Questing for Atlantis

In spite of the initial despair this election is hardly the end of the world for the center right. In fact it’s probably a golden opportunity.

Over the past 8 years, perhaps even the past 10, the Republican party and the center right has lost its way – and now its going to be spending some time in the wilderness as a result.

And that’s why this is the perfect time to rebuild. America is still center right – voters supported Obama because he said he was a tax cutting, education reforming, pro-gun guy, not because he advocated a left-wing agenda (even SHU College Democrat President agrees on this).

The true center right just needs to reform itself. That’s why where to go from here has been the top discussion of bloggers and activists like Patrick Ruffini, Soren Dayton, Jon Henke, and Matt Moon. This discussion is forming around 2 key points: “What happened?” and “How do we fix it?”.

There’s a general consensus that a large part of the problem was so-called conservatives abandoning principles to support government expansions, out of control, spending, curtailment of civil liberties, and of course, the $700 billion bailout.

But that wasn’t the only problem. The right was heavily outgunned in infrastructure, both out in the field by the 50 state strategy and online with the Obama campaigns innovative use of Web 2.0 tools.

The right was massively behind the ball on this. It failed to see the importance of these changes and ran a traditional campaign while the left innovated and proceeded to raise unprecedented amounts of money, build a huge army of grassroots activists, and make historically safe races competitive.

Action is already happening to bring about some much needed change in the center right movement. At the top rising stars of the GOP are challenging the current leadership for control of the party.

Most of these, like Rep. Paul Ryan, who may run for House Minority Leader, and Rep. Mike Pence, running for conference chair, have well-established free market principles and are young and charismatic.

Meanwhile change is springing up from the grassroots as well. Much of Rep. Ron Paul’s netroots support has transitioned to his Campaign for Liberty. And Patrick Ruffini is part of a coalition that launched RebuildTheParty.com.

This site proposes an aggressive campaign of party reform designed to rectify both structural disadvantages. It features several key areas of development: the Internet, changing how the party is run, and recruiting new candidates.

On the internet the plan calls for recruiting 5 million new online activists, holding campaigns and local parties accountable for online outreach efforts, and opening up the technology ecosystem of the right, introducing some much needed free market competition in the right’s web platforms.

Concerning changing how the party is run the plan suggests rebuilding the grassroots infrastructure, building a new fundraising model, recruiting a 25,000-strong Nationwide Campaign Force, and reorganizing the RNC to integrate the web at all levels, from the Chairman on down.

Finally the plan offers a set of points to improve on recruitment. There is a 435 state strategy, focusing on forcing the left to compete in every race, a call for the RNC to push state chairs to ensure there are center right candidates in every race, and most innovatively, a “40 Under 40” initiative.

This last proposal would help undue the damage McCain’s age did to the center right with the youth vote (Obama did twice as well with young voters as Kerry) and remind people that the center right, with its embrace of free market, pro-liberty principles is the true way of the future.

The House GOP leadership realignment and initiatives like Rebuild The Party and the Campaign for Liberty are exactly the steps the center right needs to be taking at this point.

They will help redefine the movement so that it can compete with the Left. The new infrastructure will help close the money and manpower gap, while a reassessment of principles will result in a clear narrative of what the center right stands for.

The only question is how quickly these changes can take effect, and what the damage will be until then.