Republicans Need an Agenda and a Message — Yesterday — Gadsden
Republicans had better get in front of the messaging and produce an agenda, because right now the agenda is being set by the media and the Democrats.
The media decides what is important, the media decides what you should be concerned about. Right now, that is Trump and abortion. The media and the Democrats would have you believe the Supreme Court outlawed abortion (it did no such thing) or — failing that — that states across the nation are banning abortion. I’m not even going to cite a source there — I got tired of looking. I have yet to find any state that has banned abortion at all times and in all cases — every case I looked at had exceptions (if a reader knows of a case of a full ban, by all means let me know).
Trump is not helping the Republican cause now either. He just released a statement calling to have himself installed as president — or for an election “redo.” I can’t find any election redo provisions in the Constitution. Even if team Trump could prove the election was stolen (and they have not proven this), it wouldn’t matter one wit at this point. And yes, I am considering the recent revelation that the FBI helped kill the Hunter Biden laptop story — once again, it doesn’t matter now — not to the 2020 election results. This is not an issue that is going to attract voters in 2022 or 2024. 2020 is just “so two years ago” now.
But the media and the left want you to believe otherwise. They want you thinking about Trump and Mar-a-Lago. They want you to be grateful for a massive give-away to student loan borrowers and massive spending bills. The press agrees.
They don’t want you thinking about interest rates, inflation, the prices in the grocery stores or at the gas pumps. They don’t want you thinking about the erosion of your rights via gun control laws, mask mandates, and vaccine mandates. And they certainly don’t want you to pay any attention to what goes on in schools, the changes to the CDC recommendations, or the amount of money we are sending to Ukraine.
Just scan the news, look at CBS, NBC, and ABC. It will only take a few moments to figure out what the media wants you thinking about. And — shockingly — what the media wants you thinking about is precisely what the Democrats want you thinking about.
Back in October 2021, Ryan at Living With Liberty wrote a very detailed article on the causes of our supply chain issues. I don’t recall anyone in the MSM digging into the reasons why at the time. Ryan pointed out the complexities involved; the news media won’t do this. The news media wants one a liner that makes Republicans look bad, if they can’t get that they won’t bother.
On August 29, 2022 AP and the MSM began reporting on unrest in Iraq. Rucksack Radio news was sounding the alarm several days before — reporting the unrest in both Libya and Iraq on their Telegram channel. Rucksack also sounded the alarm on the potential impact of oil prices several days earlier as well. On August 29, apparently the oil markets are also becoming concerned. On August 30, CBS Radio finally reported on the unrest in Iraq, but said nothing of Libya and nothing of the impact on oil prices. Rucksack had been following events in the region for months.
Perhaps the media would rather look the other way on what is going on in Iraq and Libya and the potential impacts these events may have on gas prices because it doesn’t fit the current narrative very well. After all, Biden has been crowing about gas prices falling all summer (never mind that they went up $3/gallon before they came down $.75). A spike in fuel prices might be inconvenient right now. And never mind that this is the one-year anniversary of another chaotic withdrawal from another of our “nation building” projects. Now might be a bad time to conjure up visions of the fall of Saigon, the departure from Afghanistan, and Benghazi.
I point these cases out because the media and the left are leading Republicans to electoral slaughter — and Republicans (voters and politicians) are letting them. Sure — the House still looks like it will flip, the Senate not so much. That may not be a slaughter but is certainly falls short of what conservatives need.
Just an aside: Is it just me that notices that one side is crowing about how we are supporting Ukraine and fighting the evil Russians and the other side is outraged about the enormous (and unaccountable) amount of money we are spending, and neither side is talking about a path to END THE GODDAMNED WAR? Maybe it’s just me.
Anyway.
Republicans need to start ignoring the non-issues and start talking about the issues that are in the lap of every American right now.
Stop talking about abortion bans. As it stands right now, abortion is in the hands of state legislatures. Let the legislators at the state level deal with it. Take the win for upholding the Constitution (Dobbs) and leave it there. Dobbs may well cost Republicans votes this fall — don’t make it any worse. It just so happens Rich Lowry at National Review has some excellent advice for Republicans on this topic right here.
Stop talking about Trump and the 2020 election. Trump is not on any ballot and this is not a presidential election cycle. Unless someone invents a time machine, the 2020 election is what it is — and will not change. This is not a topic that will gain any votes from independents or the center. The people that agree with you on this already agree with you, the people that don’t won’t be swayed.
There are some issues that are (or soon will be) impacting every voter in the nation. Those are the issues Republicans should be talking about.
Inflation is impacting everyone right now. Food prices, housing costs, fuel prices. Biden and the Democrats are making it worse with massive spending bills. The laughably titled “Inflation Reduction Act” is nothing but a massive spending bill that will make inflation worse.
Biden has vowed that if Democrats take majorities in both houses this fall, they will pass an assault weapons ban. This of course will do nothing to reduce crime or violence, but it will compromise the ability of law-abiding citizens to defend themselves in the face of emboldened criminals — emboldened by Democrat policy decisions. Defund the cops — and disarm the citizens — I rather doubt that appeals to most citizens. Just as the Inflation Reduction Act does nothing about inflation, a ban on semi-automatic rifles will do nothing to address violent crime. The law-abiding citizens it will impact are not the problem.
Transferring student loan debt to citizens that never took out any such loans would seem to be a mistake on the part of the left. The working-class folks that never borrowed — or if they did, already paid — now get to foot the bill for people who statistically make quite a lot more money than they do. People with college degrees are getting a $10K or $20K payday, from the people that can least afford it to the people that least need it.
Increasing fuel prices drive increased prices across the board. Farmers have to buy fuel. Everything you see in the grocery store got there by truck — and trucks need fuel. Biden attacking pipelines and drill leases has not helped the oil futures market. And — it is damned hard to tell who or what such measures have helped. This is pure virtue signaling at the expense of the people.
Green policies in Europe and elsewhere are threatening the global food supply. The U.S. media give this very little coverage. Shri Lanka imploding, the farmers protesting in the Netherlands, and now it seems Canada is about to head down the same path. Most of this driven by government restrictions on fertilizers. Biden and the Democrats refuse to distance themselves from this nonsense.
California and Washington aim to ban the sale of new gasoline powered cars by 2035. Neither admit that the electric power generating capacity, the distribution grid, and the availability of charging stations won’t support this — not even close. And never mind that electric vehicles simply are not capable of doing some things consumers need cars to do — like drive from Seattle to Salt Lake. Washington governor Inslee is looking at removing dams from the Snake River. However, he just announced recently that project is basically on hold because we don’t have viable options to replace the electric power, irrigation water, and transportation those dams provide (no kidding). I must give credit where credit is due — this may be the only sensible thing I’ve ever heard come out of his mouth.
The subject of crime should give Republicans plenty of ammo (excuse the pun). Washington state is number one in the nation for catalytic converter theft, and either is or is on track to be number one in car theft (per capita). This is a direct result of Democrat policies that are abusive to law enforcement and soft on crime. Washington is far from the only example — look at any major city run by Democrats. Businesses are closing, people are moving out, and the Democrat leaders refuse to even entertain the idea that their policies are not working.
And what to make of the Democrats future plans at the national level? Joe Biden is in obvious cognitive decline. And then we have Kamala, a literal heartbeat away from the presidency, who sounds like a 660’s hippy named “Sky” that talks about existentialism, consciousness, and asks profound questions like “We know the sound of two hands clapping, but what is the sound of one hand clapping?” No rational person views her as a good candidate for Commander in Chief.
Republicans need to call out the absolutist thinking on the left. More importantly, Republicans need to abandon their own absolutist thinking and put forward an agenda that will appeal to a majority of voters. Nothing changes, and nothing improves if we can’t win elections.
The Democrats are handing the Republicans a gift here. But the Republicans continue to let the other side set the narrative. Republicans have tons to work with here — if only they would do the work.
Gadsden1
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Originally published at https://gadsden1.com on August 31, 2022.
