By Theodore R. Malloch
July 11, 2023
(Views expressed by guest commentators may not reflect the views of OAN or its affiliates.)
If you really, truly wanted to lose the 2024 elections for the presidency and every other public office, you would take a page right out of the Republican playbook.
With neither strategy nor tactics, we Republicans will inevitably lose, yet again and we have no one to blame for it but ourselves. The reasons are many and as conservatives we should do something about them, now before it is too late. Clearly, doing the same old tired things over and over and expecting different results is – plain stupid.
2018, 2020, 2022 were disasters for the Republicans. We barely took back the House and Trump lost. We blew two runoff elections in Georgia, put up poor candidates in key races, especially for the Senate, and continued to do the same old things. Learning nothing and changing nothing, we will face another round of similar outcomes. On the topic of voting, mail-in, harvesting and mechanics, we are blatantly, last century.
The GOP has become a laughingstock as the RNC put back a nepotistic chair-leader who accomplished nothing and a system that has not learned a single thing. Indeed, as the book titled, Rigged demonstrates in grainy detail, the entire election process and mechanism are slanted against us. The mainstream media is also actively against us. Yet we do next to nothing, idly hoping for a better outcome. Why?
If we want to continue losing, then indeed, we should do nothing or perhaps double down since the formula has witnessed such underwhelming success.
On the other hand, if Republicans actually seek victory and want to regain political power, they will immediately do these seven things. Doing all of them could shape a better result but if they are not fully financed and finely executed, fatality is guaranteed. Either we adapt and play by and shape the new rules, or we remain out of power. We have to embrace technology. It is that simple.
1.Ballots
Voting is no longer in-person on a single day. We must adapt and like our opponents work early and mail-in balloting, even harvest ballots where it is legally possible. Half or more people voted nowadays before the election, and we need to face reality and all it implies for campaigns and the act of voting. Why should Republicans start out on the second Tuesday in November 50 percent down.
2.Candidates
You can’t run witches, loons, quacks, carper-baggers and unknowns and expect to win. We need a better pool of winning candidates who are well vetted, financed, and solid. We don’t at present have that.
3.Legal Oversight
The Democrats play hard ball. With pit bulls, like Marc Elias they challenge everything and work well before and well after election day to fix the playing field and tilt it toward the Democrats. We need to fight back have an equally adept legal team and go to the mat otherwise they own us.
4.Social Media + AI
Using to the full extent the sources and access of social media has arguably become the single most important item in politics. Republicans are way behind the eight ball, don’t understand the medium, have no companies working with them or an incubator of startup- firms in their orbit. The Democrats do.
On the opposite side, notable advancements are being pursued to comprehend and impact the perceptions of Americans, especially on social media and credible email databases. What stands out is that they are experimenting with contextual engagement methods that utilize campaign messaging and timing based on the online discussions and active participation of their followers and community.
Republicans need to engage and re-energize the voting base, using AI and Social Media to engage conservatives who are there and looking for the right message and candidates.
They can fine-tune their messaging based on what is resonating on any given day and on any given social channel. Your policy nugget for Twitter vs Facebook vs Instagram needs to be relevant to what resonated recently on that channel.
They can gain a deeper understanding of the opposing candidates’ engagement by topic, location, or rally through the implementation of advanced NLP methods and startups who are pushing that boundary.
Misinformation campaigns can be countered by detecting narratives, identifying the users promoting false information, and addressing it through counter messages on your feed or as direct messages to users who engaged with the given narrative. The same available technology can auto-hide any slander or toxic language that pollutes a social feed.
Republicans need to move away from the current “Spray And Pray” messaging.
and focus on strengthening engagements to be timely and effective with the sentimental communities of interest, one channel at a time in order to compete and win.
5.Financing
Presidential candidates raised and spent $4.1 billion in the 24 months of the 2019-2020 election cycle, according to campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission that cover activity. The entire election cycle cost just short of $15 billion dollars. Under the presidential public funding program, eligible presidential candidates receive federal government funds to pay for the qualified expenses of their political campaigns in both the primary and general elections. Donations are the fuel of any political campaign and without money a candidacy fails. So, what are Republicans doing on individual giving with both small and large donors? How are they deploying super pacs to the best purposes? There is little coordination and a lack of vision and focus on the Right side of the spectrum. This must be fixed. We need to stop fighting each other and realize how the Left activates and finances itself.
6.Op Research
Using dirt to defeat an opponent was not invented by Tricky Dickie Nixon or by Nicholas Machiavelli in 15th century Italy. It is as old as time and more sophisticated than ever now. The Clinton’s were famous for it and Republicans generally are late to the practice. We need to do the research, use all the tools, and expose the opposition candidates for what in most cases they are—warts and all. As results show, unfortunately negative campaigning works.
7.Unity
In the end only a unified, loyal, and forceful political party wins. Fragmented parties, ideological rifts and personality hostilities have kept Republicans from crossing the winning line. The 11th Commandment, spoken by Ronald Reagan, still rings true. If you want a significant sweeping victory from top to bottom of the ticket, if you want to win the House, the Senate and the White House, you need to work in unison and row together.
Ted Roosevelt Malloch is CEO of Roosevelt Global Fiduciary LLC. He served as Research Professor for the Spiritual Capital Initiative at Yale University, Senior Fellow Said Business School, Oxford University and Professor of Governance and Leadership at Henley Business School where he co-led the Director’s Forum. His most recent books concern the nature of virtuous enterprise, the practices of practical wisdom and “virtuous business,” the pursuit of happiness, the virtue of generosity and the virtue of thrift. His latest book is Common Sense Business, co-authored with Whitney MacMillan, former Chairman and CEO of Cargill, the world’s largest privately held company. He has served on the executive board of the World Economic Forum (DAVOS); has held an ambassadorial level position at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland; worked in the US State Department and Senate; did capital markets at Salomon Brothers on Wall Street, and has sat on a number of corporate, mutual fund, and not-for-profit boards. He was very active in the Trump campaign of 2016. Ted earned his Ph.D. in international political economy from the University of Toronto and took his B.A. from Gordon College and an M.Litt. from the University of Aberdeen on a St. Andrews Fellowship.