As Karl Rove plans to block conservatives in GOP primaries, an architect of modern conservatism offers a $10,000 prize for the best plan for the conservative takeover of the party.
???The Liberty Prize??? will go to the grassroots conservative, who creates the best blueprint or ideas for conservatives to take control of the Republican Party, win the 2016 election and then govern America by January 2017, said Richard A. Viguerie, the chairman of ConservativeHQ.com.
Plans should be submitted through the special website http://thelibertyprize.com by close of business March 8, he said. The winning plan will be part of "TAKEOVER," Viguerie's new book due in the spring.
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Richard A. Viguerie[/caption]
???The entire $10,000 could go to one person who writes a great plan or it could be divided among persons who submit specific ideas to advance the project,??? he said. Viguerie will be the sole judge.
"The urgency of this effort cannot be overstated," said Viguerie, who pioneered direct-mail fundraising for conservative causes and candidates. He was a friend of President Ronald W. Reagan and was
???Conservatives at the grassroots level have the ideas and principles, as well as the numbers, political skills, and talent to govern America, but unlike the liberals who control the Democratic Party, we conservatives don't control the Republican Party,??? he said.
???The most important political battle in America is not between Republicans and Democrats or between conservatives and liberals,??? he said.
"It is the battle for control of the Republican Party between establishment big government Republicans and limited government, constitutional conservatives,??? he said.
Viguerie, the author of the book ???Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause,??? said, ???It has become clear that establishment Republican and Democratic politicians have failed America because they have both accepted big government as the solution to every problem.???
The Republican Party has restructured itself and its rules to keep conservatives from having influence over the party, he said.
???With big government establishment Republicans, led by Karl Rove, launching a multi-million dollar PAC to control Republican Primary elections and the changes to the Republican Party rules rammed through the 2012 Republican Convention by Mitt Romney's inside-the-Beltway allies, conservatives must have a well-organized and well-thought-out plan to take control of the GOP from the grassroots up,??? he said.
"Karl and I have been been on opposite sides of this political battle since 1971," he said. Rove was then with the Virginia Republican Party for about 10 months, but it was then that he said he took up the fight against conservatives in the party, like Viguerie. "Rove said I were fighting then because people like me thought the party was too liberal-it was true in 1971 and it's true now."
Republicans like Rove are not Marxists, but they do believe that a large government in the hands of well-educated and connected people like themselves can make things better, he said.
"Power is a big part of it," he said. "Power is very important to them."
Watch Viguerie's No. 7 post-election analysis here.
???Otherwise, the Republican Party will continue its slow creep away from the conservative principles that elected Ronald Reagan in 1980, the Contract With America Congress in 1994, and the Tea Party wave Congress in 2010,??? he said.
After 51 years in national politics, Viguerie said he has never been more hopeful, despite the disastrous results in 2012.
???Out of the ashes of the Republican establishment's 2012 defeat, without compromising our principles, we conservatives can rebuild the Republican Party into a strong and principled voice for the majority of Americans, who believe in, and will vote for, candidates who stand for freedom of the individual, economic opportunity, and traditional values."
