THE PATH TO REPUBLICAN SUCCESS
What Will Work
“Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”
- Ronald Reagan
I see Republicans vying for the nomination hitting back at Trump, rather than really establishing a position. The quote above, in Reagan’s successful campaign against Carter, highlights the value of running against someone who has failed our country and led us far down the road to disaster.
While I believe going after Biden for his criminal behavior is valid for sitting Congressmen, this is not the business of the primary candidates. Nor is his clearly impaired mental health. People aren’t getting excited enough about Haley or DeSantis, but they should. The focus should be on the contrast between where we are now, regarding economics, opportunity, security, etc.
You might say that plays into Trump’s wheelhouse, but he doesn’t focus on this. A candidate that speaks to the disastrous policies that Joe Biden has implemented, with a clear statement of how they will fix these problems would stand out. People want to believe we can go back to a prosperous country, one where people who work hard can better themselves…and even buy a house someday. We should be power exporters, not desperate beggars hoping for some help from OPEC. We should have secure borders, where we choose who comes here legally, and limit refugee status to those who face real danger (not the economic migrants bleeding us dry).
We want to hear from a strong candidate who will intimidate powers like Putin and Xi. Trump did it. Reagan did it. Countries, and their Presidents, should never seek to be loved, only feared. That might worry the EU leaders and WEF (I’d hope it would), but will keep us safer and also help to protect our allies. Does anyone believe Putin would have taken the risk to invade Ukraine with a strong President? He didn’t during Trump’s term. Would we have made such a disastrous exit from Afghanistan under Trump, leaving people and armaments behind? Our enemies are emboldened by a perception that we are weak and incapable of acting like the super power we are.
The other part of this is to differentiate yourself from Trump. Not by bashing him, but offering concrete alternatives. For example, to posit that another virus might come from China, but we’ve learned our lesson. First, focus on viable treatments, even if this angers Big Pharma. Don’t shut down the country. Those young people who become immune after exposure help protect the more vulnerable. Don’t impose mandates on people. Otherwise, you let the CCP win.
Protectionism doesn’t work; it impacts the middle class here more than it hurts other countries. And typically, we don’t have enemies of our trading partners. Kick the bad players out of economic forums, but don’t stop trade except in the rare case of punishment for failure to comply with agreed terms (Iran).
Promote global trade, but not globalism. Get us out of all UN agencies and make them find another home. I’m sure NY can use the real estate. Decry the disastrous future the WEF promises. We don’t need that. Listen to the real climate scientists who will tell you that CO2 isn’t our enemy and that the current approaches to climate management will bankrupt countries with little impact on the changing climate. Close our borders, mostly by giving illegals nothing if they come. Use e-Verify to ensure they can’t get jobs our housing. They’ll self-deport or simply fail to come.
Name problems and solutions. That’s what people want to hear. It’s time for bold and concrete proposals. That’s how you win.
“It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.”
― Ronald Reagan
On the one hand, Trump, or anyone legally qualified should be able to run for office. The issue is we know how the left will fight him every step of the way regardless of the validity of the action. The country doesn’t need another four years of infighting. The other side is that can we really expect a different non-confrontational Congress with any other candidate? I have no doubt DeSantis would get the same treatment as Trump. We have to elect officials who put America first over and above their personal agendas.
While these things are all true, they (and the GOP primary field) miss the driving force behind Trump: rage. Trump was elected on a wave of nova-hot rage, felt by the general public and toward pretty much the entirety of the federal apparatus. Trump's base feels betrayed by the government they had been taught to revere, no longer believe the federal government can ever fix anything, and want Trump to burn it down. Trump was a grenade rolled into the halls of Washington, with the genuine intention of blowing stuff up.
In fairness, I don't think Trump really understood it the first time around. I believed then, and I still believe, that Trump never intended to actually win. He'd use it for free publicity and then ride that to the creation of his own Ted-Turneresque TV channel empire. He flirted with that populist rage, and found himself vaulting WAY further than he had intended. That's why his first term was so impossibly stupid. And it was impossibly stupid. Objectively, Trump brought us the bump stock ban and Anthony Fauci. Thanks, Don.
So he floundered around through that first term, unsure of what to actually do or how to actually do it, or what he even wanted to do in the first place. Because he never intended to actually be there. In his floundering, though, he accidentally unmasked the very thing his base hated so. He ripped back the curtain (because he tripped on it) and showed the shadowy powermongering going on among those who style themselves the ruling class. He knew they were there. He was one of them. But then they turned on him.
So now, for Trump, it might actually be personal. He might be just as enraged as those voting for him now. And his base senses it. He may not have been totally the guy they wanted in 2016. But he may well be that now, because he's just as pissed as they are. What that means, well, we'll see.
This is what the primary field doesn't get. They don't know how to tap the rage. For them, it's not personal. It's just politics. And Trump's base just doesn't have patience for politics this election.