How Republicans Can Win (in 2018 and beyond)

Democrats have been on a winning streak as of late, with Conor Lamb apparently winning in a Pennsylvania district Trump took by 20 points (as of this writing, Republicans had not conceded).  Democrats also recently won with special elections in Wisconsin, Missouri, Florida, and Virginia.  There are also a whopping 38 Republicans in the House and Senate who are not seeking reelection in 2018.  None of this bodes well for Republicans.

On the other hand, one year ago Republicans were 5-0 in special elections, and though there are more Republicans than Democrats not running for reelection, there are still 16 Democrats in the House who are not running.  There are additionally 24 Democrat Senate seats up for reelection this year, with only nine Republican seats up for reelection.

My dad used to tell me, “It’s never as good, or as bad, as it looks.”  In the coming election, my dad’s words offer good advice for both parties.

The Democrats seem to be surging, with the media, as well as an energized youth movement, in their hip pockets.  Democrats control our schools and universities, and with them, Democrats think they control our future.  Democrats would be wrong.

I gave a speech recently, to the Libertarian Party of Oakland County, Michigan, after which I was asked what libertarians could do to broaden their appeal.  Being a member of the Republican Party rather than the Libertarian Party, I’ve since given a good deal of thought as to what conservatives in general can do to broaden their appeal.

Nothing galvanizes a person into an ideology better than the realization that the ideology they have been previously taught was predicated on lies, and identity politics – which is at the heart of today’s Democrat Party – is predicated on lies.  To turn Democrats into Republicans, and to hasten the demise of the Democrat Party mentioned in The Implosion Explosion of the Democrat Party, I suggest that the Republican Party do the following:

1. Separate national from local tactics.  On a national level, run party against party.  Attack the Democrat leadership and agenda relentlessly.  Have televised programs where Republicans discuss the relevance and role of government.  Regain Reagan’s position that ‘Government is not the solution; government is the problem,’ and push government failures over and over again.  Show how government ‘solutions’ cause harm.  Show up on CNN, and other mainstream media sources, and CALL THEM OUT as disingenuous liars.  Locally, and only locally, focus on individual races, and the people running in them.
2. Take the offensive.  Democrats create outrage against Republicans primarily through the use of straw man arguments, which gain traction in the press.  Republicans then fall into the defensive, distancing themselves from those straw men.  The official Democrat Party Platform, in the meantime, is riddled with quotes that could have just as easily come out of the Communist Manifesto.  I should not hear a Republican speak without hearing a radical part of the Democrat platform quoted.  The Democrats have overplayed their hand in controlling our schools and universities, and taught students whacked-out ideas that are just not true.  Attack those positions.  Quote crazy statements constantly.  The Democrats are far less diverse in thought than we are, making them far more vulnerable to attacks against their extreme.
3. Normalize conservative media.  Global Liberty Media, Ben Shapiro, Louder with Crowder – there are very good sources of conservative news that could be elevated to compete directly with the mainstream media.  We need to broaden our voice, and we cannot do that with just Fox News and a bunch of Internet personalities.  We need to make conservativism mainstream again.
4. Ronald Reagan had another saying: “If you are explaining, you are losing.”  Explaining is defensive.  Those running for office should stay on the offensive as much as possible.  Let the media explain.
5. Do not attack with Christianity; counterattack instead.  Most conservatives are Christians.  I get that.  I’m a devout Christian myself.  But I don’t wear it on my sleeve, and conservativism needs to put religion in the back seat, focusing instead on things like reducing the size (and burden) of government.  Democrats HATE Christianity and will attack it anyway, and whenever they do, they create great sound bites to then counter-attack.  When we push religion, they counter-attack by making us sound anti-science.  If we wait for them to attack religion, we can make them sound extreme.
6. Embrace libertarianism as a legitimate part of the Republican base.  Libertarianism is the only part of the Republican party that is growing, and as socialist as the millennials are, their children and/or younger siblings (Gen Z) are libertarian.  As Gen Z starts to graduate high school, and starts entering college, we have a golden opportunity to make libertarianism the counter-culture of the youth, and if we seize that opportunity, we can start to turn Rules for Radicals against the very radicals Saul Alinsky mobilized.
7. Attack leftist ‘experts’.  When someone has a doctorate in feminist studies, lesbian dance theory, or some other such thing, and they are prominent enough to be on television, they have almost certainly said some radical things.  These are not degrees in actual fields of scientific inquiry; they are nothing more than eight year indoctrination programs, and having a doctorate in a field like this shows nothing more than that someone is indoctrinated enough to now indoctrinate others.  When someone with some degree in the humanities starts going off the scientific reservation, call them out on it.  Don’t be afraid to call them out as the indoctrinated fools they are, and whenever possible, use their own words against them.  If they quote their credentials, tell them they have a ‘doctorate in indoctrination, and nothing else.’
8. In individual races, make your opponent run against the official Democrat Platform, and against the Democrat leadership.  Pepper them doggedly with the very worst of everything on the left, and make them either accept it (in which case you can attack them), or repudiate it (in which case they jettison their base and weaken their party).  Politics is at least part a team sport, and the weakest part of the Democrat position is their platform.  It says something about the Democrat Party when the best way for a Democrat to get elected is to run against their own platform.  By all means, help them out.
9. Play offense with science.  Climate change is a great example.  What does the actual science tell us?  Hint: it is not that New York City and large swaths of Florida will be under water by the end of the century.  The science tells us that the climate is changing, and that mankind has had some impact, but the majority of climate scientists believe that our impact is insignificant, and as such sea levels will continue to rise by about a centimeter a decade, or an inch every 100 years, just as they have been doing since the end of the last ice age.  Climate change is but one example of where science is on our side, and yet we play defense.  Why do Republicans play defense when the actual science supports us?
10. People are naturally untrusting of two things: government, and greed.  The Democrat narrative is that private industry is greedy, and so government must control everything.  We can counter that by showing how government is greedy too.  Private industry lacks the ability to use force in generating income, whereas government has a monopoly on the legal use of force.  Greed in government is far more dangerous than is greed in private industry, and whereas greed in the private industry also encourages innovation and improvement, in government greed is never a positive force.  The Republican solution is mankind’s inherent ability to innovate, and we can share countless examples of innovation in the private sector solving problems.  We can also show that whereas most things become less expensive over time (after adjusting for inflation), those things the government decides to make ‘more affordable’ are also all of the things that become less affordable over time.  From healthcare to college tuition, everything the government touches, it destroys.
11. We don’t have to always claim to know the solutions to problems.  We can have roundtable discussions where different Republican thinkers discuss different possible solutions to societal problems.  The Republican Party has a diverse range of belief, and we can showcase that diversity of thought without having to always single in on any one solution.  At the same time, the left has far less diversity of thought, and as a consequence, their ‘solutions’ should be attacked incessantly.
12. Counterattack on emotionally divisive issues.  Republicans need not bring up abortion.  Let Democrats do that, and then attack the extreme of their position.  Republicans need not bring up the Second Amendment.  Let Democrats do that, and then attack the extreme of their position.  As with Christianity, Democrats love to talk about these issues, and can be made to look extremist if we counter-attack rather than opening with a direct salvo.
13. We need to use humor and wit.  We also need to discuss complex topics in ways that are easy to understand.  Milton Friedman was a master of humor and wit, as was Ronald Reagan.  Thomas Sowell is a master at making complex topics sound simple – though Doctor Sowell is now largely retired.  While there are conservatives who are more than capable of doing the same things today, they do not have enough prominence.  Those who are prominent usually sound angry, and though anger (and fear) are great for motivating the base, anger does not sell an ideology to new people.  We need more voices, using wit, clarity, and humor.
14. We have to rebrand ourselves as an inclusive party of ideals, rather than being a party of ‘whiteness.’  At the same time, we have to rebrand the Democrat Party as a party of division and hate.  Articles such as American Apartheid, and Stop Teaching Hate provide examples of proper, factually based branding.  This sort of thing needs to be the bread and butter of conservativism.
15. We need to attend liberal events and hound liberals with the same negativity they hound our speakers with.  We should let liberals speak – I’m not suggesting we try to shut them down like they do us – but we need people in the room, who can ask hard, challenging, pointed questions that make liberals look bad.  I would love to see someone ask Nancy Pelosi, on live television, why she wants to be protected by armed body guards, but is not willing to let children be protected by armed guards in schools.  “Are my children worth less than you are worth?” the parent could ask.  In this case, be angry, and tell Nancy Pelosi (or whomever the Democrat is) that you hold her personally responsible for the death of those children.
16. Change the language.  The opposite of ‘gun control’ would be guns out of control.  The opposite of ‘gun free zones’ would be zones where everyone has a gun.  Why do we accept phrases chosen by the left?  Nobody wants guns to be out of control.  The question is one of whether the people should control their own guns, or whether the government should control them.  When we hear the left say, ‘gun control,’ we should correct them, and say, ‘you mean anti-gun people.’  When we hear the left say ‘gun free zones,’ we should correct them and say, ‘you mean unprotected spaces.’  Think of the difference in connotations between a ‘gun free zone,’ and an ‘unprotected space’.  Think of how the sentence ‘My school is a gun free zone where nobody is supposed to have a gun’ sounds, compared to the sentence, ‘My school is an unprotected space where someone who brings a gun can kill, unchallenged.’  We need to ridicule the mainstream media, including on their own shows, asking them why the solution to the personal protection needs of Democrat politicians is to have armed bodyguards, whereas the solution to gun killings is to turn our schools into unprotected spaces.  I would LOVE to be on CNN when someone says, “gun free zone.”  I would immediately correct them, and when they refuse to acknowledge that ‘gun free zone’ is not the correct phrase, I would ask, “How ‘gun free’ was Columbine while Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were committing their massacre?  During the massacre, would you say that the phrase ‘gun free zone,’ or ‘unprotected space,’ was more fitting?”  These specific phrases are just examples.  The political lexicon is filled with them, and the left is much better at picking phrases that have the connotation they want, than we are.  Conservatives need to be better.
17. We cannot, and should not, hide Trump.  We can, and should, however, keep him operating as a national figure, and maintain a level of personal distance from Trump.  Trump can and should endorse conservative candidates, and can even give speeches in local elections, but Trump’s focus should be national.  Other Republicans need to memorize the phrase, “I support President Trump when and where I agree with him, and since countries are driven by policies rather than personalities, I will continue to support the President, when and where I agree with him.  At the same time, I am not Donald Trump.”  The Democrats are going to run a full-court-press against Trump in the coming 2018 midterms, and we want to let Trump fight that fight, while trying to keep each individual race about the people actually running.

The Democrat Party is weak and disjointed.  Their platform is a rambling pile of hatred and hyperbole, much of which was borrowed almost straight out of the Communist Manifesto.  The Democrat base is based on hate and outrage.  The Democrats will beat themselves if we just call them out.  Democrats are doing everything they can to destroy their own party.  It is time for Republicans to help Democrats in that endeavor.

Republicans lose by being fearful.  Republicans lose by avoiding our platform, and running on special interests.  Republicans lose by talking like politicians, rather than statesmen.  Republicans win by going on the attack, calling Democrats out as the whacked-out lunatics they portend themselves to be.