What should the Men’s Movement do?

“Political Action!” Not yet. As my formal education and actually working on political campaigns, there is more to a movement than making blogs and petitioning the government.

Let me tell you the tale of two movements. One succeeded wildly while the other failed. One altered the entire government of America while the other keeps losing power and influence. One movement won, the other lost.

The Conservative Movement in America began in the sixties. It started intellectually, and through magazines, pamphlets, words, and so on, the movement persuaded and grew. The first main ‘student’ of this movement who would become active in politics was Ronald Reagan. This movement then took to the talk radio and to the Internet to counter the mainstream news. People heard and listened. Many were persuaded by substantial intellectual reasons. The focus of the movement was on education, not action. And once people began to become educated and persuaded, they took action themselves. I was in Washington D.C. during the election of 1994 when Republicans won control of both houses of Congress and everyone was in shock (everyone in the beltway that is). The Democrats held Congress for over forty years! And, yet, massive political change occurred.

Today, the Conservative Movement has propelled the Republican Party to control practically every branch, including the Presidency. The real battle for the movement is now, not against Democrats, but against old school Republicans who are angry that these conservatives are the reason they are winning elections (and who are actively trying to defeat them). The Movement battles are now more for inside the party against the typical beltway mentality. Illegal immigration is a good example of this when the beltway began to go one way but the Movement came and cracked down on it.

The other movement, the one that failed and will continue to fail, is the Democrat bloggers ever since the year 2000. Liberals know that they too must make a movement similar to how Conservatives did. But they are missing a critical difference. While the Conservative Movement engaged the masses and attempted to persuade, the Liberal Movement does not do this. Rather, the Liberal Movement exists in its hyper-reality of blogs such as DailyKos. They believe that the movement is growing by GETTING LOUDER (rather than education, engaging, and persuading the masses). These Liberal Bloggers may be very loud but, when the next election occurs, the Democrats lose more power (which, they think they must get even louder).

Also, it should be noted that the Liberal Movement fails to put out any optimistic reasons to vote for it. People do not like hearing their country trashed. Americans naturally don’t want to hear that America is evil and that Americans are stupid. You want your movement to be on the good side of the country. If you have it set up where the country loses and your movement wins (because the position is based on gloom and doom), then the movement will never succeed because people do not like to fail.

I know this may all sound controversial, but you can see the conclusion in the election results. The question is: does the Men’s Movement want to WIN or does it want to ‘play the role’ and just keep losing politically? (While never blaming the loss on the movement but on grand ‘conspiracies’)

I am interested in actually winning. In order to do so, the first and ultimate thing the Men’s Movement must do is focus on education and persuasion. The goal is to educate and persuade as many people of the Men’s Movement as possible. Some of this work has begun with websites and papers. But it needs more, much more. It is also important to remember how you are perceived politically. You don’t want people to think you guys are just frustrated low income workers being loud on blogs. The media will destroy you. This should be well known. The only reason why the media has not focused as much on the Men’s Movement is that it is not considered a threat…yet.

“When does the education process end, Monsieur Pook?” It never does. In the 19th century, a free trade movement began in England called the Cobden movement. There is much that can be learned from the Richard Cobden Movement especially as one of the few successful libertarian movements. Now, when the Corn Law was overturned and Cobden died, the Movement died as well. Why? It is because, after achieving political victory, the movement thought everyone had been persuaded. But politics is never static. You must never stop the education; you must never stop the persuasion. This, the Conservative Movement also learned as they began to lose seats after 1994. The Education never ends. What good is it for the Men’s Movement to succeed only to have Feminism appear again?

My point is to show why certain movement succeed or failed, I’m not arguing here for the content of those movements. I am talking political TACTICS. If the Men’s Movement is interested in winning, it needs to learn them and come up with a plan. My suggestion is mass education and persuasion and to never stop. The rest will come later.

Instead of trying to FORCE political action, keep educating the people and political action will be demanded if not carried out by itself.