A friend just sent me this editorial from the National Review on the Republican strategy for 2014. In short, it’s essentially to keep quiet and hope that people who are down on Obamacare and Obama, in general, will vote for them.

Never in the history of modern civilization has there been a company (the GOP, in this case) with a better product (conservatism) and a worse marketing department than the Republican Party.

Their inability to understand and/or articulate their own philosophy is staggering, and their reluctance to do so goes beyond puzzling.

While the Democrats are continually, day after day, telling the country on television news, late night talk shows, through social media, in email and through their grassroots networks what they stand for, the Republican Party prefers to remain silent on what they stand for.

A great example of their strategy comes from the Romney campaign. Instead of building an email list and communicating targeted talking points that describe what conservatism is all about and what conservatives want for the four years leading up to the election, they opted to save up a bunch of money to run television ads for the two months before election day.

Their argument was that people don’t start paying attention until then. But what they’re missing is the relationship building aspect of marketing.

The hardcore and engaged citizens who are either already on the side of conservatism or open-minded to the message should be contacted as early as possible. Once you can win them over you can start feeding them targeted messaging and talking points that they can take and share with their friends via live conversation or social media outlets.

Sure, the Obama campaign did this brilliantly, but even if they hadn’t, it’s the right way to sell your product.

In 2014, the companies that are successful, regardless of their products, are building relationships with their customers and getting permission to communicate with them. They also have long term content strategies that are constantly providing their customers with interesting, pithy and easily-shared content that they’re willing and excited to forward to their friends and family.

When you do hear the political class of Republicans speak, they spend little time talking about what conservatism is all about and telling people what they’re for. They usually spend whatever screen time they get telling us all, ad nauseum, why Obama and his policies are bad.

That’s fine, but we see that every day. So, what are the Republicans going to do about it.

The Tea Party is made up of the real conservatives who are always conflicted with whether or not to try and take over the Republican Party or distance themselves. But even the Tea Party gets caught in the trap of complaining about Democrat policies and politicians without ever talking about what they stand for and teaching people what conservatism is all about.

Even Ted Cruz, the Tea Party favorite, while certainly willing to talk about his beliefs and is courageous in his principles, often misses the chance to just talk about what conservatism is and how America’s status as the superpower was based on the principles of conservatism.

I’ve watched for nearly 30 years as the Republican Party has been unable, or unwilling, to stand up for their principles and teach people what they believe. They’re constantly letting themselves be defined by Democrat politicians who are all too willing to do it.

If a Republican is going to win the next presidential election, they’re going to do it by starting relationship building messaging with their voters right now. Last minute ads and speeches are not going to get it done anymore.

I’ve been trying to tell them this for 20 years. I finally took matters into my own hands and wrote them a handbook. If only they’d give my plan a try. It’s not like anything they’ve been doing has been working…