On Saturday, Americans for Prosperity sponsored Defending The American Dream summit at Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, GA. The summit brought many of us together who are new to media attention and community organizing.
Guest speakers such as Herman Cain reminded us to stay focused, stay connected, and to stay informed. Cain got the crowd buzzing when he roared his famous “Watch out, you just might learn something.”
And we did! We learned many in the mainstream media are looking for soundbites to make us look like drooling bubbas spoiling for a fight. What is pretty funny about their assertions though, when you watch a clip of a tea party, it’s an older crowd, definitely interspersed with young people, but for the most part, a crowd that is hardly a physical threat to the likes of scaredy cat Nancy Pelosi! I loved watching people like Susan Estridge characterize tea partiers as ready to rumble, a clip of tea partiers playing on screen, a sea of people, calmly talking amongst themselves, carrying signs, but not one fist shaking in sight. It is hyperbole indeed, when faced with video evidence the tea party is a very calm citizen movement, the mischaracterizations fly from the lame stream media!
Erick Erickson, from redstate.com told us how we could win with the traditional media, his best tips were to be nice, and to help them look good so that they portray you in a more positive light, and as well, if you find yourself having a blank moment, hand it off to someone else by saying “no comment at this time”. He also advised those attending tea parties, when confronted by press, make sure you do not have any clothing on you will regret later, and hand the Bud Lite off to someone else! 
We were reminded how we can use the new media to advantage by using Facebook and Twitter to reach out and spread the message of conservative values by The Leadership Institute, and Faith and Freedom Coalition listed some common sense reforms for education. Neal Boortz told us of his new project, creating a modern English version of the Federalist Papers, and encouraged us to give “them” the finger on Nov 2nd, as demonstrated his pointing finger in the air, as the finger that registers us voting incumbents out.
My personal favorite mini session was with Donald Conkey and his friend Professor Jay Lybbert, where Don advised us that should we only have 4 books in our possession, we should have the Constitution, the Bible, The 5000 Year Leap, and his book, God’s Influence In the Making of America.
I did not get to attend every session, as some were going on at the same time as others, but there was a Georgia Public Policy Foundation session, which along with AFP, presented a break out session called Saving America from Economic Collapse- The Budget Crisis at State and Federal Level. I expect some notes from Sharon soon regarding a couple of sessions I missed, and unfortunately, we both missed the early part of the program where Tom Price, Martha Zoller, Erick Erickson, and Brian Donegan spoke.
Liz Carter, who is running for Hank Johnsons seat was there as well as Johnathan Krohn, the darling of last year’s CPac convention.
I came away knowing that each of us must work very hard, we must talk to people, we must engage them in the discussion as to why we need conservative values, now more than ever.
It struck me twice throughout the day that our Founders took the time to educate themselves on so many ideas regarding governance, many of them self-educated, and as we talked throughout the day about education, and rewriting founding documents for the modern day American, that given the incredible advances we have made in many things since our founding, Education has gone downhill, in spite of a bloated Federal program and a bureaucracy that is supposed by most Americans to improve that segment of our lives!
Our Founders read Bastiat, De Touquville and the Bible, understanding all to the core, while our very own children cannot make heads or tails of our very own Constitution. Our government is complicit in this dumbming down process, and it is up to us to question with a bold spirit, Does our government really have the interests of its people at heart? We need to remind them in November, This November, and Every other election year November that We The People have the final say, and we will not stand down, we will not shut up, and we will promote the ideals of freedom we have been entrusted with to protect.
Enjoy!
Linda Rudolph
912conyers.com