Up until now I have focused on the Long Game: reforming the public schools so the next generation won't be Woke, getting the gender bending poisons our of our environment so the next generation won't be gay or autistic, getting some of the intellectual elite back into church, etc. I had been assuming that Conservatism Inc. can do a good enough job playing the Short Game, to buy time enough for my Long Game strategies to take effect.
My assumption was reasonable: a Red Wave in 2022 should be a given. The economy is bad, crime is way up, and the Democrats have gone all in against God, Family, and the American Way. Joe Biden has appointed a menagerie of weirdos including an outright Satanist. Biden went full on Demented Sith Lord when he gave his Rant Against Real Americans in front of Independence Hall (Darth Idius?). The Democrats have come out of The Closet endorsing deviant sex propaganda to kindergartners.
Under such conditions I have not only focused on the Long Game, I have been neglecting this Substack to cash in on the gold rush that Corporate "America" has given right-leaning entrepreneurs by dissing half the country. (Back last May I realized that it was going to take longer than I can afford to write this book without a day job, and the prospect of living off Substack earnings looked grim, given my weak self-promotion abilities. Easier to get Bond Villain wealth and then air drop copies of Rules for Reactionaries than to finish and market the book at a profit.)
But what if my assumption was wrong? What if the demoncrats can hold power despite their overreach? And so I ask: how can Republicans not win in 2022. Let's count the potential ways:
Many Never-Trump/Establishment Republicans stay home or even cross party lines in 2022 out of spite. Let us keep in mind that Trump (and MAGA) represent a hostile takeover of the Republican Party by the old American Party. While Trump did give the Republican Establishment some goodies from their wish list -- tax simplification and good Supreme Court nominations -- there are still many old guard Republicans who aren't on board with the MAGA Agenda, and many extreme MAGA types won the nomination round thanks to Trump Endorsements.
The power of the Mainstream Media is great. Many normie parents have been persuaded by the power of Optimized Passive Aggression to sacrifice their children's future, and even genitals, on the alter of Acceptance.
Thanks to COVID-19 and the help of billionaires and their foundations, the Democratic Party found the key to solving the Likely Voter Problem. In 2020, they got the uninformed, the unconscious, and even the dead voters to show up in record numbers -- or at least appear to show up. We might need to outvote not only true Democratic supporters, but also their zombie minions.
In other words, MAGA motivation might not be enough. We might need to get mass quantities of swing voters, despite this being an off year election in which the party in power is particularly incompetent. And since Election Day draws nigh, and Early Voting even earlier, I don't have time to craft and promote any super clever strategy. If the pessimistic scenario is correct, we need to go all in RIGHT NOW with available weapons. And that means Talking Points.
I am not a natural Master Persuader; I am a Natural Vulcan. And thus, though I have read many of the manuals, and have test driven many ideas in the field, the true Professional Conservatives could do a better job -- if they were trying. But since the Professional Conservatives still don't have their heart in it, I can play the Talking Points game as well as they are doing, and once you see my reasoning, you might be able to go well beyond what I am about to present. So let's get started.
Selling MAGA Economics
Lesson one: stop using the phrase Free Enterprise! Free Enterprise sounds too much like Free Trade, and as I pointed out in Rule 1, Free Trade Isn't. Yes, true Vulcans who are paying attention can make the distinction, but for those who aren't fully focused, terms that sound alike are alike. Shared words, rhymes, and/or alliteration can easily trump plainly stated logic. I learned this the hard way back when I was a Libertarian. We were always getting confused with Lyndon LaRouche even though LaRouche called himself a New Deal Democrat, actually ran in Democratic primaries, and hated everything that Libertarians stood for. The shared letter L was the more important datum among those not paying close attention to alternative politics.
Or take another example. Take Isaiah 11:6:
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.Â
This is frequently remembered as The lion shall lie down with the lamb. Notice the Ls! Those Ls are so powerful that some people are seriously proposing some kind of Mandela Effect, that we have slipped sideways in time or that demons have been granted the power to rewrite physical copies of the Bible. And the people I'm referring to have big brains.
Poetry is powerful. Don't use Free Enterprise unless you want low tariffs and the continued gutting of our economy.
Before I propose some substitutions, let us first address those who consciously favor "Free Trade" despite the empirical costs. How do we get the Free Market Economists to prefer MAGA over the socialist agenda of today's Democrats?
I would like to say: "Get out there and get every think tanker, talk show host, and Establishment party hack to read Rule 1 and let them figure out the implications." But even double-plus smart people won't actually think unless they have good reason. Their natural reflex will be to point to a favorite textbook and claim ignorance -- yours.
To get past this mind barrier, use the phrase Subsidized Outsourcing. Use it loudly. Use it often. Use it on every mainstream conservative and lite libertarian blogger, think tanker, talk show host, pundit, etc. Those who are reflexive free traders are also reflexively subsidy averse. Trigger point hit, and the basic point of Rule 1 is communicated with just two words. Once they ask "What subsidies?" you have a window of opportunity to communicate the information in Rule 1. You might even get past Mitt Romney's hair gel and make him think.
You might be able to up the ante and repurpose the word "enterprise" while you are at it. If you want to get people off welfare you need to raise the market minimum wage. (There, I just worked in a power phrase you can use with moderates and even some liberals.) The old Republican Establishment sort of gets this, albeit using different words. Their usual tool is to create Enterprise Zones. These would work if poverty was just a problem in isolated pockets of this country. It isn't. The working classes have been feeling the screws since the early 1970s. To put an end to welfare dependence of the able-bodied we need to turn the entire country into an Enterprise Zone. In other words companies which employ American citizens should be at a tax and/or regulatory advantage over those which outsource. Currently, it's the other way around.
When you are not talking to reluctant Republicans, point out that Trump was trying to enforce a national picket line. This sells both tariffs and enforcing the border to old school working class Democrats and independents. Trump couldn't use this power phrase without alienating parts of the Republican base, but if you aren't running for office and you are simply having a conversation (in person or online) use away. Go forth and get some swing voters!
Back to replacing Free Enterprise, what do we replace it with? Capitalism? Economic freedom? Deregulation? Before I answer this question, let me point out a problem that is on the mind of many liberals, many Christian Nationalists, and even Glenn Beck: a capitalist system in which a small number of elitists control most of the capital is not the basis for a free society. It is the path to the Great Reset. We need to talk about having more capitalists vs. more capitalism. Letting Blackrock buy up single family homes for rental properties, or letting Bill Gates buy up vasts swaths of farmland is Bad Capitalism. We need to promote Good Capitalism: an economy dominated by smaller enterprises, and family scale farms.
But what do we call it?
Peoples' Capitalism?
Capitalism for the People?
The Jeffersonian Ideal?
An Ownership Society?
I haven't thought of the ideal power phrase. For now I suggest Ownership Society. It is the diametric opposite to the Great Reset, and it is a phrase used by the Republican Establishment in the past, so it should provide some comfort for the Country Clubbers. The main downside is that when George W. Bush attempted to increase home ownership through relaxing credit requirements, the economy collapsed. Bad implementation of a good ideal that was. (I'll talk implementation in future rules. For now just promote the spirit of the idea.)
In general, encouraging debt is a bad idea -- which I will cover in a future Rule. If you want more happiness and economic stability, you want an economy based on more equity and less debt -- an equity based economy! If the centralizers of early USA could call themselves Federalists, and modern street thug socialists can call themselves anarchists, and the party of the Deep State can call itself Democratic, maybe we should steal the word "equity" from the Woke.
What think ye?
More to Come
I plan to have some more talking points in future posts. For now, please use and refine the ones I have given here. If you have some better power phrases, please share them in the comments.
This. Is. Great! I'll post this with links to your Substack and sources.
Do you think Republicans should support being able to deduct some amount of their savings and debt payments from income taxes while eliminating other loopholes? It could turn the income tax into a consumption tax (in all but name), which would stop subsidized outsourcing while getting people out of debt and into equity.
Also, I think conservatives should adopt a synthesis of libertarianism and distributism; you are right that the GOP establishment is too Hamiltonian and needs a Jeffersonian revival.