Mercenaries and Patriots

Last week, my colleagues Raz Shafer and Andrew Kerr from the Republic of Texas, and I joined in Albuquerque, New Mexico to train a group of very excited and anxious candidates and activists.  It was a grand affair.

We worked through the weeds about how to run an effective campaign strategy and navigate the pitfalls of voter ID, media bias, fundraising, messaging and more.  And we dialogued on how to build critical social media and precinct efforts.

At the close of the three-day session, we laid open the real threat of what we refer to as the “Colorado Model” and it’s usual suspects.  This was an eye opening expose’ of the power and influence of the left in electoral politics.  We then opened up for questions and answers–nothing was off limits.

From the back of the room a very earnest activist inquired with obvious frustration about whether conservatives could ever mount any significant response to the overwhelming financial force that the left commands via the Colorado Model.

Our answer was simple: yes.

We went on to recall that our nation was founded by patriots who faced a nearly insurmountable force not at all dissimilar from our own.  The 18th-century British military was the most powerful force in all the world.  They were unbeatable.  Notwithstanding, as much as a third of the population in the colonies were British sympathizers.  The founders were not only out-gunned, they constantly had to rebuild morale.

As American Majority President Ned Ryun presciently detailed, the founders were in a David and Goliath situation.  Their answer was to fight according to their own rules.  Conventional warfare was for losers.  Instead, they fought from behind rocks and trees, employed smart espionage and intelligence operations, and instituted advanced guerilla warfare techniques.

The British army’s power was their weakness.  With greatness often comes overconfidence, and this proved to be their downfall.  But equally, as we explained to our New Mexican brethren, mercenaries are always less effective soldiers than patriots.

That our militia and regulars were willing to brave death by exposure and starvation in the horrendous winter at Valley Forge is a testimony to the esprit de corps of patriotism.  It was this that motivated them to march, often barefoot, and pilot across an icy Delaware River to attack the Hessians, cozy in their quarters, at Trenton on Christmas night.

We should never forget that money is a finite resource…zeal for freedom is not.  And that, my friends, is how and why we can overcome the onslaught from the left.  We can and will prevail, if only we faint not in the course of working to preserve the freedom our founders fought and died to give us.