We came across a couple of anonymous posts on an online forum recently where someone laid out the steps they had been taking in their county to bring about real political change. Starting small, networking, organizing others and building on each little success had generated significant momentum and had opened up the prospects for state wide impact. While the thrust is very much election oriented, the same general principles apply to any effort to grow your own sphere of influence: be the change you want to see. This could be in anticipation of the 2024 election by gaining control of local bodies, by supporting candidates at the state level who share your values or by assembling a grass roots effort to monitor vote counting and help election integrity. More broadly, it could be building your own mutual assistance group, persuading your Sheriff to start a posse of volunteer support, or lobbying for a State Defense Force that is truly independent of the Department of Defense and properly funded.
We share the account here (lightly edited for context and grammar) to provide inspiration. Perhaps make it a New Year's Resolution.
A Guide to Anyone Feeling Frustrated and Helpless:
Step 1 - Pick a cause you are passionate about. This is about getting out the vote, registering people to vote and motivating them to do so. We can complain all we want about the Left's vote harvesting and the travesty of mail in ballots. But the reality is we must compete with them and beat them at this game.
Step 2 - Spend the time to be very well versed in that subject.
Step 3 - Connect with like minded individuals.
Step 4 - Set up a secure communications method. I used Signal because it prevents social media, cell providers or email companies from interfering with our communications. Friends of mine that took over another county is Kansas set up a Gmail account for their comms. It lasted 3 weeks before Google killed it for spreading misinformation.
Step 5 - Use your communications method to build a consensus and figure out a first target that is achievable and effective in winning. Maybe that's a city commission or school board or county commission seat.
Step 6 - Prevent nut jobs from creating "forum slide" by fixating on something unachievable or constantly voicing defeatist attitude.
Step 7 - Make sure you're 100% legal. The local democrats have twice tried to get me in legal trouble with the state agency that oversees Political Action Committees (PACs) but I was way ahead of them and they got nothing.
Step 8 - Expect to burn a lot of your own time and possibly money before people get fully on board.
Step 9 - Align with existing structures if you can. My group was able to join with/take over the county Republican Party as were 6 or 8 more across the state using identical tactics. For school boards I would suggest Moms for Liberty, The 1776 Project, No Left Turn in Education as three good ones.
Step 10 - If you're not going to be a candidate start finding candidates in your group. Make sure your candidates are really in line with your politics.
Step 11 - Get your candidates training by a qualified independent group. You can use party training if it exists (unlikely) but you have to make sure your candidates don't just become party robots.
Step 12 - Develop a plan to help your candidates win. That's acting as a PAC so you have to register with your state's regulatory agency and possibly with the feds. I'm not a lawyer so make sure you get it done right by either reading the law or having a smart lawyer in your group.
Step 13 - Get your candidates and other volunteers to go door knocking every spare minute they have. That is the single most effective method of securing votes. Saturday & Sunday from 1-6 PM are your best times. If you purchase or rent a political canvassing app you can mark which houses have been visited and can go back and hit missed houses later.
Step 14 - Have a daylight visible tablet with cell data connection set up to instantly register to vote those you speak to who are amenable. They can request a ballot by mail right while they sign up on your tablet right. It makes it much easier to secure a vote if you help them sign up.
Taking Over Your Political Party.
Step 1 - Your county is divided into numerous precincts. Mine has 56. Each precinct (in Kansas) has a man and a woman as committee member. Those precinct committee members are the voting members of the county party.
Step 2 - Visit your county clerk and get a list of all precincts in your county, who occupies them and who the county chairman/woman is. Many counties have a lot of unfilled seats.
Step 3 - If your precinct seat is not filled ask your county party chairman to appoint you and attend meetings to learn the lay of the political landscape. If your precinct is filled you can still attend the party meetings. If your precinct is filled decide if the person in that position is deserving of it. It is an elected position.
Step 4 - File in the next election for that precinct position. Contact the county clerk to find out when that is. I had already built a lot of name recognition so defeated the party secretary (and former chairman) 125-52.
Step 5 - While doing this use your precinct list to start filling other seats with like minded people.
Step 6 - You may have control of the party after a single election if you try.
Step 7 - Even as a single person call political candidates you like and offer to serve as the local or area point of contact for coordinating rallies and sign drop offs. If you run the party this will be even easier but campaigns are desperate for people that are even half competent.
Step 8 - Use your newfound power to continue to effect real influence on local politics.
COMMENT: I've had to delay or pass on a lot of workouts to do what I've done and that's affected my health. I'm fatter and physically weaker than I've been in years. Trying to fix that now but I made the conscious decision that unfucking local politics was more important than my ability to race bicycles or hike long distances.
Now I'm running for a state level party position that will have me involved in overseeing my quarter of the state (25 counties). I wonder what effect I can have in a year or two if I'm training the 25 counties in my district to be more aggressive.
I'm also in the process of creating a Signal discussion group for all conservative county party leaders in my state. Soon we'll all be able to collaborate and share methods and ideas. What effect can I have if I get 3/4 of the counties in the state on my side? I bet I can make it a lot better.
Because of my work I'm starting to get involved in helping re-write legislation to reduce the power of government officials. Imagine being in that room helping make those decisions on wording and doing so with the goal of reducing state power!
That's how and what you can do if you try.
If not school board then county or city commission. County and city zoning boards, planning boards, etc all usually have openings.
Here's a list of all the boards in my city that had open spots recently. Pick something you give a shit about and get involved.
• Human Relations Commission (Three-year term) – Chaired by a witch (really) the last I had heard. They push things like programs that draw more homeless to town.
• Sustainability Advisory Committee (Two-year term) - Lots of power for steering future initiatives and ways to spend tax money.
• Downtown Advisory Board (two-year term) – Grants, rent forgiveness, forgivable loans to businesses, future planning, business solicitation, tax exemptions, free utilities to businesses…
• Board of Zoning Appeals / Planning Commission (Three-year term) - Development and potential power on long term planning
• Building Code Board of Appeals/Building Trades Review Board (Three-year term) – Decides who to crack down on and, possibly, who to issue grants to for building renovation.
• Active Transportation Advisory Board (Four-year term) - Biking/walking
• Airport Advisory Board (Three-year term) -
• Farmers' Market Advisory Board (Three-year term) -
• Land Bank Board of Trustees (Three-year term) -
• Memorial Auditorium Advisory Board (Four-year term) -
• Parks & Recreation Advisory Board (Three-year term)
If you're a Veteran, join your local American Legion and/or Veterans of Foreign Wars, and become active in the organization(s). It's a great way to get to know your local politicians as well as your State & Federal level representatives.
Go from there.