids. Reward them for standing with you, instead of their Democrat opponents and the liberal media.

AMEN, MICHELLE!!! In fact, I’d take it a step further. This should be our focus every election cycle. There’s an old saying that’s particularly applicable to conservative politics this year: If you aren’t moving forward, you’re falling behind. Tomorrow’s leaders come from today’s activists. If we want more reliable conservatives, then we need to start recruiting and grooming them early. Anything less is unacceptable. Simply put, we want a strong ‘farm team’.

There’s a model for this in professional sports. In the late 1940’s & early 1950’s, the NY Yankees were the best team in baseball. Sportswriters of that era said that the second best team in baseball was the Yankees’ Triple-A farm team.

Here’s the point: Our goal as conservatives shouldn’t just be to field the best ‘major league team’. Conservatives should also aspire to fielding the most loaded ‘farm system’, too. That means preaching Ronald Reagan’s gospel of liberty, prosperity and national security throughout the land.

It’s my belief that GOP politicians have misread election results. As a result, they retreated to unprincipled moderation when the Agenda Media told them that’s what voters were calling for. This fall, I said something pertinent to this discussion:

It’s important to remember that it wasn’t that people got fed up with low taxes, sensible spending priorities and a government that protected them from terrorists.

The same can be said about the principles that Ronald Reagan governed by. People didn’t tire of Reagan’s principles. It’s that voters believed that conservatives were abandoning those principles. That’s what drove them away.

We also heard campaign operatives say across the country that conservatives couldn’t carry certain districts. While that might’ve been true in a handful of districts nationwide, that certainly wasn’t my belief in a majority of so-called swing districts. When we started settling for unprincipled moderates, the GOP started its decline. The good news is that we can rebuild the GOP if we’re willing to work through things rather than stomping off the playing field in a fit of rage.

Several things are key in rebuilding the GOP into a principled majority party. It starts with a healthy respect for the Tenth Amendment. A government that is limited is a government that is most accountable.

Also key in the rebuilding of the GOP is a rallying to the principles of federalism. The quicker we sell that principle to voters, the sooner they’ll reject HillaryCare II and other similar initiatives. Once we win people over to that belief, then people will want as many of the decisions made as close to them as possible. Part of that discussion needs to be our explanation that local decisionmaking means less wasteful spending, thereby eliminating most tax increases. I’ll bet that voters will agree with that.

I also think that our repeated espousing of libertarian principles will appeal to people. Something that Reagan repeatedly proved is that people yearned for personal liberty. The sooner we get people singing from that songbook, the quicker we’ll rebuild the party.

If we walk away, however, the faster the GOP will devolve into being Democrat lite. I’m confident that people reading this post will agree that that isn’t the way to go.

It’s time we got the ship righted and the rebuilding process started.

Technorati: Activism, Precinct Caucuses, Federalism, Libertarianism, Conservatism, Ronald Reagan, Tenth Amendment, GOP, Election 2008

Cross-posted at California Conservative