It was a good week marketing "the movement."
Monday started with a (biased) portrayal of our RI Stimulus project (see ProJo article and response letter below).
Wednesday was an interview on ABC 6 news and Thursday I spoke with Buddy Ciancy on WPRO. But Wednesday night, getting home in time to watch the news with the kids (they are 7, 5 and 2 so they still get a kick out of it), I noticed something: During the 5:00 news, both OSPRI and the RI Tea Party were featured.
In the recent history of Rhode Island, when was the last time you noticed two "center-right" oriented groups on the same network news station in a favorable light? I call this market penetration.
If you think of the political left as Pepsi, and us as Coke, you could say we are expanding our shelf space.
Don't call me a Pollyanna just yet, but I think the silent majority is speaking up. All we have to do is continue to do our thing, and recognition comes. Look at what happened when the Bristol Parade Committee tried to stop the RI Tea Party from doing their thing.
And this brings me to another point (I know I sound like a broken record about this): the importance of establishing a network of capacities that coordinate strategies on mutual goals.
These capacities are:
Intellectual ammunition (501 C3s) - you need the facts to make your point.
Advocacy capacity (501 C4s) - grassroot organization that have the legal capacity to advocate for legislation and the manpower to make a statement at the State House.
Political capacity (PACs) - the financial muscle to support and oppose politicians.
Farm system - an organized training ground for upcoming politicians.
New Media - blogs, social networking, and the capacity to answer traditional media when misinformation is presented.
Investigations capacity - unbiased investigation into government waste and corruption.
Litigation capacity - Think of an ACLU for the "center-right" causes!
Rhode Island doesn't have all of the pieces of this puzzle, yet, but we have more than you think. We have some disadvantages. We don't get union dues to fund our rallying activities and we don't have state colleges providing us office space, interns and other overhead. But we do have numbers and the "right" ideas.
I don't expect to see two good government groups on the same news broadcast every night, but if all groups lean on each other, we can awaken the giant that is the silent majority and take back our state. I just thought I would share this story so you can feel good about what's happening in Rhode Island (for a change).
Onward and upward,
