No, I want to play global thermonuclear war.
Written by Andrew on May 7th, 2005Musings of a New York College Republican has a good post on the upcoming factionalization of the CRNC. The whole site is well worth checking out, especially the posts on recent guerilla activism by CRs at UAlbany and RPI.
7
PM
I disagree somewhat with the premise of the article, which is this: That College Republicans do not need a national organization. There are a few big problems with this idea.
First, it assumes that the leadership in the states is experienced and has the time to run the complete organization. Last I checked most all state chairs where still students, and did not get paid for there services. Being in charge of fundraising and the legal BS that is associated means that the position would almost surely have to become a full-time paid position. So there goes $25,000-$35,000 right off the bat. Add to this the fact that the fundraising would mostly being going towards the compensation of the state chairman and other officers, means that the pressure to get the donations might result in RDI like tactics. Having full time paid people makes sense for the CRs.
Second, the field rep program. It really is a great program, no denying it. It is what distinguishes CRNC from other campus activist groups. Should the states do it? Quite possibly, again however you have to deal with the legal overhead of paid stuff. Also, the allocation of these resources would not be as beneficial to the republican party. After all, you want field reps in states with close elections: It would be a waste to have field reps help Bush in California or New York after all.
Third, is the reinventing of the wheel. The best example of something that has been left to the states is IT. Some states have done well, some have not—But all are basically walking down the same road. Its wasteful beyond all belief. I wrote a IT plan for CRNC that I have made available to both campaigns, and basically seeks to create a coherent system. The same is true of other logistical operations, such as printing, graphics, strategies, etc—it makes no sense to group these artificially by state when they benefit so much by economies of scale.
That is not to say that I think the current structure of the CRNC is as lean and mean as it could be. After all, this is the age of the internet and cell phone—why do we even need an office in DC? I’m willing to bet that this organization could be run just as well out a the officers basements. Second, the field rep program does not coordinate well with the states to lower costs. I could have gladly found a place to sleep for the field reps at our school—but they never asked, they just got hotel rooms and wasted money that was unneeded.
I would like to see the CRNC become far more of a logistics operation. Providing to the states the resources that the states need, but can’t efficiently provide for themselves. Even if the CRNC was dissolved, we would still want to have some sort of federation of states.
7
PM
Nice job interpretting the mushroom cloud at top, comrade - did you happen to read the rest, or were you overtaken with a sense of accomplishment at understanding the title and run straight to commenting? “I disagree somewhat with the premise of the article, which is this: That College Republicans do not need a national organization.” Except…that’s not the premise. What the CRs *don’t* need is a national organization with a mandate to fundraise in their name and a plan of action involving field reps. Albeit, I’m coming at it from an extreme here, but I’ve never seen the merit in having people on a payroll to do the gruntwork in a grassroots political movement. I agree with you on having CRNC do *some* logistical stuff - training material, namely - but outside of that, it should be the job of every state to train their own. Here in NY, NYPIRG, paid employees and all, is on the run because of a group of unpaid (unpaid!) students. Certainly, you can spend $30,000 to send a field rep to a state, and you might get a few new chapters started there. But can you imagine what could be done with even half that amount in the hands of the CRs already on the ground, maybe 40 miles nearby? They’re not looking to get paid - they’d use it to buy pizza, gasoline and posterboard to go recruiting at the trouble zones at Bard or renting buses to crash events where Clinton or Spitzer are speaking (see “Persona Non Grata (D-NY)” for more on that). In short, the *real* premise of the post, rather, the entire blog is that if we want to be a force to be reckoned with, it’s going to have to start at the bottom. Looking up as a way to improve is just going to make our necks hurt.
14
PM
You are invited to check some helpful info about… Thanks!!!
15
AM
You may find it interesting to visit some relevant pages on.
18
AM
This nice is very good, i will recomend it to my friends and partners
19
AM
Warm greetings! Thanks for all the information, a very nice and well done site! Cheers.
24
PM
nice site keep it on
24
PM
Thank you. You have helped someone more than you could know.
10
AM
This is a very beautiful website, I have enjoyed my visit here very much. I’m very honoured to sign in your guestbook. Thanking you for the great work that you are doing here.
13
AM
Thank you, friends, for your sharing your ideas