Young Republicans must learn the old traditional GOP time-tested policy that wins elections. The formula, according to Thom Hartmann, is simple:
• Increase inequality in the country until poverty and homelessness are in a crisis. Do this by gutting social safety net programs and supports for working-class people, like unions. Stress society. Force it to pay unemployment compensation as employers leave for cheaper labor. Ignore climate change.
• Deaths, poverty and homelessness increase, which produces an increase in crime; this freaks out middle-class people – the majority of voters.
• Then we build our political identity and campaign around being “tough on crime” (while we ignore the fact that the poverty we helped create is largely responsible for much of the crime). Then, blame poverty-driven crime, instead, on “welfare” programs that Democrats have put into place.
• Get re-elected, create more poverty; rinse, wash and recycle.
Gerald Staack
Former Santa Clarita resident
Wilmington, North Carolina
