Staff Reports
Republicans will need to invest more than billions of dollars in television advertisements that feature raging looters and hopeless unemployed people if they want to unify their party and reshape American politics in their favor. They must present a vision of hope based on a realistic plan. Americans are prepared for a change from the gloom and stagnation of the Democratic Party. Send it their way.
The growing gap inside the party is preventing Republicans from establishing a clear program they can agree on. The legacy party is represented on one side by Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and other purportedly moderate Republicans. They are opposed by the MAGA movement, which is spearheaded by Donald Trump and supported by a number of organizations including the Freedom Caucus, which now controls a majority of House Republicans.
The chance to mend this breach comes with the American electorate, whose opinions on a few key policy matters are forming a consensus that is stronger than the political parties that purport to speak for them. Republicans would gain a populist group of voters by embracing and promoting these unifying themes, which would include nearly all grassroots Republicans, several independents, and perhaps millions of Democrats. This message will appeal to voters across ideological divides and regardless of their income or group identity.
These fundamental beliefs about education, immigration, affirmative action, and climate change could help Republicans realign American society.
Strong special interests in both the Democratic and Republican parties will view any implementation of these fundamental principles as a danger to their agenda, as these policies have the ability to unite grassroots voters. However, Republican leaders and their party will only gain the legitimacy they'll need to succeed if they are advocated without compromise and only by leaning into the controversy and the heresy.
America would realign if these four issues were resolved, making it much more equipped to handle all future challenges. Restoring education will result in skilled workers and voters who are well-informed. Individual character and industrial competitiveness will be developed through merit-based immigration, college admissions, and hiring practixes in business. Realistic energy and infrastructure measures would save small companies, restore America's affordability, ease world tensions, dismantle an out-of-control oligarchy, and even refocus attention on real environmental issues if the "climate agenda" is replaced.
Details are crucial in all four scenarios.
Republicans should support school choice, for instance, if parents are given annual payment vouchers they can use at either public or private schools. More importantly, traditional public schools should be radically reorganized with curricula based on classical education techniques that emphasize character development, a solid foundation in the ideals of Western Civilization, and the development of core math, reading, and writing skills.
Regaining control of America's borders is necessary but insufficient when it comes to immigration. It is essential to totally restructure America's immigration laws so that immigrants with the skills our country genuinely needs are given priority. The majority of immigration to America need to be decided on merit. America cannot take in all of the world's destitute people. If Americans wish to act with charity in their foreign policy, aid and investment in impoverished countries can benefit hundreds of millions of people considerably more affordably than mass immigration.
A new Republican agenda that is coherent can be framed by moral reasons for each tenet. The moral reason for abolishing affirmative action and other purportedly antiracist and antisexist practices that continue in American society is rejecting the fallacious premise that America is still a fundamentally racist country. Republicans must also defend meritocracy as the only system that can guarantee everyone in a society fair opportunities. It is the only way to guarantee that people would understand that success in life comes from perseverance and acquired skills. Without a meritocracy, people lose their moral integrity and society becomes corrupt. Although meritocracy is difficult, there is no other option.
The idea that climate change, brought on by human-caused carbon dioxide emissions, constitutes an existential threat to the planet, is the worst threat to freedom and the biggest fallacy that Republicans need to replace. There isn't. Republicans must reject that premise and replace it with a new one that is more sustainable and causes less harm than so-called renewable energy: that the extraction and clean burning of oil, gas, and coal, utilizing the most cutting-edge technologies, is the way to peace and prosperity.
The climate agenda, which is supported by almost all American politicians, lowers the standard of life for everybody but the wealthiest citizens. Along with environmental extremism in general, it almost eliminates the middle class and concentrates wealth in the hands of multinational businesses and billionaires. Misguided, hardline environmentalist regulations have already prevented average Americans from buying homes and accumulating money for future generations. Environmentalist legislation and regulations have a regressive effect on property that isn't controlled by companies or wealthy individuals, rather than directly on private property. Denying common Americans the chance to own property removes the motivation for hard effort and achievement. It is a further attack on meritocracy.
The four contentious tenets of merit-based immigration, meritocracy in place of affirmative action, classical education and school choice, and a commitment to prosperity through an all-of-the-above energy strategy that includes oil, gas, coal, and nuclear power must be accepted by Republicans without reservation.
All of these issues are ones that Donald Trump vehemently supports. Republicans will have a difficult time locating additional prominent figures who will support them without reservation. Republicans are in fact just RINOs, members of the uniparty, who are contributing to the inevitable decline of a great country without reaching collective agreement on these fundamental and radically divergent positions on the issues of education, immigration, meritocracy, energy, and the environment.
These measures have the backing of those who voted for Trump. They require leadership that has the guts to elevate every single one of them, not just one or two. Republican candidates should be required by voters to respond to these four inquiries:
Will you advocate for the following causes: 1) school choice and classical curricula in public schools; 2) safe borders and merit-based immigration; 3) an end to all forms of racial and gender discrimination; and 4) unlimited nuclear and fossil fuel development?
There are many other significant issues, but these four are the most fundamentally divisive while yet having the power to appeal to American voters from all demographics and political ideologies. Many other problems will be resolved by themselves if these four objectives are met.
Even if their tone is diplomatic and their reasoning is sound, leaders who commit to these four objectives will be criticized, just like Trump was. When that time comes, voters will understand that it was not Trump's character that allowed for seven years of nonstop criticism of him and every one of his fans. It was the policies he fought for and still does.
Majorities will be attracted across all voting segments by the strength and potential of these ideas, expressed without hesitation or compromise by a united Republican Party. The entire crooked and prejudiced system cannot halt the weight of the landslide if the electorate is realigned.
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on American Greatness.
