Rithmomachia

My recipe for the GOP:

To win in our modern voter demographic, the Sane Conservatives HAVE to seize the middle.  

This means a judicious, rational PUBLIC jettisoning of certain 'conservative' positions that are too easily used as strawmen by the Left (and their tame media).

I genuinely feel that the Republic is more in danger than ever before.  The idea of the internal collapse of the US - inconceivable even in the worst of days 20-30 years ago - is now an actual likelihood over the next five decades.  Admittedly, it's still a small %, but the fact that it's extant is frankly horrifying.

And if the US passes, I fear one of the last, best hopes of humanity will disappear into a Sino-Asian future of collectivization and centralization.  This is not just a battle for the political control of this country; it's a battle for the soul of the future of humanity in general.  Will it be about enterprise, individualism, initiative, and humanism? Or will it be about teeming masses clinging desperately to a precarious existence, hopeless, and living off the beneficence of a powerful few in government who "know best how to run things"?

Taking this fight in absolute seriousness, we HAVE to be utterly pragmatic: win on the points where we HAVE to win.  Sacrifice the sort of ideological purity nonsense that has engendered fear and reluctance both in centrist voters AND centrist candidates - we've scared away good people who simply refuse to participate in the process because they don't want to be excoriated for not holding "proper" right-wing ideological positions.

Stop posturing.  Stop making the Left's job so damn easy.  Make the hard calls and accept it.  This would earn us more respect than the constant weaseling for votes.  Yes, it might be painful.  Yes, it might cost us votes.  But we're the abject minority NOW; now is the time to take those hits to position ourselves for success later.

If the GOP (for example) announced that it would henceforth ENTIRELY (and genuinely) dispense with any reference or position on abortion (as it is a moral and personal issue, and NOT one for government, particularly government in abject crisis), and focus purely on the running of the country in a fiscally reasonable manner - once people actually came to believe it, we'd *have* the huge majority of middle class voters in this country.

Yes, it would cost you the people for which this is their SOLE issue of import.  But you should perhaps trust them a little more too; the ability of this issue to determine elections only exists because Republicans let it be so.  Yes, some will refuse to vote for a party that 'abandoned' their focus.  Too bad.  The bulk of others will likely review their choices practically and say "hey, that candidate may refuse to even discuss abortion; but I agree with 80% of everything else.  It's better than the other guy, certainly."

Dump the dogmatic stuff that is DRIVING away the bulk of voters who fundamentally agree with the platform of fiscal common sense and minimalist government.  Stay "ideologically pure", and remain ever-more marginalized.