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Republican Voters blog
A playbook for rebuilding the volunteer base after a hard election nightVolunteers are rebuilt in the quiet years, not the loud ones. A step-by-step plan from thank-you calls to training nights and a calendar of off-year elections.How the Republican Electoral Map Moved Across Four Eras from 1896 to 2016A table of four Republican maps from 1896 to 2016, why states changed sides, and six cautions before you read anything into a map.The Trump Coalition in Historical Context, from Country Club to Cracker BarrelThe Republican voter base has been rebuilt before, in 1896, 1932 and 1980. Here is where the Trump-era coalition fits in that pattern, and where it is strained.Your questions about Republican presidents answered from the recordWho was first, who died in office, who resigned, who won 49 states and what the 22nd Amendment did: fourteen questions answered from verifiable facts.How to Count to 270 an Electoral College Worksheet with the 2016 MapA repeatable worksheet for counting electoral votes, worked through on the 2016 map, with swing exercises and the Maine, Nebraska and faithless-elector rules.A Five-Question Constitutional Test You Can Run on Any Federal LawA repeatable worksheet of five questions, each tied to a clause or Supreme Court case, with one made-up bill worked through every step.Twelve Questions About Conservatism Your Family Will Ask You, AnsweredWhat conservatism conserves, whether conservatives hate government, how it differs from the Republican Party, and eight more family-table questions, answered.The Reagan Democrats of Macomb County and the Voters Who Changed SidesWhy blue-collar Democrats in a Michigan county switched to Reagan, how each party reads the shift, and what it teaches about winning them back.Seven myths that keep good Republicans on the sidelinesSeven reasons for staying home sound sensible and fail on inspection. Each is tested against the record, given a verdict, and paired with a first step.Why the National Popular Vote Compact Deserves a Hard No From ConservativesThe compact sounds like simple fairness. Here is its best case, then five reasons conservatives should still say no to it.Frederick Douglass stayed a Republican all his life and told people whyDouglass judged parties by what they did for freed people and found the Republicans were the only national vehicle for it.Three first-time candidates, three races, and how each spends the first yearA school board seat, a city ward and a state house district ask different things. Three hypothetical candidates show the votes, hours and dollars each takes.Bob Dole came home wounded from Italy and became a master of the SenateDole's career shows how a conservative who knew the rules could still get big things signed into law.How to Talk About Immigration at the Table Without Losing the RoomYou can hold a firm view on the border and still be the most reasonable person in the room. Ten steps for the dinner table, the break room and the school gym.Nixon's 1972 Landslide and the Birth of the Blue-Collar RepublicanRepublicans did not always have working-class voters, and the Nixon years show how the shift began and what holds that coalition together.The Case for Being Pro-Immigrant and Pro-Border at the Same TimeA country that controls its door can keep it wide for those who come through. A numbered argument, the best objection answered, and what repair would look like.Serving as an election judge, the questions people ask before signing upFourteen plain answers on applying, training, pay, hours, check-in, provisional ballots and what to do when something looks wrong.How Donald Trump won the three states Republicans had lost for a generationIn 2016 Trump carried Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin by a combined 77,744 votes. Here is how the map was won and what it means for a Republican coalition.Why every Republican owes the primary election a vote, every timeIn a safe district the primary is the real election, and the few who show up pick the nominee for everyone who stayed home. Here is the arithmetic.Initiatives, referendums and amendments, how ballot measures really workHow initiatives, referendums and amendments reach the ballot, the conservative wins from Prop 13 to TABOR, and why wording decides the vote.Civil Discourse Is Not Surrender, and Lincoln and Scalia Prove ItPoliteness is not weakness. The 1858 debates, the Scalia-Ginsburg friendship and John Stuart Mill show why disagreeing without contempt wins more than it loses.The New Deal Coalition and the Twenty Years the GOP Spent in the WildernessDemocrats held the White House for twenty years, and Republicans learned to be a minority without losing their principles. The coalition, the fights, the returnHow to read your ballot before you get to the voting boothWalk through your ballot from sample copy to casting it: nonpartisan races, judges, special districts, ballot measures, undervotes and provisional ballots.The Culture War as Five Big Arguments, With Each Side at Its BestFive culture-war disputes boiled down to who decides, each side's strongest point and a conservative rebuttal, after a look at where the phrase came from.Why Black Voters Left the Party of Lincoln for the New Deal, in QuestionsFor seventy years Black Americans were loyal Republicans. Plain answers to the questions people ask about why that changed in the 1930s.How to Argue Politics at the Holiday Table and Still Be Invited BackA seven-step plan for holiday arguments: choose topics, ask first, restate their view, split fact from value, give one example, and exit well.How to Spot a Misleading Statistic Before It Spots You, With Worked ExamplesA worksheet of six checks, percent versus points, mean versus median, per person, start year, sample size and cause, with every sum shown on invented numbers.Liberty Without Responsibility Is a Very Short Road to Losing BothConservatives defend freedom and its duties in one breath because they are one idea. Burke, Washington and Tocqueville explain, and critics get a hearing.The 1964 television speech that turned Ronald Reagan into a conservative leaderA paid broadcast for a doomed presidential campaign launched the career of the man who later won two landslides, and it still teaches how to argue.The Republican Congress That Sent the Women's Suffrage Amendment to the StatesThe 19th Amendment cleared Congress in 1919 under a Republican majority. Here is the record, told in order, with the unfinished business left in.Running a phone bank, scripts, lists, rules and what to do with the resultsA playbook for a volunteer phone bank, from the room and the list to the legal limits on calls and texts, a short script and what to do with the results.Door-knocking that works, a walkthrough from the turf map to the thank-youA step-by-step walkthrough of canvassing a neighborhood, from cutting turf to the thirty-second opener, safety, literature rules and the follow-up note.Running for city council, what the job covers and how to win a wardZoning, policing, property taxes, water bills and permits are decided at city hall. Walk through the job, the forms of government and a ward voter-contact plan.The Three-Legged Stool Still Holds Up the Republican PartyEconomic, social and national-security conservatives share one seat. Here is the case for each leg, the best objection, and which compromises keep it standing.Running for local office, the first thirty days, step by stepFirst-time candidates lose month one to enthusiasm, not paperwork. A grouped checklist with a reason for each item and a calendar worked back from Election Day.How to write and pass a platform resolution at your county conventionA step-by-step playbook for drafting a one-subject resolution, filing it on time, and carrying it from the county convention up toward the state platform.Four Decades of Republican Immigration Fights, From Reagan to the Gang of EightA dated timeline of the bills that passed and the bills that died, and why the pattern explains Republican voters' distrust better than any speech.Can I vote in the Republican primary? Your registration questions answeredPlain answers to the registration questions that get voters turned away from the Republican primary, from open and closed rules to runoffs and sore-loser laws.How the Kansas-Nebraska Act Killed the Whigs and Gave Birth to a New PartyA broken promise in Congress ended one great party in about two years and launched another. Here is how it happened, step by step.How to become a precinct committeeman and take over your county partyThe Republican Party starts at the precinct, and many seats there sit empty. Here is the step-by-step route to filling one and what you can do with it.