I know that few here would like to hear it, but kos has some genuinely good advice for the conservative movement on Daily Kos.

No, seriously. I’m not kidding. If you ignore the insults, his basic point is thus: Glenn Beck and Tea Parties are as useful to the conservative movement as Cindy Sheehan and ANSWER were to the liberals. Which is to say, not at all.

To get back in power, conservatives need to focus less on street theater and more on elections, governance, and persuasion. The tea parties were as productive as a primal scream - they might have made people feel better, but they really didn’t get anything done.

The biggest problem conservatives face now is that their Cindy Sheehans have discovered they can make good money appealing to a relatively small number of people. Glenn Beck’s audience couldn’t get anyone elected. Rush Limbaugh’s audience couldn’t get anyone elected. But they can keep Glenn and Rush rolling in dough for a long time to come, and that’s all they honestly care about.

Learn how to turn activists into votes. Obama worked very, very hard to turn every audience member at his speeches into a volunteer (that is, after all, what a community organizer does). That was a huge opportunity wasted at the tea parties, where an active hostility towards people with clipboards taking names was cultivated.

Persuade the center. You cannot win elections without them.

Don’t take your ideas for granted. Explain why small government is good in the current context, not in relation to Reagan. If Reaganomics doesn’t work in a recession this bad, swallow hard, toss him out, and figure out what does.

We really, really need an opposition part with ideas that weren’t born in the 80’s. We could use an opposition party that inspires America. Reagan inspired America. How can conservatives inspire America again? The tea parties won’t cut it - more people attended the Spice Girls reunion tour than the tea parties. The left tried protest during the Bush years, and look at how much y’all laughed at them for it. It doesn’t work, and this very website proved it.

Do better. Please. Once I voted for Bush. This time, I voted for Obama. Give me a reason to vote for a conservative again - not against the “socialist”, for a conservative. And then convince everyone else who voted for Bush but changed to Obama this time.

Then you’ll really be on to something.