The Freedomist Expose' On Great Conservative Causes
We recongize the BEST ideas and efforts with
recommendations….
Bill Collier The American Freedomist
It says in Proverbs, “let another man praise you and not
yourself”, or something like that.
There are many conservative groups and causes out there, some of
which you may not even be familiar with. Some of them may be
nothing more than a guy or gal in their living room with a $7
server, as Ralph Benko quoted from Patrick Ruffini (READ Ralph’s
book for FREE, http://www.thewebstersdictionary.com/).
I have been privileged over the past 3 months to have met many
of the top conservative internet activists by phone or in person
and have been privy to some interesting meetings where individuals
shared their knowledge of best practices as well as their stories
and I have learned quite a bit about who these people and what they
are about.
The bottom line is that the conservative community is
waking up and shaping up, our leaders and friends, and
potential new leaders and friends, are coming to realize that while
we need to match what “the left” has done in terms of impact and
making the most of the internet, our approach is not going to be
the same. For instance, we are not going to rely on or ask for
millions of dollars from a few rich donors who may then have the
power to call the shots and we are not keen on a top-down approach
in which only a FEW at the top get all the power and
recognition.
The conservative community is self-organizing, even if it may
not be apparent to all of us, and we seem to be in a “Valley Forge”
moment. Our Von Steuben (he trained George Washington;s troops in
Valley Forge) is not one person: we are being trained by necessity
and by folks like Erick Erickson, Ralph Benko, Erik Telford, Eric
Odom, Chad Everson, Paul Collier, Emily Zanotti, Scott Graves, Neil
Stevens, Stephanie Davis, Patrick Ruffini, Robert Bluey, and the
list goes on.
What you may want to know, as a conservative, is WHAT IS OUT
THERE…..
What is out there?
Most of us don’t just focus on one thing, many of us have our
OWN thing, be that a blog, a newspaper, a BlogTalkRadio show, or
group or project of some kind. In addition to our own thing, we
often get involved in other blogs, groups, and projects.
The purpose of my “Diary” on Red State is going to be to
promote YOU, your blogs, projects and groups, by telling
my readers, not only here but on my other blogs and groups, about
who you are, what you are doing, how and why you are doing it, and
how and where others can get involved.
You can GET MY ATTENTION by writing to me at
bill@freedomist.org and giving me your contact information. I only
write about blogs and organizations if I have spoken to the owner
or one of the key leaders in person or on the phone. I am a big
believer in person to person connections and before I can recommend
anything or anyone I want to know WHO they are. My PUBLIC business
line is 717 503 1645. Please leave a message and please call during
business hours (9-5)remembering I live on the EAST COAST.
Here is a partial list of some of the groups, blogs, and
etc. that I am “tee’ing up” to write about:
The Dontgo Movement-
Eric Odoam Americans
For Prosperity- Erik Telford The Samuel Adams Alliance-
Samsphere- Emily Zanotti Keystone Conservative-
Ethen Demme The
Project Meridian Foundation- Nathan Wilson The Websters
Dictionary- Ralph Benko The Grizzly Groundswell- Chad
Everson Fort Hard Knox- Jenn
Sierra Red County- Scot
Graves Michigan Taxes Too Much- Jason Gillman Sr. RedState (of course)- Erick Erickson
BlogtalkRadio
Heading Right- Elizabeth Blackney Crystal Clear
Conservative- Crystal Weeks The Blackstone Report- Dean
Chambers
What am I up to, you might ask?
My specialty is not technical, it is PEOPLE; making connections,
building networks, and getting things DONE. I don’t care who does
it or who gets credit for it, I care that the job gets done.
What JOB is that?
The real JOB we need to do is:
-
Create news sites and investigative articles that uncover
connections, causes, and potential effects and THEN get this vital
news past the media filter through mutual promotion and other
methods -
Create information networks that offer articles and news to
other news blogs, that can coordinate information and Intel
Gathering, and that can support online publications -
Create effective networks of people who connect online, by
phone, and in person not only for political action and cooperation
with with other groups, but to share ideas and best practices and
for fun, interesting, and entertaining social interaction -
SHADOW the politicians, the media, corporations, and
organizations and HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE to the standards of
freedom, justice, the Constitution, and the public interest -
Encourage and SUPPORT local people in their efforts to apply our
conservative values (limited government, individual sovereignty, a
free market, a strong national defense) to LOCAL issues and
encourage local people to gain control over their local political
party at the precinct level -
Encourage and support multimedia newspapers that are
locally-focused in small communities or smaller neighborhoods
within major cities that act as a WacthDog, Advocate, and Resource
and thereby EARN permission by local readers to PERSUADE them (I
call this “Street Level Information WAR.” -
Continue to encourage meetings, by phone conference and in
person, amongst conservatives who are engaged in the above
activities and seek ways to support and help one another while
encourage NEW people with new ideas and different approaches to
step up, provide mentoring and assistance by the more established
activists to the new people
My own “dream” is to create a Christian
Fraternal Society that takes the idea of a “church” as a worship
center and transforms it into a Church as a Community Center with a
strong emphasis on evangelism, holiness, mutual support, assurance,
and accountability, biblical literacy, participatory worship, being
the salt of the earth, and occupying whatever SPACE we have an
opportunity to occupy (including political, social, cultural, and
economic space).
As for groups I am not a leader within but I support,
these include Sampshere, DONTGO, and Americans For
Prosperity. I believe these three groups are “others focused” in
that they SUPPORT and improve LOTS of other writers, bloggers, and
groups and they have a simple but effective PLAN that WILL
WORK!
My present focus is on a project I am presently seeking
collaboration on, which is a project I am doing with my twin
brother, Paul Collier: “The American Freedomist Movement.”
The AFM has three main elements-
The American Freedomist Network- this includes
American Freedomist Radio and the purpose is to connect writers,
media teams, promotions teams, and the like to develop a support
network that will mentor and aid local multimedia newspapers that
can then connect to the AFN as well as other information networks
like The Grizzly Groundswell or DONTGO, sharing information and
using their information.
The American Freedomist- this multimedia
national daily newspaper is evolving out of our “blog”, The Freedomist BLOGand will
include “sections” such as News Scope for international
intelligence, Midnight In America for US Political Intelligence,
The Upadarian (you-pah-dare-ee-an) Voice for Christian news, bible
studies, and article on creating Christian community, the 57th
State for commentary on US politics, and STATE Digests for each
state as we add State Publishers.
The Freedom Congress- this is real simple: we
are going to SHADOW elected officials at the Federal Level and
organize people around “State Town Meetings” run by a “Shadow
Governor” to act as Shadow Delegates (Senators and House
members)and to vote on Instructions, Remonstrances, and Queries
which the “Freedomist Party USA” (a Non-Party Party) will hand
deliver to Washington DC. Our initial GOAL is to recruit at least
100 TOWN MEETING members per Congressional District plus at least
500 in “vulnerable” districts where a few votes can change an
election outcome. JOIN the
Congress HERE
NOTE: The American Freedomist Movement is not a conservative
only movement, it is focused more narrowly on structural issues
aimed at transferring power from “Washington and Wall Street” to
individuals, private associations, and human scale communities so
that 80% of everything that happens locally is decided by local
people for local people through direct participation. I am
also a founding member of Field of Dreams Communities, a network of
over 1,000 online clubs, groups, and etc. on Yahoo, MSN, Google,
and now, as we move these groups, NING. This network has been
around since 1999 and was founded by John Graham, a former General
Manager for Minor League Baseball Teams (the field in Bull Durham
is the field of his first team).
Of all of my projects, the Freedom Congress is both the most
important and the one that I would ultimately like to see be
“owned” by a group of collaborators as well as its members.
KEEP coming back to this diary for more updates on all the great
developments in the “rightosphere”. Also, look here for
announcements about interviews with the leaders of these awesome
efforts where you will have a chance to CALL IN with your own
questions.
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