I have thought long and hard about my final choice of who to support for Chairman of the RNC. In the end, my selection is Saul Anuzis. For me there were really three candidates that I had to struggle to choose between.

Ken Blackwell is a solid conservative with the gravitas to lead us into any debate we must have. He is clearly a strong and clear voice for the principles that brought the party back from the depths of its isolation in the 60’s and 70’s. He is a strong campaigner and fundraiser and I believe that he has a strong ability to organize the party to achieve the long-range goals. I also would love to see him run for President.

Michael Steele is of course a strong personality and he elicits a strong voice for conservative principles. In the end I cannot select him because we need a fighter and Michael Steel wants to build consensus and bridges where none are possible without the compromising of the core principles and message that we need to reassert. What really killed it for me was his invocation of “Katrina” as one of the real problems we have with minorities. We will never win trying to convince everyone we are sorry for the Bush legacy; we need to move forward.

I will admit that I have some biases that are driving my decision. I am degreed in Computer Information Systems and I am very clear, that all other things being equal, had the Republican had a coherent, well thought out Internet strategy that was promulgated by quick thinking innovators who were not old, process oriented technologists, we would have won. I have interacted with the MYGOP site and I will tell you that it may be technically competent, but it is socially “dead”. It was built by professionals oriented to spreadsheets, UML diagrams and ASP, not New Media and Web 2.0.

Unfortunately, they did not have a clear vision of what the needs are that  are impairing our ability to compete for young people, for minorities, not really even for Seniors either.  The IT systems of the GOP were built by IT guys, not people understanding of social trends and changes in the way people meet, greet and exchange energy and ideas. The enemy is very, very far ahead of us in this method of organizing and just just in the pure political sense, they are using it in a broader public policy influencing mission.  We are in serious danger of long lasting damage being done to our core freedoms in this country if we do not assert leadership in new media and the technologies that weave them and the grass roots together. The RNC needs a disruptive change in terms of managing its Internet, New Media and technology strategy. Saul Anuzis represents the best chance for that to occur and it needs to occur immediately.

There is a great upwelling of energy in the grass roots to conquer this gap. They lack only one thing in that regard; a bold and fearless strategy to unify all that effort and energy. We need 20 something’s and 30 something’s leading this charge and the older more staid of us, need to have the patience and the desire and the interest to follow that lead and let the energy virally unify the party. There are strong efforts at unifying people to challenge this gap at communities such as the New Republicans, Rebuild The Party, Smart Girl Politics , Twitter and many many others.  We need to unify and tap that energy.

At the same time, Republicans need a strong, clear conservative voice. Saul has that as his strongest qualification. He brings a pedigree that can rebuild the bridge to the core constituencies that Reagan drew in to make the Republican Party strong after decades of isolation. We need to tap back into the blue collar voters that share our vision but feel that the Party no longer represented those values, nor valued them as grass roots participants in the great mission to preserve the promise of the heartland of Liberty.

They came to feel that we wanted their vote, but we were far more interested in Corporate money and affiliation.  We need to remember that Corporate money is nice, but dollars do not vote and we will be on the short end of that next cycle anyway.  It is a losing strategy to chase the narrowest constituencies.  We need to fight on every block, in every race for the hearts and minds and souls that really, when we speak our essential truth want to follow us.

As you may guess, I long for the days of Ronald Reagan’s clear, strong vision and Lord knows we sure could use someone with his ability to communicate that vision as well as he.  We lost that treasure.  Reagan’s legacy, will never be spoken by him again.  Instead, it lives on in each and every one of us who know it as our essential truth.  We hear him when we know that the clearest solution to our problems are the very core principles that no one else in our lifetime has been so strong and capable to elucidate.

No, Saul, is not another Reagan.  No one will ever be able to bear that mantle, he was unique, but Saul Anuzis has the best attributes to address the most serious issues we have at this moment, and the solid grounding of Reagan’s principles to enable him to guide us through the swamp in front of us, towards rebuilding what has been torn down.

Just for the record, I am 54 years old and solidly middle class.

Update 1/15/2009

After my post, Saul released this video.  I wanted to share it with you.