The guidance we’re going to give our candidates is you have to address this head-on. Democrats spent $360 million on this and many of our candidates across the board refused to talk about it, and they can’t.
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel (on abortion)
On Fox News Sunday, the RNC chair blamed her party’s tepid midterm performance on “abortion” and shared her 2024 advice to Republicans. “Address this head on. Put them on the defensive and articulate where you stand.” Ronna McDaniel knows marketing – don’t let the competition define you or your product – and a 2022 autopsy found Republicans being framed for hatred and oppression.
It shouldn’t be hard to flip the script, because most Republicans aren’t sinners, most Democrats aren’t saints, and most of America still holds a traditional worldview. The fight against critical race theory produced the playbook, and Ron DeSantis showed the RNC how it works. The massive exodus from blue cities and states proves right is on McDaniel’s side. A serial liar is in the White House. It doesn’t get much better.
Numerous polls prove voters think Joe Biden’s words don’t connect to reality. Still, he’s at war with white privilege when 76% of Americans self-identified as “white alone” in 2022 (source: USCB). He claims Republicans alone are transphobic and anti-abortion in a 93% heterosexual and 66% Christian nation. He is the privileged misanthrope who’s not in step with the citizens he leads, making him an easy campaign target.
Growing numbers – of every gender, race, and religion – are tired of Democrats acting as if Americans are of a single mind on critical race theory, abortion-on-demand, and gender fluidity. McLaughlin Polling found 69% of all voters reject race-based curricula. Gallup reports 50% of voters support abortion “only under certain circumstances.” Pew Research reports 64% of all voters say the country has gone “far enough” to make transgenders feel accepted.
Even Democrat voters are not of a single mind. Critical Race Theorists Ibram X. Kendi (“momentum was just crushed”) and Mary Winters (“that’s not what we signed up for”) admit to corporate pushback. 43% of Democrats oppose making abortion “legal in any circumstance” (source: Statista). 56% of the party opposes laws requiring health insurance companies to cover gender transitions (source: Pew Research).
Sanctimonious liberals can’t even follow their own rules. If it’s not Governor Northam (D-VA) partying in blackface, it’s Senator Whitehouse (D-RI) refusing to give up his all-white beach club. If it’s not Planned Parenthood obfuscating the predominance of abortion in its clinics, it’s Joe Biden using a “gay” joke to belittle Ron DeSantis (“after his reelection as governor, he was asked if he had a MAN-date. He said, ‘Hell no! I’m straight’ – think that one through”).
Outing Democrat hypocrisy might fire up Fox News viewers, but it won’t win back swing voters. Good thing the RNC can emulate Christopher Rufo, whose movement has critical race theorists on the defensive. He found small cadres of “anti-racists” inserting a “cult of indoctrination” in school boards to the ruin of merit, truth, and tolerance – and rightly assumed that exposing CRT’s toxicity would ignite reactive voters, especially parents.
Rufo made CRT “toxic” with neuromarketing tactics; “put all of the ‘various cultural insanities’ under that brand category [to] have the public read something ‘crazy’ in the newspaper, and immediately think ‘critical race theory.'” Those “cultural insanities” angered parents, who confronted “woke” school boards and stirred up voters. After Rufo turned CRT into election dynamite, a bitter Kendi told CNN he was fighting a “well-organized force and movement.”
The “cultural insanities” include making white students kneel before seated black classmates, Planned Parenthood not alerting parents to their 14-year-old daughter’s abortion, and pre-teens being sworn to secrecy about their gender transition by a teacher. That is election dynamite and why parents gave Ron DeSantis a landslide in Florida and elected Youngkin governor of Virginia – proving right makes GOP might. Momentum looks to be shifting to the GOP.
Since 1992, the GOP has held a slim 48.2% to 48.1% popular-vote advantage in House elections, with 2022 (see map above) beating the norm: a 3 million popular-vote advantage and 222 House seats. Good, but the lesson learned was delivered by DeSantis in Florida. Bashed by big media for saying “no” to abortion, gender, and race radicalism, all he did was ride a Families First platform to a landslide win in a state that’s as identity-diverse and economically-dynamic as any blue state.
I live in Florida, where new Republicans are registering in droves. When I talk to new arrivals, a “movement” is obvious; people with minds and money are fleeing high taxes and social radicalism. It’s a big deal. In 2021, $64.5 billion in adjusted gross income left California, Illinois, and New York, with over $50 billion of that going into either Florida or Texas (source: IRS). There’s a middle class campaign message in there somewhere, Ms. McDaniel.
Because, since 1992, Democrats have held a 49% to 45% presidential popular-vote advantage. Except in the South, home to 38.4% of the populace and 196 electoral votes – and why is that? Because 127.3 million Americans want the inalienable right to pursue happiness (better living and lower taxes). It is real – this red state appeal – and it’s left the blue state Northeast with only 17.2% of the populace and 96 electoral votes. Carpe diem, Ronna!
Political analyst Michael Barone predicts that by 2032 “consistently Democratic electoral votes” will drop from 232 to 219, while “consistently Republican electoral votes” rise from 232 to 247 (it takes 270 to win). This is consistent with the 2030 forecast from the American Redistricting Project: New York loses three House seats, California five, and Illinois two – primarily because of massive outflows from Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. To be blunt, the GOP has ’em on the run!
“Put them on the defensive” means telling New Yorkers how “insane” it is to raise taxes when taxpayers are flocking to Florida, reminding Illinois voters that Chicago elected a “woke” mayor when criminals are running amok, and asking Californians who’s going to pay for reparations. The RNC might have a big Trump problem. It would be nice to have the right message.