Probably An Unpopular Take
The right has to learn how to build coalitions if it wants to live.
Some conservatives are mad over the selection of J.D. Vance as Trump’s VP. He wasn’t my first choice but he was my choice over Doug Burgum, Marco Rubio, and Tim Scott. I would have loved a Brian Kemp pick, but Trump and Kemp hate each other, to the detriment of the nation.
I don’t agree with Vance on everything, but I’m applying Reagan’s 80-20 rule here: my 80% friend isn’t my 20% enemy. The right has to learn how to build coalitions if it wants to live — a wild thing to say when you consider that we have a bench several rows deep — but what’s the use if you can’t martial them together for a majority? Conservatives and Republicans are two different things, never more so than now. They have to play ball together.
Perfection isn’t strategy, it’s a surrender staked on fantasy.
I used to be one of those hold outs for candidate political perfection. It was something I often argued about with my late friend Andrew Breitbart, who extorted me to listen to his 2012 CPAC speech about Mitt Romney right before he stormed onto the stage.
Perfection isn’t strategy, it’s a surrender staked on fantasy. Principles win and not every candidate will share yours 100%. I don't even agree with my husband 100% of the time, much less wholly agree with a politician on the issues. Winners win because they can adapt and reconfigure their strategies. Some insist that accepting anything less than perfection is “selling out.” That argument itself is a sell-out; what’s worse, it’s a progressive-style, emotional blackmail, straw man argument which presupposes that adapting strategy is the same as abandoning principle when the strategy is all about making principle more attainable. Different means isn’t a sacrifice of the end. You will not score a touch down unless you can move the ball, however incrementally, down the field. It’s a strategy. Refusing to play until the field is clear is a surrender.
I’m not going to tell you for whom you should vote, but I will tell you to think and make it count.
The right has to learn how to build coalitions if it wants to live.
It was suggested that Vivek Ramaswamy take Vance’s Senate seat. I don’t disagree, for a couple of reasons. This made some folks mad. Politics does that. Many dislike him. I have remaining questions. That said, I think he makes a better option than some of the other names circulating. Ramaswamy’s path in politics ends without a record to go forward on at this point and he has some good ideas. Despite my disagreements with some of his past, he has good energy and he can obviously adapt to please the base. Ultimately, Ohio residents are the only people whose opinions count the most on this right now. Mike DeWine is a moderate and I don’t foresee him choosing a conservative replacement for Vance’s seat.
This brings me again to this point: The right has to learn how to build coalitions if it wants to live and win.
Look, nothing is ever perfect in politics. No one gets the fairy tale ending they want because this is real life, not fantasy land. The perfect candidate doesn’t exit. The perfectly-run campaign doesn’t exist. Maybe perfectly curated social media kiosks have convinced people that politics must be equally airbrushed and perfect and it isn’t. If you can't understand this you will forever be disappointed. What is the alternative?
The people who just want to bitch and moan without offering a single practical solution are, bluntly, obstacles in the way of a win at this point. The objective is winning. The alternative is allowing Democrats to continue driving the country into the pit. Do you want sky-high taxes? Runaway inflation? Endless wars? Lawlessness and disorder? Look around, it’s not an exaggeration.
The choice is yours. It would be a shame if we missed the last off-ramp on the road to Marxist hell because people were holding out for nonexistent political perfection. No one will ever be “good enough” but some just may be useful enough in saving the country from certain destruction.
Adapt strategies, be practical, push forward.
That's because politics is full of tricks. The object is to weed out the tricksters and elect the ones who are true at heart acknowledging they are nothing without their God. They're the ones who will show the way.
The movement that started this country began 1478. On March 31, 1492, an edict was issued in Spain that prohibited the existence of people who keep the Sabbath from existing in Spain. On August 1, 1492, a man purported to be "Christopher Columbus" sailed away from Spain because of this order. However, he landed on an island which was subsequently named "El Salvador." Why was it called El Salvador instead of Columbus or Columbia, like so many other places were named? Because He wasn't really "Christopher Columbus." His name was Fernando Salvador Zarco. "Christopher Columbus" was an alias to conceal his true identity. Why? Because he was under the duress of the Catholic Church and the Spanish Inquisition, began in 1478. There is a rich history that can be read by anyone, written by Edward Kritzler, called "Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean.". I am convinced that this is a continuation of the struggle between life and death, freedom and slavery, freedom and tyranny. It makes no difference to me if JD Vance has some difference to Trump. Will he advocate for freedom in the absence of Trump? They have my vote. The nuance of political engineering is important to some, but only important to me so far as preserving our freedom. I am so fully aware that it is imperative to me and my countries' citizens to behave with moral fortitude. Our freedom is under the stewardship of our responsibility. While I agree that it is our our responsibility to vote, I also recognize that it is imperative, on the basis the founders placed the declaration and the constitution, to live a moral a life: that is the responsibility of all citizens, in order to preserve our way of life, our way of freedom. In the scope of these truths, the VP pick pales in significance. Politics is downstream of culture, and it is up to us as citizens to preserve that culture, our culture of freedom of worship with courage. It is my opinion that the opening night of this convention preserves that very well. May it live on, both regardless and within the spirit of the convention tonight.