GOP communication baby steps have replaced inaction, but there’s a long way to go (Part 2)

We are where we’re at now with a boatload of policy disasters facing us – mostly because of a failure to communicate. Back to war as an example – here’s Donald Rumsfeld on page 608 of his book:

“To use a military phrase, the center of gravity in a long war shifts from battlefields overseas to the home front. In a democracy, a war can be lost in Congress and in the news media at home, even if battles are won abroad. On the important issue of communicating and formulating detainee policy, we did not confront with sufficient energy or skill the political challenge represented by those who argued for using our own courts and legal systems against us.”

Rumsfeld addresses the non-traditional war we’re facing against Islamic extremists. It’s “going to be the work of a generation,” so the U.S. needs to develop a -

“broad and sustainable national and congressional support through a skillful public communications effort, consultation, and a proactive legislative strategy.”

Folks, with government run amok at all levels, we’re facing a fiscal mess that’s going to take a generation to clean up.

Rumsfeld is cognizant of the fact that it’s possible – both at home and overseas – for there to be a “transformation of opinion.” On page 625 he wrote the following (bullet point format was added by me):

“I suggested consideration of a new U.S. agency for global communications that could serve as a channel to inform, educate, and compete worldwide in the battle for ideas. We would ourselves engaged in the first protracted war in an era of

• email
• Twitter
• Blogs
• Phone cameras
• A global internet with no inhibitions
• Cell phones
• Handheld video cameras
• Talk radio
• Twenty-four-hour news broadcasts
• And satellite television.”

“By 2006,” he wrote, “it was clear that our government’s efforts to counter extremist ideology through public diplomacy and strategic communications were proving an abject failure.”

Friends, it’s 2011 – and when it comes to almost every issue area imaginable, our side must improve its communication performance. Having the most informed choir in American history isn’t enough. We must reach beyond the circle of Americans who already understand the mess and how to clean it up. We have to bring the conservative message to independents and even many Democrats. President Obama has helped more people wake up to the disaster that is liberalism and socialistic policies. But there’s a lot of work yet to be accomplished – especially before the 2012 general election.

Rumsfeld references the old “institutions such as the U.S. Information Agency and Radio Free Europe” that “had combated Communist ideology.” He says we didn’t have – but desperately needed – “global communications agencies to engage in a strategic effort to counter the ideology and propaganda of Islamists.”

To that I shout a hearty amen. Back on the home front, though, our work is even more important. We must continue to improve our networks, reach, and messaging – to our family, friends, and neighbors. With better candidates stepping up to run, and tea party and 9/12 activist types staying engaged and increasing their numbers, the communications war is a war we can win. And the next generation will thank us.