Patriot Coaching: The force behind local tea party failures

Despite the "historic" "wave" election, Conservatives for Guilford County failed to turn a single legislative race in Guilford County. Some good conservative candidates ran some very competitive races, and kudos to them for the effort, but those were despite, not because of, the antics of the C4GC, whose campaign-influencing tactics included producing faked video, defending opaque fund-raising, and adopting an "us versus them" mentality that found even well-known local conservatives on the outs for daring to ask questions.

It turns out that C4GC founders Barret and Jodi Riddleberger had teamed up with Drs.Gary R. Casselman and Timothy C. Daughtry to form Patriot Coaching, an organization that promised to teach local conservative candidates how to "defeat the radical liberal agenda in the public arena."

The central promise of Patriot's teachings, conveyed through a two-day "bootcamp," is to teach "us" how to fend off "them" with goals such as developing "razor sharp responses" to "subversive bloggers." The basic premise is that there is a hard line that defines people and if you are over where they perceive it to be, you are to be handled like an alien in need of special treatment.

I had a Don Vaughan (D) campaign sign in my yard this year. Neighbors had signs for his opponent Jeff Hyde (R). Other neighbors had Burr (R) signs, some for Marshall (D). Here is where Patriot Coaching and C4GC are off base. I know those people with Jeff Hyde signs, not well, but we talk and wave and look out for each other. We have attended neighborhood watch meetings together, keep our grass cut, rake our leaves, bring the garbage cans in from the curb, share gardening tips in casual conversation and fly the flag on special occasions. I don't freak out when one of them puts a sign in his yard with the "Christian flag." They don't think I'm subversive.

In short, our neighborhood could be divided into the "us" and the "them" that Patriot Coaching and C4GC think defines the local electorate. But we are not. We are neighbors. We don't question each others politics before lending a hand with a dead car battery, corralling an escaped dog, or bringing over a chain saw to dispose of a fallen limb. I know they probably voted for Hyde, Randall and Burr. They know I probably voted for Vaughan, Miller and Marshall. Doesn't matter. That is not a relevant filter. When we extend a helping hand, it is not to one of "them" or because they are one of "us." Maybe the people of C4GC just don't live in such a neighborhood. Maybe all their neighbors are "us." Not so where I live. Liberals, conservatives and moderates are not foreign species. We are just people living right next door to each other.

That's what Patriot Coaching and C4GC fail to understand. It is a concoction--a mirage--to subdivide, ostracize and vilify people who have political views that you deem, from your perspective, to require them to be treated differently. Should they ever stop trying to manipulate, aggravate and segregate; stop predetermining how one will be dealt with based on a perception of the person's politics; and, instead, talk to all people with honesty and respect, then maybe they'll get somewhere in local politics. For now, the records of C4GC and Patriot Coaching speak for the credibility of their tactics.