How do we make Virginia great? We’re a blue state. Conservatives are hopelessly divided. Those running for office rarely represent the majority of active Republicans. Local units are pressed for cash. Democrats are increasingly organized. Yet, we cannot simply throw our hands in the air and accept defeat.
The first thing we need to do is go after Millennial voters. We do this by pursuing aggressive education and student loan reform, ending the drug war in Virginia and legalizing marijuana, and by focusing on business-justice for Virginia companies. We’ve got social justice, and climate justice, and all kinds of ridiculous justices – why not business-justice? Why not pursue the most aggressive job-promoting, high-tech acquiring, and entrepreneur-supporting agenda in America’s history?
The second thing we need to do is to support our elected officials at the local, state, and federal levels. We need to recognize that Trump’s ascendancy has galvanized a new generation of socialist activist within the Democrat Party. These are the people demanding universal healthcare and liberal patronage within the State. We need to stop demanding perfection and start demanding, from ourselves, an aggressive plan to protect our elected Republicans from a growing Democrat onslaught.
The third thing we need to do is to support candidates who run on positive ideas. We need to reject candidates that look to smear the Commonwealth, the State, the Party, and “us” – the Republican voters. We need to get rid of attacks on “Establishment ED”. We need to get rid of attack lines like “Crazy Corey”. We need to focus on ideas and agendas and success.
The fourth thing we need to do is to embrace our elected representatives as “normal people” and develop relationships with them. We need to approach them without demands for ideological purity and instead pursue them with the goal of seeking their support of our ideals; and we need to stop looking at the Republican Party of Virginia as an obstacle, but rather as an instrument and ally.
Finally, we need to protect ourselves. There are four real threats, at least on the Republican side of the aisle, to making Virginia Great Again. The first threat is regulated monopolies. We need to deprive them and their political action committees from giving money to our elected officials; lest the Old Dominion become the Commonwealth of Dominion Power, or Aqua Water, or any other powerful stakeholder. The second thing we need to do is to demonstrate our capacity to organize better than the Democrats. If they bring 100 people to an event, then we need to bring 200. If they are beating up one of our politicians online, then we need to get “our troll on” and lambaste them with online onslaughts the likes of which they’ve never seen before. The third thing we need to do is to demand better leadership from our statewide elected officials. If we’ve finally gotten to a place of honesty in Virginia, then let’s be honest. RPV has zero power in the General Assembly. Our Republican Leadership controls the whole show. We need to bring positive, proactive, thoughtful pressure on our local statewide leadership. We’ve got two state Senators running for LG and wouldn’t it be nice to know why they think our conservative agenda has failed so spectacularly? It isn’t all McAuliffe. The fourth thing we need to do is to make the Republican Party in Virginia, essentially, a charity organization. We need to demonstrate that we can care for the poor better than the government can.
Every Republican Unit in Virginia needs to be involved with local charities; they need to be running local charities. Every Republican Unit needs to be the most activist voice in their county for community-based solutions and back that up with money and volunteers.
We need to be the change we’re looking for; and if we’re not, then we’re going to get the Democrats we deserve.
