Political junkies of both parties under the age of thirty may never have heard of Richard Viguerie. They would do well to learn more about about his career, and his thoughts about the future of conservatism in America.

A native of Pasadena, Texas, Viguerie was the originator of innovative direct mail fundraising  techniques that bankrolled an array of conservative causes. Viguerie got his start in politics back in 1961, when he was named the Executive Secretary of William Buckley's newly formed Young Americans for Freedom. It was that group that pushed Barry Goldwater's 1964 Presidential Campaign. Goldwater's drubbing by Lyndon Johnson set the stage for more than a decade of grass roots conservative organizing that culminated in Ronald Reagan's election to the Presidency in 1980.

Vigurie was right in the middle of all of these efforts. In 1965, he founded American Target, a company that thrives to this day in Manassas, Virginia. In a 2000 interview with Campaigns and Elections magazine, Viguerie said he

"Pioneered political use of computerized direct mail .That technology was the Internet of its day: it enabled conservatives to get around liberals' dominance of the mass media; it allowed thousands of conservative candidates, organizations and causes to get their messages to grassroots Americans."

Fully engaged and vigorously involved today at the age of seventy-five, Viguerie spoke with Red County in an exclusive interview on November 19, 2008.

Echoing a theme described in his most recent book, Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause, Viguerie outlined his plan that a "Third Force" is needed to return the conservative movement to prominence in the country.

"It will take six to eight years, I think, but we can change the United States back to a conservatively governed country. By that I mean a conservative President, a conservative Congress, conservative Governors and conservative state legislatures," he said.

"The first time we did it in the country, back in the 1970's and 1980 we did it by reverse engineering what the Democrats had done.  They had PACS and single issue groups before we did, and so we just built that infrastructure up and did it better than they had. We need to do the same kind of reverse engineering now, beating them at their own game over the next six to eight years."

The theme of staying on top of new technologies has been central to Viguerie's career. He advanced it in his 2004 book America's Right Turn: How The Conservatives Used New And Alternative Media To Take Power, and has a new yet to be titled book scheduled for release in early 2009 on the same topic.

Viguerie points to 1996 as the year the Republican Party lost its way.

"Since 1996, when Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton had the standoff about shutting the government down over spending, and Newt blinked, well ever since then, the Republican Party has lost its way."

Viguerie went to elaborate on what he means by a "Third Force".

"We need thousands of independent organizations focused on a conservative policies, run by thousands of new young conservative leaders. These groups don't have to agree on everything, they just need to all be moving in the same direction."

The 2008 Republican election debacle, according to Viguerie, means new leadership is needed.

"We need to get rid of the Congressional leadership - McConnell, Boehner, and most state party organizations. These guys who came in 1994 claimed they wanted to clean out the cesspool that is Washington... A few years later they went back to their districts and said... wait a minute, I got it wrong, Washington's not a cess pool, it's really a hot tub... and I like the water !"

Optimistic, upbeat, and described by others as sometimes cantankerous, Viguerie is ready to be a leader in the long term challenge to restore conservative leadership to America.

"I'm 75 years old, and I'm working 14 hours a day to make it happen."

Conservatives of all ages, but especially those under forty, would be well advised to follow Viguerie's example.