I prefer to dwell on the affirmative instead of the negative, so I would like to suggest ten things (in no particular order) Republicans should adopt in 2022 beyond:
1. The economy: rather than talking about safety nets and government transfer payments, start focusing on educating people how a growing economy positively affects everybody and increases revenue to the government. Tie policies like immigration to the economy and propose that administrative law (regulations) must be submitted to a cost/benefit analysis before being allowed to be implemented. So, simplified for the anti-corporation/permanent lockdown/big government set: no commercial activity = no tax revenue = no ability for government to borrow = no government spending = no government. If you “progressives” want funds to pay for your adventures in socialism, you better get on board with the engine that generates the cash for you.
2. Make the case for capitalism, that personal freedom depends on economic freedom:
Capitalism is the best system to spread economic well-being.
Economic freedom goes hand in hand with political freedom.
Don’t put the cart before the horse –get the order of events right.
Capitalism is self-regulating.
Distributed capitalism mitigates risk and can absorb a lot of bad decisions without crumbling.
Economies can’t be “managed” on a large scale – at least not by humans.
3. Energy: revive and support the oil boom in America. Cheap and plentiful clean energy is available to us through fracking. Approve pipelines and refineries, convert electrical generation plants to natural gas and open more public lands to exploration and production. Note that this also grows government coffers through lease payments, production royalties and taxes off the sale of the hydrocarbons.
4. Attack Leviathan and cut his meal ticket: $30 trillion of debt is a disaster. Immediately freeze all budgets and place every agency under a mandate to cut costs by 10% per year and use the savings and the increased tax revenues from the growing economy to pay down the national debt. The program stays in place until the debt is cut to 5 trillion dollars.
5. Lock down the borders and stop fighting wars that you don’t intend to win. We are being invaded from the south and that must be stopped. If a Republican president commits troops, we need to be there to adopt an attitude that we are going to break things and kill people until the enemies will is broken…and you need to be ready to break a few milquetoast/quisling Democrats in the process if necessary.
6. Adopt Rush Limbaugh’s “Excrement List” - a foreign policy that includes an automatic termination of aid to any country that goes against our interests or is unwilling to eradicate terrorists in their lands who have threatened the US or US interests in any way. Terrorism cannot be negotiated with; its adherents must be annihilated. Make sure that all countries, friend, and foe, knows that if any US citizen is harmed, the full power of the United States military will be brought to bear to rectify the situation. You can keep your head if you like your head. Period.
7. Adopt a libertarian social policy; get government out of the business of social engineering. Get government out of marriage, marriage is a religious construct, a bond between man, wife, and God. Institute civil unions, a government policy of instituting a common civil contract and give every partnership that enters into that contract the same benefits under the law.
8. Resolve to call a lie a lie and a liar a liar. Do not suffer misrepresentations, half-truths, or context free “technically true” statements about any person, proposal, or action. Do not knuckle under to “Preferred pronouns” or the demand to erase males and females. Go after every lie with the intent to not only refute it but to grind the credibility of its issuer into dust.
9. Recover America’s role as the sole superpower by remembering that there is power in being a benevolent and munificent bad ass (war isn’t necessary as long as your enemy knows you are both willing and able to wage it) and recognizing that the world is in chaos today for two reasons:
There are countries, political systems, and religions in the world that are using the chaos to damage and weaken America. It is to their benefit to keep the instability going as long as possible to do as much damage as possible, and
Trump offered a temporary respite, but under Biden, American leadership is once again missing from the world today. Over the past 100 years, global crises were met with definitive American leadership. WWI, WWII, Korea, the defeat of communism at the Berlin Wall, being first at the scene of natural disasters, the eradication of terrorism, the liberation of Iraq and Afghanistan, defense of Israel, funding and providing most of the support for NATO and the UN and providing the lion’s share of funds for the IMF are just a few examples.
10. Be honest. Stop trying to be someone you aren’t. You will never be able to out Democrat a Democrat…or anyone from the Obama or Biden administrations. Do take the time to explain in depth what you propose and why but don’t apologize for what you believe in. Start talking about consequences as well as actions, take things to a logical conclusion. Talk to people honestly and openly and don’t do anything in private that you would be ashamed to do in public.
Don't forget to mention that holdover Obama and Biden era *political appointees* must be given pink slips. To the victor go the spoils.
I have been mentally making a list myself about how to begin to rebuild .... this is a good start!!!