I encountered a man that was attending a training of ours in Russell, KS last evening.  After the training was over he came up to us and began chatting and sharing stories, and one story in particular really inspired me.  He talked about his experience last year when he attended the March on D.C.  He was explaining what an amazing experience it was for him and how blessed he felt to be a part of the movement – something bigger than himself.  He then went on to mention how shocked he was that when it was over and most everyone had cleared out, the streets were nearly spotless. He was blown away at how respectful everyone in attendance was towards their capitol.  However, there were a few signs on the ground and one in particular that had blown through a fence into the capitol building area that was off limits to the public.  He went up to the guard that was standing outside the fence and asked, “May I go pick up that sign so I can throw it away?”  The guard answered, “No.”  “Well, do you think maybe you could go grab it for me?  I would hate to think that my group was responsible for littering on the capitol,” the man said.  “Not my job” replied the guard.  The man was stunned and then said, “Well this is my capitol and I want to treat it with respect, so please sir, may I just climb through real quick and retrieve the sign?”  Finally the guard allowed him to do so.  This little exchange, though not a huge ordeal, really says a great deal about this man and people in attendance at the march.  It also says a great about the attitude that so many people seem to be taking nowadays.

When he told me this story, I was reminded of a poster that I once saw.  The poster is meant to demonstrate an instance in which a road-worker, instead of taking the initiative to move some road kill out of the middle of the road in order to paint, just painted right over it because it “wasn’t his job.”  However humorous the poster may be, it sends a scary message.  What would this country be like if everyone took the “not my job” approach that the capitol guard and the road-worker so willingly did?  There are many people who do; however, I am extremely thankful that there are citizens out there like the man at our training in Russell who understand that there are some things that you do because it is your duty as a citizen – it’s your job.

If you are a citizen of this great nation and enjoy the rights and freedoms granted to you in the United States Constitution, then it is your job.  It’s your job to hold your representatives accountable.  It’s your job to vote and to encourage others to vote as well.  It’s your job to educate those who may not be informed on important issues.  It’s your job to help candidates whom you believe in get elected.  And it’s your job to step up when there is a need for a liberty minded individual to emerge and run for office.

It is so refreshing and so motivating to see more and more citizens that understand how important it is to take the initiative when they see a problem in this country and make it their job to fix it.  The more active citizens that emerge, like the man I came across in Russell, the closer we will be to getting this country back on the track that our founding fathers intended it to go.

Why is it that the liberty movement been so appealing to so many?  One reason is that people are finding it more and more difficult to hold their elected officials accountable.  But why has this become so difficult to do?  In my opinion, it is because many elected officials no longer make it a priority to serve their communities and instead care more about serving themselves.

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few years studying the concept of servant leadership.  For those of you who have not been introduced to this relatively simple yet extremely effective leadership theory, let me give you a little background: servant leadership is a philosophy and concept coined by a man named Robert Greenleaf.  The theory suggests that leaders should be servants to their constituents above all else.  Servant leaders are often seen as humble stewards of their cause.  The idea is that they serve the people that make it possible for them to lead.  Servant leaders are also expected to live by the values and guidelines that they profess to believe in.

Does this description remind you of what you are seeing out of most of your elected officials?  I didn’t think so.  Imagine what our nation would be like if all elected officials had the interests of their constituents at heart and made it a priority to serve them.

One of my favorite examples of a true servant leader is General George S. Patton.  Though not an elected leader, General Patton was one of the most respected leaders of his time.  Porter B. Williamson, a soldier in the I Armed Corps who served under General Patton was quoted as saying, “No man served under General Patton; he was always serving with us”.  I believe this is how every constituent should feel about those they elect to represent them.  We should feel as though our elected representatives are in the fight for liberty right beside us.

General Patton was also known for listening to the concerns of his soldiers and trusted what they had to say.  He believed that if he trusted the troops, they would trust him as well.  And he fully trusted them because they were the ones doing all of the work and, therefore, knew the most about it.  However, currently many people no longer trust their elected officials because those that are elected tend to feel that they know what is best, and don’t listen to or place trust in the opinions of their constituents. Elected officials should trust citizens that are actively engaged in the fight for liberty and they will find that their constituents will begin to trust them.

Patton was also known for talking with men of all ranks.  Williamson said, “No man was so dirty or greasy that General Patton would decline a handshake from him and he was always the first to salute a man even before they saluted him.”  Just as General Patton humbled himself to make it known to his constituents that he was not “above” them, so should those whom we elect to represent us.

I’m not saying that if everyone did things the way General Patton did the world would be a better place.  However, he serves as a great example of somebody who understood what it meant to be a servant leader.  A leader gets his/her legitimacy from those he/she leads.  Leaders should make it a priority to serve those people, or they will find that they have lost their legitimacy and are no longer leaders.  To me, that is what the liberty movement is about.   It is about restoring our government to those who serve the interests of their constituents, instead of serving themselves.

The success of a political party, organization, or candidate is greatly influenced by how they appeal to a young audience.  Unfortunately, it is something that followers and leaders in the liberty movement seem to be struggling with in comparison to those of the left.  Though you’ll never hear me say this in any other context but this – it’s time we take a small lesson from the left.  After suffering from the results of the 2008 elections, it’s time we, as conservative and liberty-minded individuals, make a serious effort to get online and make a change in the way we are perceived by the digital generation.

After analyzing some successful, yet liberal sites, it is easy to see that there are a few things the left is doing right, in terms of appealing to both the younger generation and those who frequent the internet:

Overall layout and visual appeal – When you ask anybody what first attracted them to their spouse, the smart ones will always say, “It was their personality.”  However, the cold hard truth is that most are first attracted to physical appearance.  Just as one doesn’t fall in love with someone’s personality at first site, individuals don’t fall in love with the content on a website at first site either. As much as we hate to admit it, looks do matter. Having an aesthetically pleasing color scheme and user-friendly layout can go a long way.

Social networking – Social networking sites are not solely being used for people to keep in touch with friends and family.  More and more they are being used as a search engine when trying to find out about candidates or organizations, especially by young audiences that want to be engaged in the political process.  They are becoming an essential part of the political process, and the left is using this to their advantage.  Not only do left leaning sites excel in making their content very easy to share on facebook, twitter, flickr, youtube, etc. via links on their site, but they seem to have a bigger active presence on facebook as well.  After searching through prominent left leaning organizations’ fan pages and groups, and comparing them to those of the liberty movement, it was easy to see that we have some work to do.  While some prominent conservative groups have fan pages with a few hundred members, many left leaning groups can boast numbers in the tens of thousands.  Don’t get me wrong – the liberty movement is making some fantastic strides; however, there is still much work to be done.

Extras – If you want to be able to influence the younger generation, you first have to understand them.  The left appears to fully understand this concept based on certain content that is offered on their websites.  Having been a college student during the 2008 presidential election, I saw first-hand the left’s success in influencing my peers.  It became trendy and fashionable for college students to walk around campus wearing t-shirts with a presidential candidate’s face on it and campaign buttons on their backpacks.  They did this by marketing it to an online audience. They understood the appeal of pop culture icons, for example the characters in the Twilight series.  (Which I believe to be a ridiculous craze) They used the commonly touted terminology “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob” to formulate “Team Obama” t-shirts and bumper stickers.  They even used college mascots to reach students.  At a nearby university, t-shirts with the words “Rock Chalk Barack” sold like hotcakes and were worn to class constantly, which I assure you, influenced many more than just the students that bought them.  Anyone who has ever walked into a college dorm room knows posters are practically essential to a young person’s room decor.  The left, having marketed “Hope” posters during the election, was able to reach a plethora of young individuals with their message simply by making these products available on left-leaning websites.  It’s much easier to appeal to a group of individuals when you understand them, and the left understands.

I’m not saying that we need to copy the left or change our message to something that could be summed up on a trendy t-shirt.  Our message needs to stay consistent; however, we need to make it easier for a younger generation to get involved and feel engaged.  Though not all of the digital generation is able to make an immediate difference in terms of voting now, recruiting them to the movement as early as possible will help shape them into the kind of active citizens that will make a positive impact on their country.  Changing our online appeal will not only help the movement in appealing to the younger and politically active generation, but will also be an investment in our future.

I was twelve years old when I had my first experience with door-to-door campaigning for a candidate.  My dad dropped me off at the the first house on the block and wished me luck as I grabbed my candidate’s literature and voter registration forms and hopped out of the car.  As I walked up the sidewalk I rehearsed in my head everything that I wanted to say and thought through every question that could possibly be asked about where my candidate stood on the issues.  When I finally got to the front door I took a deep breath and rang the doorbell.  I was a little surprised to see a twenty five year old man answer the door in his boxers and t-shirt, obviously having just woken up.  It was two in the afternoon.  I introduced myself and told him why I was there and proceeded to ask him if he was registered to vote.  He replied “No, I haven’t had time.”  He didn’t appear to be the busiest person in the world, but I wasn’t there to judge.  I then continued, “Well I have a registration form right here if you’d like to register now.”  He replied, “Well I don’t know where I would bring it.” I explained that I could turn it in for him if he wanted.  He then said, “No that’s ok, I don’t have time to fill it out now.”  Refusing to give up, I told him that he could go online and fill it out and it wouldn’t take much time at all.  “Yeah, but my internet is really slow.” I took that as my cue, thanked him for his time and went back to the car feeling like an utter failure.

I never quite understood how so many people could be too tired, or too busy, or too this, or too that to put any effort into improving their country.  It seems that everyone has more than enough time to complain about the government, but when asked to actually take action in order to make a positive change, all of the sudden everyone is busy, sick, out of town, tired, etc… It reminds me of the many times while I was in high school that my parents would tell me to help with the house work or pick weeds in the garden.  Whatever the task may have been, I would always have an excuse as to why I couldn’t do it. “I have too much homework!”, “I’m too tired!”, “I just did it last week!”  My dad would always reply, “Any excuse will work, you might as well pick one I haven’t heard before.”  Though I’ll never admit it to him directly, he was right.

The same is true of many people today and their attitude towards politics.  I could have spent the entire day on that door step trying to convince that man that he should register to vote, and he would’ve given me any excuse he could think of.  In my opinion, one of the most difficult things for liberty minded citizens to grasp is the idea that some people just don’t care and that some of those who do care, don’t care enough to take action.  After observing this time and time again, it becomes easy to become discouraged and even sometimes lazy.

I recently met a woman who served as a refreshing reminder that there is no excuse for being apathetic or lazy when it comes to fighting for liberty.  This woman served her country overseas and now suffers from Gulf War Syndrome which hinders her ability to walk, causing her to have to use two canes in order to get around.  However, this woman manages to go door-to-door every Saturday talking to voters about a candidate in which she strongly believes.  She believes in liberty more than she believes in making excuses, though her excuse would be more legitimate than most.  Meeting this inspirational woman reminded me that nothing excuses you from fighting for what you believe in. As my father used to say after an argument about why I couldn’t do housework, “Don’t make excuses, make it happen.”