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I'm back from D.C. after a whirlwind weekend. Let me tell you: it was a grand old party.

Ten months ago, the idea of abandoning my children and husband for a weekend to attend a protest in Washington D.C., would never have crossed my mind. Group protests are simply not in my nature. I'm a conservative. Conservatives don't travel in a herd. We are fiercely independent. While some may say "Lead, Follow or Get out of the Way," I've always preferred the simpler: "Get out of the Way." We don't like people telling us what to do, where to be, what to say, or how to say it. That's probably the reason why so many conservatives start their own businesses and hesitate before becoming directly involved in grassroots political activities.

When my husband mentioned attending a Tea Party in April, I hedged. I am a middle class working mother of two elementary-aged children. The rally was smack dab in the middle of a work and school week and I knew that finding a sitter would require skill, persistence, and fifty dollars. All of the above could be deemed worth it if the end prize was hanging out with my husband over appetizers and a few drinks, but fighting rush hour traffic to stand in the middle of downtown Atlanta with strangers? I wasn't so sure about that. Besides, I had kind of checked out of politics for awhile.

I'm ashamed to say that like many of my fellow GOPers, a few weeks after the November election, I sought my own mental "secure undisclosed location" and unplugged. Between Oprah's incessant gloating, the mainstream media's cheerleading, and the new administration's odd Office of the President Elect logo-neering--I knew it was going to be a long, ridiculous four years of "it's our turn now" condescension. I didn't want any part of it.

But where could I hide?

It wasn't going to be easy to walk away from a 25-year obsession with all things political. I am an Alex P. Keaton Republican who came of age during the Reagan years and eventually married a man who shared my passion for politics. During both presidential and midterm elections, we set up a control center that rivals CTU so we could be in constant contact with our GOP friends and family members "in the field". It was a huge fight in both 2000 and in 2004, and there were plenty of times that it seemed like the contest could have gone either way. But something changed the last time. The only real doubt was whether Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama would be the democrat candidate. And once his mind-numbing happy talk and media support began to eclipse a well-qualified Hillary Clinton, I began to suspect the worst: there was not going to be a contest, there was going to be a coronation.

The thumping didn't surprise me.

The RNC that performed so brilliantly in 2004 was merely watching from the sidelines. The only voice I heard from the RNC was on the other end of the phone line. They called me every other week asking for money. Sorry, guys, but to pull a quote from Glengarry Glen Ross: coffee is for closers. Figure out how to leverage your huge membership. Stop having your candidates waste their time with media outlets that will never give a Republican a fair shake. Give some money to the organizations that actually do something. Figure out an honest and effective way to compete against the liberal network of community organizers who are paid to blog and protest. Oh, and while you are at it--put your weight behind real conservatives.

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