Why Are Republicans Politicians Afraid to Stand Up for Their Values

Until the election of Donald Trump I have never seen a Republican who was so unapologetically Republican. One of the many reasons he won the election is that he stood up and said what he believed and did not back down the moment he was challenged.

He fought back.

That is something that is missing in the candidates put forward by the Republican Party.

Splits in the Party

Most candidates of the Republican Party understand that the party is a wide tent party. They have to appeal to a lot of different people and a statement one way or another could lose vital votes needed to secure the office.

Members of the Republican Party have the tendency to impose purity tests. A purity test is a way to determine if someone is Republican enough. If they fail this test then people will not vote for them. Instead they will either split the vote by voting for a third candidate or they will not vote at all.

A level of scrutiny is required to make sure you are electing someone who will represent you, but when you are too ridged in that scrutiny you end up electing someone who will not represent you.

Do not give up your values, but understand that it is better to get some of what you want as opposed to nothing at all. Do not play the all or nothing game, because you will always end up with nothing.

Instead be willing to compromise now with Republicans and Independence as opposed to being forced to accept compromise later with Democrats. Don’t win the battle but lose the war.

Loud Vocal Liberal Minority and Media Bias

Politicians will almost always hear the loud voices and think that is public opinion. The activists are good at making their message heard and pressuring politicians into difficult positions.

They are helped in this task by the media. An activist calls a Republican or Conservative a bigot and a reporter will write the story and call them an accused bigot. This causes public opinion to start to associate that person with the word bigot.

So if the Republican says they want immigration reform the activists and media can say it is just a nice way of saying they hate brown people, because remember they have already been accused of being a bigot.

People already leaning left will connect the dots on their own, feel smart and think they are an independent thinker while doing it, and believe that the Republican is a bigot.

This is why politicians and Republicans need to take an honest evaluation of themselves and find out why they support the policies they do, formulate an argument about it and fight back against these baseless accusations.

Instead they try to deflect, which only makes them seem guilty to non-Republicans and weak to Republicans. I agreed with Betsy DeVos on school choice but she would not vigorously defend it publicly nor formulated good arguments for it in her senate hearing.

Nice Guys Who Don’t know How to Stand Up and Fight and Who Have No Fire

If you meet Republican’s in person they are very nice, polite respectful people. They are nice, kind, honest and hard working.

None of those translates very well to politics, especially when you are trying to get younger people interested. They want to see someone who is passionate about similar ideas stand up for them without apology.

Milo Yiannopoulos could not be more stereotypically un-conservative, yet he was able to draw largely conservative crowds to his events. He would dress in drag and talk about gay sex with his black boyfriends but would draw people in because he was unapologetic about his ideas. Ideas that he shared with young Republicans and conservatives.

If you are pro-life you need to be ready willing and able to counter the accusation that you hate women and want to tell them what to do with their bodies. You need to be able to push back the idea that you only care about the baby until it is born. You have to be ready when they ask what you want to do in the case of pregnancy caused by rape.

You need to do so with a fire and conviction that you are doing the right thing. Be honest and open about your ideas but dedicated to them. I respect someone more who is 100% dedicated to a wrong idea and changes their mind once they are proven wrong as opposed to someone who is only 50% dedicated to an idea and waffles back and forth until public opinion become clear (that is one of the many reason Hilary lost the election).

Do not be afraid to stand up and fight with a fire in your belly for Republican ideas. Be prepared and ready to counter, not deflect, the loud liberal activists and media bias. It is a form of testing and tempering, if you can come out the other side you will be stronger for it. Remember the only way you will have a politician you agree with 100% of the time is if you run for office. Be ready to make a deal with fellow Republicans now as opposed to being forced into one later by Democrats.

We need to come together as individuals and give support to our candidates so they can stand strong for the values we hold. They might not be all our values but they are better than none of our values. Each journey must begin with a first step, do not be afraid to take it.