Next month, American Majority, one of America’s premiere organizations for conservative activist training will do something unprecedented. It will unleash 30 citizen activists from more than 20 states to begin training in their local regions.

For years, the left has dominated in the area of citizen involvement, but American Majority is fighting back. No, Arianna Huffington, they are not encouraging violence. Conservatives have somehow been duped into believing that our only course of action against the socialist takeover of our country is to vote every two years. As was stated very clearly in Pennsylvania last August, a sleeping giant has been awakened. This fire was ignited with the Tea Parties, continued with the Town Halls and is spreading daily as our elected officials consistently choose to ignore us.

So Americans are awake, now what? That is where American Majority comes in. Although rallies and protests have been vital to this great awakening, they will not in themselves turn this country around. We have a lot of ground to make up and a very short time to do it. American Majority is dedicated to equipping conservative soldiers with the weapons (not real weapons) that they need to succeed. This arsenal includes knowledge of American history, social media skills, campaigning techniques and coalition building.

I am excited to begin training for American Majority here in Missouri in the very near future. My plan is to conduct these trainings frequently in the surrounding areas, so please watch the calendar and encourage friends and family to attend. Of course, all trainings will be announced here.

Until then, check out all of the great resources here at AmericanMajority.org and sign up to receive updates about future events in your area. I look forward to seeing you there!

This article is cross-posted at RestoringPrinciples.com and FranklinCountyPatriots.org

Last night’s vote to strap the American people with trillions of dollars of more debt, circumvent our freedoms and enslave our children is very likely the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back. I see this usurpation as a chance for Americans across this nation to lay down their lives of mediocrity and take up the relevant and vital cause of freedom. It is an opportunity to have our children and grandchildren witness first-hand the greatness of the American spirit and the ideals that have made this country like no other on the face of the planet. What an example we can become to our future generations!

If we, the citizens who dearly love this nation, chose to accept the mission that has now been clearly laid at our doors, we can be the Paul Reveres, Thomas Jeffersons and George Washingtons of the next century. We can only achieve this together by stepping out of our comfort zones, turning off our television sets, laying off our hobbies for a while, and forgoing some sleep and luxuries of life to become students of this nation we cherish so much.

This will not be a fun battle, or a quick one, but given the course of history it is a crucial one. It will take time from our families and from our comfortable lives. But we will be able to stand before our children and our Maker and say “I did everything I knew to do to defend and protect the freedoms and liberties of the “Land of the free and home of the brave.” Ronald Reagan rightly said “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men actually were free.”

Are you tired of yelling at your television? Are you tired of feeling powerless in the political arena? Then come on and join us for the Impact Arkansas Tour as we unite people across the state in sharing vital information and building networks to help limit government power over our lives and elect honorable people of integrity to office. We have completed 12 stops out of 50–already training more than 350 Arkansans in their communities. Those who attend unanimously say they are glad they came and wish they had brought friends and relatives.

Here’s an unsolicited letter we received from someone who attended the session in Jonesboro:

“These seminars are not your regular ‘government gripe sessions,’ or a mere rally.” They are filled with validated, non-partisan info on Arkansas government issues and include hands-on, how-to’s on writing
editorials or letters, as well as using social networking to actually make a difference, versus just expressing your opinion.”

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of these events is the unique opportunity to connect with like-minded and spirited fellow citizens in your area. We promise to provide valuable information, lots of encouraging motivation and a variety of practical and proven tools everyone can use. TOGETHER AND UNITED, WE WIN!

A good friend of mine recently quipped, “We have to hold government accountable. But if we don’t know what they’re doing in the government, how can we hold them accountable?” This is certainly true in Washington with bills that go unread, negotiations and deals being struck behind closed doors, and legislation being “deemed as passed.”  But it’s equally true of local government.  Enter the recent report by Oklahomans for Responsible Government that exposes the lack of openness and accountability in Oklahoma’s municipal websites.

In their report OFRG details the hits and misses of websites for the 75 largest municipalities in the state.  There are some startling revelations.  In this 21st century, some cities have no website at all while others borrow space on the sites of local civic organizations.  And of the ten criteria for evaluating the sites, open records, lobbying, and taxation posted the worst ratings.  Only fifteen of the 75 cities successfully met six or more of the ten criteria for an open and accountable website.

It should be noted that in this evaluation, only the websites for towns and cities were included.  School boards and counties were not included in the study.  I’m willing to wager that, had they been included, the results would be stupefying.  It comes then as no surprise to learn of the recent scandal in which a small school district paid over half a million dollars to a contractor for janitorial supplies, in many cases paying four times the prevailing market price for some items.

All the more reason for American Majority’s recent successes in Oklahoma school board elections wherein 19 of 25 AM-trained candidates won their races.  And we’re just getting started…

Ralph Benko, Washington Examiner Op-Ed Contributor and author of the book The Websters’ Dictionary: How to Use the Web to Transform the World, talked about his efforts to increase on-line activism with conservatives.

He makes some very interesting points about changing Rule 20 and returning representation to the states. What do you think? Is this a good idea?

On the morning of March 1, 1788, James Madison published his now-famous article in New York’s Independent Journal, the 63rd in a series of 85 such newspaper articles that came to be The Federalist Papers.  In it he relayed why extreme deliberation was needed in a large republic, as proposed by the Philadelphia Convention in the Autumn previous.

Madison warned: “[T]here are particular moments in public affairs when the people, stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterwards be the most ready to lament and condemn.”

I was reminded of this tome by the “Father of the Constitution” one day last week whence it was brought to my attention that the Left has christened this new year with its answer to the Tea Party movement.  The unwitting followers of the so-called Coffee Party (no this isn’t an Onion spoof, much to my surprise) have weighed in on the conservative-led gridlock in Washington.

Of course, one wonders why they couldn’t at least pine for corporate benevolence from Starbucks with a Via Party moniker, but I digress.

On the front page of the website they invoke the gods of Big Brother Bi-partisanship and imbibe leftover spirits from the French Revolution with peculiar and empty phrases like “cooperation in government” and “expression of our collective will” and “positive solutions,” inveighing against those “who obstruct them.”

Rather belated and nonsensical as their retort is – a dead horse comes to mind – it shouldn’t be of any surprise that civic action and reaction in a republic caught them so off-guard.  The Left is oft-quick to regurgitate revolution-era platitudes to justify their own revolution against the very institutions which the Revolution was fought to protect.  Whilst the real meaning of it all escapes them still.

Despite the legerdemain of these coffee partiers and their elitist ne’er-do-wells in Congress, Madison’s wisdom shines through the whole affair in Washington.

Where these java-heads see obstruction of the collective will, Madison foresaw the “salutary interference of some temperate and respectable body of citizens, in order to check the misguided career and to suspend the blow meditated by the people against themselves, until reason, justice, and truth can regain their authority over the public mind.”

And in the memory of Madison, we members of this American Majority, the Tea Party – the Post-Party movement for the republic – rekindle the spirit of the Framers in working to bring to a screeching halt the irregular passion of interested men keen on hurling this experiment in liberty into the abyss of despotism.

So with our fellow temperate and respectable citizens, we say “obstruct…obstruct away.”  After all, the Framers much preferred tea over coffee … and as for me and my house, we’ll have a Venti Sugar-free Breve Vanilla Earl Grey Latte.

As I’ve crossed the country training conservative activists, I’ve run into more than a few individuals who believe that social media and web based tools are impossible for people over 25 to comprehend. It doesn’t matter how heavily I emphasize the point, someone invariably makes a comment (or at least skeptically rolls their eyes) disparaging the idea that generations before my own can become social media gurus.

At a recent political training in Lakewood, CO, I met Ron Michel, a Denver area activist, and he handed me my silver bullet for dealing with all future naysayers.

Ron is turning 70 in a few months and (although it’s nearly impossible) he might be a bigger fan of Twitter and social media than I am. Ron has been on Twitter since September of last year and sung its praises during the training and in our interview afterward.

I asked Ron to chat with me for a few minutes about his experience with social media and it’s role in conservative activism. He graciously accepted and I’ve posted the video of our interview below. You can connect with Ron on Twitter here: (@gottabright)

Join American Majority on Twitter!

During our Activist Trainings, we stress the importance of getting your organization and your thoughts online. The number of young people getting their news from online newspapers is falling fast. This means it is up to you and I to ensure a fair and balanced perspective is shared on blogs, social networks, and websites throughout the web. Don’t worry, getting you up an running online is not as difficult as one might think. If you have attended a training in the past few months you know we love and highly recommend WordPress.

For a more detailed explanation, you’ll have to attend our upcoming Patriot 2.0 Webinars (launching soon). For those of you currently working on the WordPress platform, you know how powerful it is, for the rest, all you need to know is that WordPress is an award-winning CMS (Content Management System), which enables you to build powerful blogs and websites. Its ease of use and powerful features have quickly made it the premiere platform for website designers and bloggers. Best part, it is completely free. Yes, free.

I won’t go into setting it up or getting started in this post, but you can always email me at Austin@AmericanMajority.org for help and assistance. What I want to share with you is a really great collection of free themes that I found, put together by the gang at InstantShift.com. WordPress offers you the ability to quickly change the design of your blog and/or website. You can find out more about WordPress themes here.

Just because we are Conservatives, DOES NOT mean we fit in a box. We all have specific tastes, pushing the envelope of design and the parameters of what it means to stand for limited government is nothing to shy from, in fact, I hope you embrace the challenge. Take a look at the great collection of free themes put together by InstantShift. As always, let American Majority know if we can help you take your online presence to the next level.