We are 44 days from the election on November 5th and I’ll just be blunt straight from the start - outside of the strategy that the RNC has turned over to private organizations within the state, as well as hearing from the chair of the Milwaukee GOP at a forum style event a month ago, to “lose by less” in dem strongholds (which yes I understand the concept and agree with chipping away at the margins in said strongholds with youth, minority and women), the RPW has no plan other than to hand the reins of campaigning and strategizing effectively to private organizational “silos” (for lack of a better word) that do NOT communicate with each other.
The RPW does not by any stretch of the imagination communicate effectively with its county party executives across the state.
The person in charge of this seasons campaign is excellent at hiding behind emails and excuses and the occasional sarcastic indignation when asked serious questions. And while excellence in talking in circles is the skill set most accomplished, results are hardly the state party’s forte.
When certain counties participated in calling out the RPW for the breaking of their own rules during the primary between republicans, these specific county parties were later “punished” by the RPW with not receiving signs until they issued an apology to the mother ship. And, without said apology, there would be no signs. Boy, you guys really showed us! Yes absolutely - please punish our counties and the people in them by withholding DONALD TRUMP SIGNS from being distributed until the infantiles at the top get an apology. Excuse me while I laugh.
Example number 1: Waupaca county did not receive signs but did receive that threat to apologize “or else” via text and you can read all about it here:
There were other counties as well, but I don’t have enough ink.
Example number 2: There’s also now, come to find out that signs for Sheboygan county, Fond Du Lac County and one other “rebel alliance” were given signs… Only problem is that they were all tagged and delivered to Germantown, WI (which is not any of those three county party’s HQ’s. Not only that - but nobody was told about it in their respective counties! They found out randomly by accident that their extra signs were dropped there by the state. Ineptitude? Incompetence? Malicious? You decide.
Example Number 3: Next we have Racine County. Where the illustrious and highly perched little tweety bird - and I mean no disrespect to cartoon canaries - Robin (that’s funny for two reasons - 1. He’s named after a bird… but not a canary, so no pun intentionally intended and 2. When I first moved to Wisconsin and became active, someone told me the speakers name and I said “how long has she been speaker?”) Vos is in control through - guess who... His wife and mother in law are both on the board and one of them is the treasurer. In the land of restricting membership for supporting a primary challenger to his heinous - I mean highness, we now also have a formidable foe in Kelly Clark running against him in the general election. So guess what has happened there? No signs from the state party. No. Trump. Signs. None. Zero. Zilch. Coincidence? Malice? Incompetence? Napoleon. Racine county patriots have hand painted HUNDREDS OF TRUMP SIGNS and Clark signs on their own, in order to fill in the disgraceful mess the RPW and Vos have created there.
Example number - gosh I’ve lost count.
Ok… Moving back to Sheboygan County. Recently RPSC Chair Russ Otten had an email back and forth correspondence with the state party representative aforementioned where others including myself were cc’d. For sake of argument, I will show the cards quickly so as to not drag this on and on and on…
Sheboygan County has been and continues to be formidably “red” and pro Trump. We have had private citizens donate, pay for their own and create their own from past campaigns, Trump signs and merchandise to display throughout the campaign season.
Our party at the county level, has gone above and beyond to respond to the overwhelming enthusiasm in our communities for the Republican nominee for President of the United States in what is absolutely the MOST CONSEQUENTIAL election in modern American history. So, with that being said, you would think that when America’s chips are down, the state party would do everything in its power to supply higher populated counties where the draw and desire is high, and NECESSARY, in one of if not the MOST IMPORTANT battleground state in the union, to accommodate, would you not?!
Yet, here we sit. Listening to lack of logistical common sense and a complete lack of prudence on the state party’s part. During such an important election cycle where the American fabric literally hangs in the balance, you’re telling me that EVERY SINGLE resource is going into the WOW Counties and Milwaukee and that’s it?!
Chairman Otten asked simple questions in the above mentioned email chain with RPW leadership concerning campaigns, with one paraphrased such as: when will Sheboygan county receive a field organizer to help align all Republican campaigns in extremely important races so that comms between all teams can flow? I.e Trump, Hovde, Grothman, and other state level races.
Wouldn’t it make sense 1. To have these campaigns speaking to each other and working together instead of having multiple teams knock on the same doors multiple different times? 2. Shouldn’t signs for Trump and Hovde be at the ready to distribute? 3. While working hard to decrease the loss margins in liberal areas, wouldn’t it also make sense to have field organizers in other more densely populated counties in order to create a LARGER spread between Trump and Harris? In a state where during the last two cycles the margin was 20,000 +\- both times…I would say…YES.
Russ had a response for this last point which in and of itself cracks the nutshell in half when he said “The Republican Party of Sheboygan County (RPSC) is one of the most active supporters of President Trump in Wisconsin. It represents the 13th (out of 72) most populous county in the state. Yet, the Republican Party of Wisconsin (RPW) refuses to fund a Field Organizer for the most consequential Presidential election in my lifetime. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and the RPW spent $450,000 attacking Patriot Republicans in the August primaries to protect his little fiefdom. But they can’t find funds for a Field Organizer for Sheboygan County. They are playing with fire!”
Does the RPW feel like they are sufficing in what the state needs? Really? I’m asking genuinely…Because on the ground we don’t have that sense. Maybe it looks that way on paper, but it sure as heck isn’t in real life.
I am absolutely NOT insulting the volunteers or the paid positions working at the pavement pounding levels. They are doing an amazing job filling in the RPW cracks. I am however absolutely calling out the leadership for not organizing effectively.
Chairman Otten was also quoted as saying “There are over 300 large and 1,500 yard signs for Trump in this county. Our HQ is swamped every day! We just had the largest Trump Road Rally in the state. Our momentum is palpable. But no Field Organizer! This is political negligence by the RPW.”
In said nutshell, it appears we have a serious lack of mission concept at the top. Maybe I am missing something because I have not been inside of the meetings where whatever strategy outside of ballot chasing, harvesting and early voter banking (which again, I get it - fight like hell like the enemy and bank the tally if you can, then win, and fight like hell again while in power to change the game back to being an Election Day) has been conceived. And to that I concede.
However, as a prior service Army Aviation Officer, I can tell you, I understand planning concisely and accurately. I understand course of action and asking for and accepting advice from people who have been on the ground.
Good leaders understand that concept of the operation doesn’t begin and end at the top. Good leaders understand that when the chips are down, the ones who feel the mistakes the hardest are the guys and gals wearing the boots and flying the aircraft and manning the weapons in real combat, while the planners sit at battalion and brigade headquarters with clean finger nails…
Good leaders listen to their boots on the ground commanders who are in the fight.
But when the leadership at the top is “not so good”, and the chips are down, and the “bullets” start flying, when the mission is beginning to fail because of lack of comms and the good field commanders begin to see what’s happening clearly, those field commanders make decisions.
When they are met with indecision from “higher” they make decisions for mission and for their men and women.
Ballot harvesting, banking and chasing is all well and good. If you trust a flawed and provably fraudulent system - fine. I disagree with that but here we are.
Strategizing to cut down on smaller losses in Milwaukee is all well and good if you believe in a flawed and provably fraudulent system…in Milwaukee. I disagree with that but yet again, here we are.
The RPW needs to clean up its execution or just come out and admit that they either don’t know what they’re doing and let someone with ability lead for once, or admit that they maybe just don’t want Trump to win Wisconsin.
Mr. Otten’s request was simple: Give us a battalion commander to oversee your captains. If you can afford to spend many many MANY thousands of dollars breaking your own rules during a primary, you can afford to pay a few more field organizers to organize the sub par ground game strategy we see playing out on the right.
And the RPW should be able to duplicate that strategy throughout the state in other populated counties outside of your big three.
Instead of playing for ONLY smaller losses - let’s put our big girl and big boy pants on and fight a war (and this is absolutely a war) on multiple fronts. How about we work to organize in counties where the 700,000 hunters in Wisconsin live and have NEVER VOTED BEFORE for example, and get them registered and out to vote.
We live in a 3 dimensional world. The battlefield is 3 dimensional as well. You can bet every dollar and asset you have, that the enemy is planning for three dimensions. Since this is the case, why the hell is the RPW walking consistently into a one dimensional wall and then making excuses for its bruised nose?
Instead of having silos not talking, let’s build bridges of communication between races like Trump and Hovde so we can send two bat **** crazy marxists like Harris and Baldwin packing.
This. Is. Not. Hard. If Lindee Brill could do it as the unmatched underdog in the 27th vs the establishment, the outside dark money, the inside money, the politicians, the RPW and the Vos machine and BEAT THEM in a race she was supposed to lose according to the party and many other chirping birdies, (and yes - she beat you because she was more organized and more motivated to do so - because you were complacent in your money and ignorance), then for the love of all that is holy, so can a multi million dollar state level RPW with the GREATEST PRESIDENT this country has seen in modern history - against a cackling, “grew up a middle class kid” for every answer ignoramus. Yet here we are.
So forgive me if it certainly seems as though the state party is lacking what I will just call “something”.
How about instead of making excuses for incompetence or maliciousness, we get rid of the people who don’t do good work and/or are “not so good”. How about we instill a little bit of integrity back into the “higher up” leadership.
How about we bridge the divide so we don’t have confusion and unnecessary miscommunication between state and local parties. In short - let’s just organize.
Thank God for field commanders here and many others around the state doing selfless work to fill the gaps of the “lacking” at the paid state levels. In the army we had a saying “complacency kills.” Except this is a mission we cannot afford to become complacent about. This is a mission we can not afford to lose.
From what I’ve seen in my life, defending and fighting for the protection of a safer and freer future in America has meaning. Seeing places in far reaches of this planet where people have literally nothing, including safety, security or sustenance, and where at any moment the government can take whatever little they do have because they are made defenseless…don’t think that just because we have a beautiful flag and songs about liberty, that it can’t happen here.
Unfortunately, at this point, we are in a battle to either succumb to that downward spiral of doom and a loss of freedom as we’ve known it, or dig in as patriots on the line together. Even though it seems as though the RPW has sent down its directive that there are no reinforcements coming, we decide to stand and “fight, fight, fight” on anyway for a greater future. They’ve made it clear that we are on our own. It’s time to recognize the problem, face it for what it is and personalize the goals.
A soldier on a battlefield is not thinking about home and those he or she is protecting stateside in the moment of combat. A soldier in the moment of combat is thinking about preserving his or her brothers and sisters alongside of them in that moment so that they can go back home to the land of the free and the home of the brave in the future. And there is nothing embarrassing about patriotism in those moments when they carry you through to victory.
We are in the fight. The chips are down. I wish we could buy more time. But this battle has a time clock. It has a back stop. If this battle is lost, there is no turning back. It’s do or do not. And you will have to live with whatever decision you make for the rest of the time God gives you on this earth. One way or another.
The mission is hanging in the balance. Wisconsin is hanging in the balance. The country is hanging in the balance. As goes Wisconsin, so goes the country. And as goes the country, so goes the world. And nobody is coming to save it. It’s up to me and it’s up to you - and those around us willing to stand in the gap for freedom.
Don’t quit on the mission. If He’s given you the calling, answer it. No one is coming to save it. It’s up to you now. And I have faith. I have faith because America and her spirit thrives when the people take it into their own hands to do what needs to be done to win. We have proven that with divine providence and good old fashioned American grit, we triumph every single time. I pray we can once more.
44 days.
44 days for the future of your country.
44 days for the country your future will grow up in.
Make sure your nails aren’t clean when the dust settles.
God speed.