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.

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  1. Mark Camp Member
    Mark Camp
    @MarkCamp

    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.

    • #1
  2. Jimmy Carter Member
    Jimmy Carter
    @JimmyCarter

    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!”

     

    • #2
  3. Ed G. Member
    Ed G.
    @EdG

    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.

    • #3
  4. Ed G. Member
    Ed G.
    @EdG

    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. 

    • #4
  5. iWe Coolidge
    iWe
    @iWe

    Mark Camp (View Comment):

    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.

    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?

    • #5
  6. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    End censorship by whatever means necessary to include requiring social media platforms to register as publishers if they continue to edit and censor.

    • #6
  7. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    The lockdowns are more of a local issue, but bagging the mandates should be doable.

    • #7
  8. iWe Coolidge
    iWe
    @iWe

    Franco (View Comment):

    End censorship by whatever means necessary to include requiring social media platforms to register as publishers if they continue to edit and censor.

    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?

    • #8
  9. iWe Coolidge
    iWe
    @iWe

    Ed G. (View Comment):
    Voter ID

    This really should not be a federal issue, right?

    • #9
  10. Fritz Coolidge
    Fritz
    @Fritz

    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.

    • #10
  11. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    iWe (View Comment):

    Franco (View Comment):

    End censorship by whatever means necessary to include requiring social media platforms to register as publishers if they continue to edit and censor.

    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?

    If they exercise editorial control, they are publishers and subject to libel suits.

    • #11
  12. Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patriot) Member
    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patriot)
    @ArizonaPatriot

    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?

    • #12
  13. Fritz Coolidge
    Fritz
    @Fritz

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    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 . . .

    • #13
  14. namlliT noD Member
    namlliT noD
    @DonTillman

    Audit all government agencies.

    • #14
  15. Hang On Member
    Hang On
    @HangOn

    Fritz (View Comment):

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    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 . . .

    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.  

    • #15
  16. DonG (CAGW is a hoax) Coolidge
    DonG (CAGW is a hoax)
    @DonG

    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.

    • #16
  17. Ed G. Member
    Ed G.
    @EdG

    iWe (View Comment):

    Ed G. (View Comment):
    Voter ID

    This really should not be a federal issue, right?

    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. 

    • #17
  18. Django Member
    Django
    @Django

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    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?

    The lead is because of what the Demo-rats are doing, not because of what the GOP is doing. 

    • #18
  19. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    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.

    • #19
  20. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    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?

    The lead is fake, a momentary opinion response. Play prevent defense and lose.

    • #20
  21. Columbo Inactive
    Columbo
    @Columbo

    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.

    • #21
  22. WI Con Member
    WI Con
    @WICon

    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? 

    • #22
  23. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    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/

     

    • #23
  24. BastiatJunior Member
    BastiatJunior
    @BastiatJunior

    Newt Gingrich has a few suggestions from his article titled “The Wolves Will Become Sheep.”  This is an excerpt:

    This is not about revenge. This is about reinforcing the principle that in America, political wolves who viciously destroy their fellow Americans – and violate the rule of law to do so – will not be tolerated. This is about restoring the core principles of American self-government.

    First, Leader Kevin McCarthy and his leadership team should send a letter to every member of the Select Committee, the staff of that committee, the staff of House Administration, and the staff of Speaker Nancy Pelosi. This letter should warn them that they must keep all emails, notes, records of all meetings, and communications, so that on Jan. 4, 2023, they can all be reviewed by the new Select Committee on Congressional Dishonesty and Abuse of Power.

    Second, Leader McCarthy and his leadership team should send a letter to the Attorney General, select U.S. attorneys, the head of the FBI, and such other executive branch officials engaged in persecuting Americans for their political views. This letter, too, should lay down the same marker of keeping all records and being prepared to answer for their behavior on Jan. 4, 2023.

    Third, Republicans should take note of Speaker Pelosi’s extraordinary, tradition breaking assumption of control over Republican committee membership. In the same tradition, Republicans should prepare a “wolves-to-sheep” committee as a holding pen for vicious, dishonest smear artists such as Congressman Adam Schiff, whose willingness to lie and deceive the American people extends from the Russian dossier to the present. After years of lying to everyone while serving as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee (and thereby having the presumption of secret knowledge to back up his lies) Schiff should not be allowed to serve on any committee with legislative jurisdiction. He and a handful of destructive, dishonest members should be bundled into a new committee with no staff, legislative jurisdiction, or honor. It would be the equivalent of the ancient Greek punishment of ostracism.

    • #24
  25. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    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.  

     

    • #25
  26. DrewInWisconsin, Oaf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Oaf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    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/

     

    Just came in to post this myself. Good list.

    • #26
  27. DrewInWisconsin, Oaf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Oaf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    BastiatJunior (View Comment):
    In the same tradition, Republicans should prepare a “wolves-to-sheep” committee as a holding pen for vicious, dishonest smear artists such as Congressman Adam Schiff, whose willingness to lie and deceive the American people extends from the Russian dossier to the present. After years of lying to everyone while serving as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee (and thereby having the presumption of secret knowledge to back up his lies) Schiff should not be allowed to serve on any committee with legislative jurisdiction. He and a handful of destructive, dishonest members should be bundled into a new committee with no staff, legislative jurisdiction, or honor. It would be the equivalent of the ancient Greek punishment of ostracism.

    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.

    • #27
  28. The Scarecrow Thatcher
    The Scarecrow
    @TheScarecrow

    iWe (View Comment):

    Ed G. (View Comment):
    Voter ID

    This really should not be a federal issue, right?

    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.

    • #28
  29. iWe Coolidge
    iWe
    @iWe

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    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/

     

    Great minds think alike…

    Here is VDH’s list, condensed (with my comments)

    1) A Safe and Law-Abiding America.The federal government promises to prosecute fully any criminal who crosses state lines or uses interstate communications to commit arson, public destruction, smash-and-grab looting or general attacks on any federal property within the states.

    Meh. Not going to bring people to the polls. Not really a federal issue.

    2) Affordable Energy for an Energy-Independent America. Restoration of gas and oil energy independence; reopening of federal lands for new energy leases; fast-tracking natural gas and oil pipelines.

    All good and solid. People notice the price of gas and utilities!

    3) A Secure Border.

    Yep

    4) A Sacrosanct Constitution and Preservation of Long-Held Traditions. On record for no changes to the Constitution; no dismantling of the Electoral College; no federalization of states’ voting laws; no increase in a nine-justice Supreme Court; no statehood for Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico; no end to the Senate filibuster.

    Too fuzzy, IMO. And as a list of “no” items, means playing defense.

    5) The Restoration of Election Day. Encouragement to the states to limit mail-in balloting, return to the old notion of absentee balloting as an exception rather than the norm and cut back on extended/early balloting — with the goal that 60 to 70% of ballots cast are done so on Election Day.

    Yes. While we are at it, move Tax Day to Nov 1. 

    6) A “Don’t Tread on Me” Foreign Policy. 

    Not really Congress’ remit.

    7) Towards a Balanced Budget. Expenditures must match revenues. An update of the Simpson-Bowles National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform or enactment of its recommendations, with the aim of achieving a balanced budget in four years.

    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. 

    8) Anti-Trust, Anti-Monopoly Legislation. An end to Silicon Valley’s vast monopolies, cartels and immunity from public-utility regulations.

    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.

    9) Strict Enforcement of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Prohibition of the use of racial bias/advantage/preference in the operations of public local, state and federal agencies. 

    100%

    10) No Federal Funds for Lawbreakers. An end to federal support of state agencies and private institutions that violate federal statutes and the Bill of Rights…

    Would be accused of a right-wing “Gotcha” law. And the accusation would have merit.

     

    • #29
  30. Sage Wolkenfeld Inactive
    Sage Wolkenfeld
    @BlessedBlacksmith

    DonG (CAGW is a hoax) (View Comment):

    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.

    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.

    • #30
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