Publisher's Note: One of the most significant things you can do to promote Liberty is to support our mission. Please make your gift to the 2024 Year-End Campaign today. Thank you! —Mark Alexander, Publisher

November 11, 2021

Republicans, Let’s Up Our Game

Positive message, focusing on real issues and a quality candidate — a winning combination.

Republican Glenn Youngkin’s victory last week over former Virginia Democratic Gov.Terry McAuliffe has led most observers to predict that Republicans are sure to make big gains in next year’s midterms. While I agree that the election gives Republicans cause for enthusiasm, I have learned during more than four decades in politics that overreach and assumptions represent a path to political failure.

According to a USA Today/Suffolk poll released this week, President Joe Biden’s approval rating is 38%, and Vice President Kamala Harris is at 28%. Of the top three things the respondents wanted Biden to do in the next year, 20% mentioned “Resign/retire/quit,” 11% said the “economy/jobs” and 8% said “unite/help the country.”

These approval ratings reflect the poor performance of the Biden administration, but it would be poor political strategy to assume that these ratings are set in stone. It’s impossible to predict with certainty what might happen and to plan your strategy around winning because your opponent is terrible is not smart. We should prepare ourselves to beat the best of whatever the Democrats can bring to the contest. We Republicans need to up our game.

Luckily, we can do so if we follow the advice of Will Ritter. He’s the founder and CEO of Poolhouse Agency, which produced 40 ads for the Youngkin campaign. He had it exactly right when he tweeted this week, “365 days until the midterms, and the Democrats Trump-era lease on the suburbs expired last Tuesday. ‘22 will hinge on candidate quality and who is more believably addressing real problems that effect (sic) voters lives — not who can win the op-ed, twitter, or cable news battle du jour.”

The key part is candidate quality and focusing on solving voters’ real problems.

While it is important to have Republican candidates run everywhere, we need to ensure that they are quality candidates. Yes, New Jersey Republican Ed Durr beat the state’s Democratic Senate president while spending less than $2,500. But his campaign was an anomaly — not a strategy for success nationwide. It’s not enough to be better than a terrible opponent; we should also strive to be better than the best Democratic candidate.

Let’s reflect on what can happen if we fail to consider quality. In October 2010, Republican Senate nominee in Delaware, Christine O'Donnell, aired an ad in which she said, speaking directly into the camera: “I’m not a witch. I’m nothing you’ve heard. I’m you. None of us are perfect, but none of us can be happy with what we see all around us: politicians who think spending, trading favors and backroom deals are the ways to stay in office. I’ll go to Washington and do what you’d do. I’m Christine O'Donnell, and I approve this message. I’m you.” She was referring to a 1999 Bill Maher Politically Incorrect episode, which had not even aired, in which she mentioned she had “dabbled in witchcraft.” She lost to Democrat Chris Coons 57% to 40%. Coons is still serving as a U.S. senator today.

Ritter reiterated the importance of candidate quality in a tweet this Tuesday. “@GlennYoungkin was a fantastic candidate, worked 18/hrs day … and the campaign was successful bc we focused on 3 things that were affecting people’s lives on a daily basis: Schools, Safety, and the Cost of Living. Avoided national & DC twitterverse issues.”

Positive message, focusing on real issues and a quality candidate — a winning combination.

Candidates themselves should stick with positive messages regarding issues candidates care about, and let other groups lay out the negative arguments. While many candidates are running to former President Donald Trump for an endorsement, my recommendation is that no candidate should base their campaign on anyone’s endorsement, not Trump’s or anyone else’s. Voters are looking to vote for someone because they want to help the candidate who lays out a vision of a brighter future for themselves and their families. The focus should be on the voters — not other politicians.

It’s easy to say, “Well, Biden’s just so bad, there is no way we can lose.” Whether in sports, business or politics, if your strategy depends on having a terrible opponent, you’re not competing at the highest level, and the American people deserve the best.

Americans deserve the absolute best elected officials, and I believe that Republicans can offer that — let’s just up our game.

COPYRIGHT 2021 JACKIE CUSHMAN

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.