Washington D.C. Summit Focuses on Conservative Grass Roots

Thousands of conservative activists from across the country gathered together in Washington D.C. over the weekend for an annual summit designed to rally Americans around the principles of fiscal responsibility and individual liberty.

The “Defending the American Dream” Summit was brought to life by Americans for Prosperity, the fast-growing national organization which has played such a large role in the recent Tea Party protests. Often accused by liberal groups – including the anchors of the MSNBC network – of creating “Astroturf,” or fake grass roots, in the Tea Parties, AFP showed again with this summit that whatever their detractors want to call them, their activists are real, vocal – and motivated.

“It was a great opportunity to get people to network and share ideas and learn more about policies and strategies to get them enacted,” said Peggy Venable, Texas’ AFP director, who led a delegation of over 60 Texas activists to D.C. for the two-day conference.

Liberal groups have sought to de-legitimize the Tea Party movement and AFP through the Astroturfing charge, even though their methods are no different from any political activist group or community organization. As leaders of the Tea Party movement have noted, the people showing up at the events are not an illusion.

AFP – along with other pro-free market groups – has sought to channel that discontent into a viable political movement. The person most responsible for AFP’s success is conservative businessman David Koch, who launched the group five years ago to stir conservatives out of their complacency.

“We envisioned a mass movement, a state-based one, but national in scope, of hundreds of thousands of American citizens from all walks of life standing up and fighting for the economic freedoms that made our nation the most prosperous society in history,” Koch said in a speech to the group. 

This weekend’s event showed just how far that group has come. The Washington Independent said turnout was “massive” and beyond even what the planners had hoped for.

Speakers included such conservative draws as Newt Gingrich, talk show host Laura Ingraham, Rudy Giulliani and former San Francisco 49ers Quarterback Joe Montana. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) said the Tea Party movement, AFP and the larger groundswell of conservative activism that they represent, is having an effect in D.C.

“We’re winning this [health care] battle because of you,” said DeMint, who was given an award at the event. 

Alliance of Republicans and Libertarians

One of the more striking results of the Tea Party movement is a growing – yet still uneasy – alliance of Conservative Republicans and Libertarians. The latter, which some news reports stated are still critical of Gingrich and other Republicans they view as just as responsible for excessive government spending. Yet at the Washington event, as with the Tea Parties themselves, more pragmatic Libertarians seem to be alligning themselves with Republicans – at least insofar as they both object to the Obama Administration’s agenda.

Of course, that attitude comes from the top. Koch himself is a former Libertarian Party Vice-Presidential Candidate, but at the summit was clearly advocating for the election of more Republicans to congress. And more and more Libertarians are starting to see evidence that that alliance of interests is something that will continue into the 2010 elections.

Eric Dondero, the editor of the Houston-based Libertarian Republican Blog, which covered the event in depth, said the convergence of Libertarians and Republicans is a real phenomenon, not just GOP wishful thinking.

“Of course, it’s going to happen with the Democrats in charge of everything,” Dondero told TRN on Wednesday. “But at the same time, I think Libertarians and Republicans are starting to meld together anyway.”

(TRN will discuss this topic in depth in a future article.)

Equipping Activists with New Tools

Venable, who has helped organize similar events in Texas, said the conference isn’t just a pep rally, but included training on new ways to get the conservative message out. AFP has done much to promote conservative blogging, seeking to narrow what amounts to a blog gap between liberals and conservatives. 

“We have to be more effective online,” Venable said. AFP organized a large Right Online conference in Austin in 2008, and continues to organize similar events throughout the country. 

A number of notable bloggers from Texas and throughout the country attended the event. Houston-based Dr. Melissa Clouthier, conducted an interview with Sen. DeMint, which can be found here.

Health Care Debate

One issue looms large in the political discourse of the day, of course, and that is health care reform. Conservatives generally oppose any legislation that puts the private sector in the back seat through a public option or other socialized medicine proposals.

Among those speaking at the event were several speakers from Canada, including one woman who had a brain tumor and was told that it would be months before she could receive treatment. In Canada, even if patients can afford it, paying extra to get better care is not even legal. Faced with no other option to get the care she needed, the woman jumped across the border and paid for the procedure in America.

For more about the conference, check out AFP’s website, where all of the major speeches from the conference are posted: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=AforP&view=videos