Building a Republican Ideological Coalition: A Four Part Series
The Fellowship of the (Right) Wing
TL;DR. This is the introduction to a four-part series about helping our various Republican factions unite. By focusing on some basic principles we all share, recognizing and being open to ideological differences on other issues, we can add people to the movement instead of subtracting them to build a functioning, if difficult, governing coalition despite some glaring challenges that lie ahead.
The Republican Party is already full of a bunch of “free-range chickens” as Senator Kennedy of Louisiana put it recently on a conservative podcast. Add our love of individualism on top of a healthy disdain for centralized, bureaucratic control of anything and it makes creating a unified party structure that much harder. It took Republicans more than a year to marginally adopt WinRed, a no-brainer, unified small-dollar online donation platform, for goodness sakes! But, in the age of the Internet, anything is possible and I would like to propose a couple of tenets that might help us all get along better with each other without losing our moral compasses just so we can “win”.
I’ve spoken with numerous Republican consultants, staff, candidates, and elected officials in recent months. We all sort of agree that we need a plan for securing majorities for the coming decade, not just the coming cycle. The problem is, unlike the Democrats, we don’t have endless societal pillars to do the hard work of fighting the long-term culture war while we fight electoral battles in the short term. Democrats have Hollywood, universities, the mainstream media (including most of cable news and newspapers), and an endless number of well-funded think tanks and institutional interest groups to build narratives brick-by-brick and molecule-by-molecule over decades. The Left can fight long term and short term simultaneously.
On the right, much of our brain trust of thinkers are paid consultants, Washington DC staff, or elected officials and work for large organizations like the RNC, NRCC, and NRSC. Those (mostly) talented folks are fighting for their candidates, running the country, and worried about getting doors knocked and yard signs printed by Saturday, not writing long-term platforms for 2028 and beyond. In my conversations with these folks, they (rightfully) highlight the dearth of talent focused on winning short-term battles like congressional seats and state legislature majorities that they find it laughable to talk about long-term movement planning.
So they have no choice but to ride the wave of the grassroots and adapt as they go to keep their heads above water. Keep in mind that these huge national organizations also have so many strings tied to donors and to the DC status quo that it is very hard to change course on those leviathans without something shocking to the system like President Trump did in 2016 in between presidential elections.
“Saul Berenson, the main character from Showtime’s hit TV show, Homeland, once explained about the war in Afghanistan, “Our planning cycles rarely looked more than 12 months ahead. So, it hasn’t been a 14-year war we’ve been waging, but a one-year war waged 14 times.” So it is with our movement struggling to fight small battles while the Left fights that front and strategies for the long-term war.”
Saul Berenson, the main character from Showtime’s hit TV show, Homeland, once explained about the war in Afghanistan, “Our planning cycles rarely looked more than 12 months ahead. So, it hasn't been a 14-year war we've been waging, but a one-year war waged 14 times.” So it is with our movement struggling to fight small battles while the Left fights that front and strategies for the long-term war. The Democrats aren’t terrorists, mind you, but they are our ideological opponents in this battle for the fate of America.
The solution to our dearth of professional think tank talent or culture war soldiers is a much more complicated answer and will take decades in itself to fix so until then we are forced to walk and chew gum at the same time. We have to start talking about how we build a long-lasting coalition of people who love liberty to combat the Left’s unyielding unanimity in their political ranks. This involves uniting our various factions through some political gamesmanship and old-fashioned negotiating to garner unity one race, one dollar, and one victory at a time.
Let’s start by identifying four main factions that don’t represent everyone but would sure be a great place to get on a unified front first. There are a billion smaller factions inside each but I think if we can get all of these people on the same page, we can expand our majorities and win in more places.
The Fresh, New Trump Loyalists
This hugely motivated group is full of diverse, energetic voices who are newly politically involved and have trouble with political correctness and establishment norms. They loved President Trump’s brash style and get-it-done-no-matter-what attitude. There are also lots of Latinos and black Americans here who want to be involved. They love building Walls and draining Swamps.
The Ted Cruz Establishment Conservatives
This often Christian, pro-nuclear family group of Republicans are big Texas, Kayleigh McEnany, and the Faith and Freedom Coalition people. They’re ready to go to war for their values and have been funding conservative causes for years. They like Ted Cruz because he has a safer flair than Former President Trump. They love the embassy in Jerusalem and Glenn Beck.
The Liberty-Minded Ron Paulers
This oft-forgotten group is a major place of growth for us. They are highly principled, skeptical of government, and hate the inconsistencies we hold as a party specifically on the issue of freedom. Many of them love peace, freedom, and a thriving economy. They also love talking about the NDAA and the Federal Reserve.
The Jeb(!) Bush Aspirational Folks
This friendly, folksy group likes boring issues like infrastructure, transparent government, and child tax credits. They talk a lot about Republican Governors no one has heard of in blue states and bought a lot of Marco Rubio merch. They had a very tough time warming up to President Trump. They love Latino business leader roundtables, Rep. Kevin Brady, and school choice.
We have a strong class of ruthless political organizing minds who are fighting battles all across America for spectacular elected officials and causes. They are way better at that than me. I’ll leave them to it. We need some people focused on galvanizing a coalition of voters that already exist but might not find themselves allies right now to make some of those races competitive again. So here is what I think we need to do to get our core Republican voters working together. Just click the pictures below to read my thoughts:
