Best-Selling Author's Bold Suggestion: It's Time for Tea Party to Consider a New Name -- Here's Why

TheBlaze's Mike Opelka contributed to this report.

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#1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor made a bold suggestion while closing out the Independent Speaker series at Glenn Beck's "Man in the Moon" weekend on Saturday.

It may be time for the Tea Party to drop the title "Tea Party," he says.

The author, who describes himself as "a Tea Party guy through and through," explained that conservatives have much to learn from the tactics of the left.  ACORN didn't have to change its work when it came under fire several years ago, he noted -- it just got a new name.

"I'm throwing this out there..." Thor told the audience.  "Do we need to consider adopting another name so that we can reach out to young people...get beyond the stigma?  We don't have to change our values.  Do you think ACORN changed its values...?"

The audience seemed almost completely on board, throwing up a cheer immediately.

TheBlaze's Mike Opelka grabbed video from the speech:

Thor did not suggest a new name for the Tea Party, but spoke about how conservatives can go about "reclaiming" the Republican Party by utilizing the same tactics as the Democrats.

The audience may not agree with the opinions and policies of those on the left, but Thor said it's undeniable that they have a certain talent when it comes to messaging and organizing.

"Success leaves clues, and if you sow the same seeds, you'll reap the same rewards," he said.

One of Thor's ideas was to take out billboards in every black community across the United States reading: "There's a limit to what the Democrat Party can do for you, and you've been seeing it for decades." Below would be statistics like the black unemployment rate, incarceration rate, and more.  He noted that Democrats always warn Republicans about being on "the wrong side of history" in various issues -- Democrat stances in history could also be on the billboards, from slavery to Jim Crow laws to the Ku Klux Klan.

"There are gains that the Republicans can be making in those precincts, and I don't know why they're not trying harder," he said.

Another place where conservatives can use the tactics of the left, as he noted earlier, is in the language.

"Democrats are so good at this!" Thor said, suggesting the audience consider using the terms "tax fairness" instead of tax reform, or "entitlement security" instead of entitlement reform.

And on an organizational level, Thor said it is vitally important to gain control of the local precincts, since that's where primaries are won and candidates are selected.

"If you control the precincts, you control the Republican Party," he continued.  "It is the one concrete thing you can do."

Thor said that's how the left turned Colorado from red to blue.  They'll either move on to Texas next, or conservatives can go about reversing the process, he said.

Thor was so adamant about understanding the strategies of the left that he urged the audience to make Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" a number one bestseller on Amazon this summer.

"Anyone that goes to battle goes to battle knowing the mindset and tactics of their enemies," he explained.

Thor repeatedly emphasized that it's not a struggle between Republicans and Democrats, however.

Most Americans are proud of their country, he said.  The risk is from progressives, who he says "seek [nothing] short of their own revolution, one that will purposefully instill tyranny in order to instill social equality, which is just a fancy term for socialism."

"There is no justice in social justice, and there is no equality in social equality," he added.

Concluding on a positive note, Thor urged the audience: "Let's learn, let's study what works.  Learn why the Democrats have been so successful.  Because your contemporaries on the other side of the aisle --that's what they did."

Brad Thor joined TheBlaze Editor-in-Chief Scott Baker during a live BlazeCast from 'Man in the Moon' in Salt Lake City.  See the uncut and wide-ranging interview here:

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