Here’s a thought for Republicans who want to grow the party in a more conservative but non-country-club direction: opportunity is lying in the street begging to be picked up. If the Republican party can be re-aligned in a way that melds the basic conservatism of most Americans with the patriotic and America-positive themes struck by Donald Trump, there is a once-in-a-generation chance to construct a coalition that will dominate the politics of the Republic for decades to come.
But first, Republicans will have to come to grips with the why of Donald Trump’s victory in 2016. He beat everyone the party threw at him, from smarmy, trust-fund boys like Mitt Romney to fire eaters like Ted Cruz. And he did it with no experience, no inside backing and no respect. Which made him much more like the people who supported him than any of his opponents. He reflected them, and they felt it. When he derailed the Clinton Coronation Express, it was the revenge of the Deplorables.
Donald Trump is a fighter, first and foremost. If you attack him, he’ll punch you in the mouth. Understanding and compromise come after you agree to take him seriously. That’s something most Americans understand, and they appreciate a person who fights for them and their interests.
Which is why the media, the bureaucratic state and most of the political class were his enemies: they see the American people as requiring administration and supervision by those who are their betters, namely, themselves. There’s no room in the big bureaucracy/big media/big tech/big politics state for a man who says he is for the people and their country, and then proceeds to do his damnedest to fulfill his promises to them; it exposes them for the charlatans and exploiters they are.
In the last election, Donald Trump won a greater percentage of minority votes than any Republican in the past 60 years. Why? Because his policies made it possible for more minorities to get more jobs and better their economic condition that ever before in American history. And because he promised them much more of the same, without condescension. The aftermath of this election offers Republicans an opportunity for profound and lasting inroads into these communities, if only they will treat those community members as adults with the same goals and desires as most other Americans, rather than as dull children to be bribed with promises of cookies later if they behave and vote Democrat.
Donald Trump bettered his performance overall, gaining six million more votes that in 2016. Republicans should study his voters carefully, because they are not people to be despised. Unlike the public description of Trump voters given by Democrats, these are people who, for the most part, get up early, work hard, love their families, care about their neighbors and love their country. They harbor few illusions about life and absolutely none about politicians in $2,000 suits who claim to be just like them.
The next couple years will offer a series of profound changes from the last four, in ways that will not rebound to the advantage of the average American. They will hear from the cognoscenti of politics, the academy and the media that theirs is a completely racist society, built on the expropriation and exploitation of others; that they are racist themselves, and everything they have accomplished is due to their invisible privileges and crimes. Since one can take only so much of this sort of untruth, there will be a backlash, and it will be both wide and deep. Add the far-Left knee-jerk predilections which will inevitably float to the surface in a Harris-Biden administration: loathing for fossil fuels and guns; distrust for the propertied or monied, save for their own pet capitalists; a tendency to think that solving the world’s problems is of greater importance that the impact that scratching such an itch will have on those Americans who are called to pay the price; and the usual authoritarian tendencies inherent in any Leftist regime; one has a foolproof formula for disaffection among all by the most obdurate and rabidly partisan of Americans.
But to take full advantage of these opportunities, Republicans will have to move swiftly and surely into the breech; they will have to develop a simple, straightforward message that appeals to the vast majority of Americans likely to become disenchanted with the grand schemes and empty promises of the Democrats’ left wing. Such a message should include, but is certainly not limited to, the following:
“The Republican party is open to all citizens who believe as we do; skin color, national origin, gender, religion, wealth – these are superfluous to our identity as Americans. Anyone who proposes distinctions among our fellow Americans based on these outward characteristics is proposing the most un-American thought that our worth is somehow related to them. We wholeheartedly reject this poisonous idea, and welcome all who think similarly.
The Republican party is patriotic, loving our country and wanting only the best for it and its citizens. We think that, although our country is imperfect it is far preferable to any other and, as citizens we each have a duty to make it better than we found it.
Republicans believe in the worth of the individual, and that the highest role of government is to secure individuals citizens’ inalienable rights to life, liberty and property. While government should be invested with the power and resources necessary to these ends, it must be strictly limited and carefully controlled lest it become a threat to that which it is entrusted to protect. To that end, a division of powers among the branches of the Federal government and among Federal, state and local authorities must be rigorously maintained and respected.
Republicans recognize that, as human capacities, inclinations and even luck differ, so will their lives and fortunes differ. We also recognize that, while alleviating real suffering is appropriate, expropriating the accumulated earnings of one citizen to give to another only because that other has less, is a form of theft. To engage in such on a grand scale in expectation of support from the clients thereby created is a step on the road to tyranny.”
There are doubtless other ideas, and other appeals. But the important thing is to act. This is the moment in which the potential for a major realignment of the American political system is possible, but that moment won’t last long. Donald Trump has opened the door; Republicans have only to walk through it to benefit. Or they can go back to sleep and find themselves in the minority for another 26 years, as they did in 1955.
Any bets?