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Republicans Need a Contract With America
The poll gap is enormous (13+ points R!). There are lots of reasons to not vote for Democrats.
But Republicans who want to be in the House and Senate need a simple, straightforward platform that Americans can vote for. Here is a list to kick off the discussion:
1. Don’t have more COVID lockdowns or mandates of any kind.
2. Maximize natural gas, oil, and nuclear power sources to lower the price at the pump and utility bills.
3. Support parental rights! Change the law to have the money only go to states and jurisdictions where parents have choice/charters/vouchers.
4. Send all departments out to the areas they govern. Drain the swamp by exporting it.
5. Change the law to fire all government employees who play politics or political favorites. No selective enforcement/targeting.
6. Support medical freedoms. No FDA approval should be needed for people to make their own decisions on experimental drugs.
7. Reduce governmental ownership of land. Mandate a max 10% federal ownership of the land of any state. Auction the rest off over the course of four years.
8. Finish the border wall.
Criticize! Add your own! Let’s see if we produce a decent Top 10 priorities list Republicans can rally around and implement.
Published in General
Let’s reject any list of policies that aren’t chosen to accomplish the Constitutional purposes of the Federal Government, and no others.
Let’s stop making the same mistake over and over, of setting goals for government power without any regard for the proper role of government. Of assuming, as the Democrats have, that government has unlimited power to serve the interests of whatever factions can be hobbled together to make up a majority.
Yer post reminds Me of when Dole was running. He was on Late Night and Letterman introduced Him to present the Top Ten list.
He said (I’m winging it here), “I’m a Republican and will be cutting everything across the board. So, I’ll be presenting the top 7 list.”
The topic was top 7 ways to end the deficit (?).
“And the number one way to end the deficit: Arkansas? Sell it!”
Women aren’t men.
Sex is biology, gender is sex. Everything else is personal preference.
Voter ID
School choice
Racism is not a top 50 problem in 2022 America. Let’s stop acting as if it’s 1822 or 1922 instead of 2022.
Our system isn’t racist. There is no such thing as systemic racism since
All lives matter.
Domestic production is good for citizens and communities, and it’s a national security necessity.
Thinking more about this, I think the culture is much sicker than it was in the 90’s when we had the Contract With America. I almost think we need to go higher than listing policies. We need to state fundamental truths; the policies will follow the truths.
I hear you. But I do not wish to make the perfect the enemy of the good.
Reducing the government is good. It is not perfect. But I’ll take it.
Let’s take the idea of federal ownership of land. It is not unconstitutional, right? Yet it has led to terrible and perverse results. So we should aim to reduce it, even though theoretically the government can legally own land, right?
End censorship by whatever means necessary to include requiring social media platforms to register as publishers if they continue to edit and censor.
The lockdowns are more of a local issue, but bagging the mandates should be doable.
I agree that allowing Big Tech to censor is a major problem. I wish I was sure of the right solution. Is anyone here confident they have a good answer?
This really should not be a federal issue, right?
Boot out the CCP-financed Confucius Institutes from all US colleges and universities; otherwise, the institution is disqualified from any federal money via grants or student loans. Period.
If they exercise editorial control, they are publishers and subject to libel suits.
About one point: Please don’t do #6. There’s a lot of federal land in Arizona. Selling it off within 4 years would probably wreak havoc with the real estate market.
About the overall idea: When you have a big lead, why do anything different?
Not to mention the CCP or its fronts would be the biggest buyers . . .
Audit all government agencies.
A citizen of a country that doesn’t allow Americans to own land or other property in their country should not be allowed to own land in this country. Same for companies.
McConnell has said he will not have a Senate endorsed list of items to run on. His plan is avoid making news or being a target. I kind of get that, but no mandate means nothing accomplished. I am sure Mitch is happy with nothing, but I want a *lot* of anti-communist fortifying done. I want show trials of Fauci, the FBI, and every entity literally/figuratively in bed with the CCP.
Right, I suppose I was including it as a general preference as if this applied to the states too. In line with your thought to not simply being against things (which is most of our platform at the federal level).
Same with school choice and probably a couple other things on my list.
The lead is because of what the Demo-rats are doing, not because of what the GOP is doing.
AND.
Prove you [primary candidate X] are committed to actually doing this by first, right now, denouncing McCarthy and McConnell and pledging to only stay in the House or Senate REPUBLICAN conference, to only lend your number to make a majority, if these two scam artists are ejected from leadership immediately after the 2022 election.
The lead is fake, a momentary opinion response. Play prevent defense and lose.
9. Create a Newt-like “Contract with America”. Include Fiscal prudence and Balanced Budgets!
10. Have a plan to reduce the Nation’s debt over a specified number of years.
There have been so many election cycles since Newt Gingrich came up with this and so many cycles where we in the base have wondered ‘why don’t they do that again’?
It’s pathetic that any party leadership wouldn’t concisely make the case to voters and their base, exactly what their goals and agenda would be for that legislative cycle – it is just malpractice.
Any possible ideas (besides not laying out goals/agenda so they can’t be held accountable to one) why this isn’t done consistently?
Victor Davis Hanson has offered an outline of a new Contract with America: https://nypost.com/2022/01/20/what-the-gop-should-run-on-in-the-midterm-elections/
Newt Gingrich has a few suggestions from his article titled “The Wolves Will Become Sheep.” This is an excerpt:
The 1994 Contract with America was a masterstroke. It not only gave voters a specific set of policy objectives but an organizing plan for the new Congress with a lot of momentum for those first 100 days.
It is not enough to rest on the default position: Biden is a dangerous moron and the Democrats are nuts. There needs to be some legislative specifics attached to popular goals not only to expand the size of the win but give the voters something affirmative.
Looking to 2024, a fresh conservative face and a positive agenda in opposition to the Democratic horror show could yield a sweep of greater than Reaganesque margins. Frankly, Trump is not well-positioned to deliver that outcome and a forward-looking GOP vision for the mid-terms offers a salutary contrast and a new beginning.
I voted for Trump twice and would still vote for him over any Democrat likely to be nominated but I would very much prefer he not run again. A campaign that is centered on the easy target that is the Biden legacy but combined with a tiresome, bitter rehash of 2016 and a growing litany of accusations against allegedly disloyal Republicans grievances might win but would unquestionably energize the significant bloc of lockdown-loving, mask-mandating, overeducated lean-left types who were not thrilled with Hillary, are increasingly disenchanted with Biden but became broken-glass anti-Republicans as of 2018 and could well do so again if Trump were the nominee.
Just came in to post this myself. Good list.
Put them in a new committee? After numerous incidents of deceit, dishonesty, fraud, and probably perjury as well, why is Schiff allowed to hold office at all? Remove, disbar, maybe prison time seems best.
Yes! The Feds should be able to establish a basic standard for all voting in the country: that you must be able to identify and prove in an audit that every vote you are counting was cast by a legitimate voter. How you then conduct your elections can be left up to the States.
If we are going to be a country run by ourselves, with leaders elected with voting, then the whole country must be able to produce only legitimate votes.
More votes and voter participation should not be the goal – who cares how many people vote? We should only care that every citizen who wants to vote and is qualified should not be deterred from participation, and that every vote that is cast is provably legitimate.
Cheating in this matter should be considered one of our gravest crimes, as it eats away at the very foundation of our whole deal here.
Oh, and add to the list: End the anchor-baby business, like yesterday.
Great minds think alike…
Here is VDH’s list, condensed (with my comments)
Meh. Not going to bring people to the polls. Not really a federal issue.
All good and solid. People notice the price of gas and utilities!
Yep
Too fuzzy, IMO. And as a list of “no” items, means playing defense.
Yes. While we are at it, move Tax Day to Nov 1.
Not really Congress’ remit.
Nobody will vote for less money from the government. This train is going off the rails anyway. Maybe by November people will understand that out-of-control spending hurts the economy… but I doubt it.
People LIKE “free” Google/Facebook/etc. Make it easier to compete with the majors, but regulation of competitive businesses? No, thank you. Though I DO like the idea of barring censorship by publishers.
100%
Would be accused of a right-wing “Gotcha” law. And the accusation would have merit.
Mitch and other rinos should be off the national stage by the platform. Whatever republican values they had pledged to uphold when they entered office have long since withered away. Establishment actors, either on the republican or democrat side, would be a net benefit for the country. Any massive show-trials set a terrible precedent, and the government could easily repeat this process with parents who speak up.
That said,
Federal trials, such as that of Ghislaine Maxwell should be televised, to ensure that the public can hear and learn of misdeeds, without the government choosing to cover up for their friends.
Education should be decided by the parents, at a county level or smaller.
Firearms laws should be written at the state level, and the federal government should roll back all firearms laws, starting with the NFA, GCA68, and FOPA including the Huges amendment.