Conservatives need to better explain core convictions

Ted Cruz is right, in that a more lifting message will draw a greater number of Americans to conservative beliefs and votes. But my concern is that we conflate the ideology with the outreach program.

What we actually should be doing, is stop taking for granted that people understand what we stand for, irrespective of their gender, racial or ethnic identities. Because what we stand for has absolutely nothing to do with gender, racial or ethnic identities.


We need separate and very sophisticated outreach programs to Hispanics, African Americans and women, but programs that point them to policy positions and convictions that stand free from such artificial distinctions as your sex (and, yes, folks, your sexual identity), race or ethnicity. And the messaging used to conduct the outreach needs to make a quantum leap in sophistication, and fast.

But what we really need to do is focus on the core convictions that make us conservatives, and evangelize that. We'll find that we have a solid majority of Americans that come running to us as saviors from opposed convictions that simple common sense tells them are invalid.

What might those core convictions be?

Well, we recognize the need to regulate but that too much regulation of any kind damages innovation, and that any restrictive law should, if successful, accomplish a legitimate and pressing social purpose with minimal invasion of free will -- and it must actually be enforceable.

While we recognize that collective capacity is required to do great things that individuals and corporations cannot do, taken too far collective will neutralizes individual rights and destroys individuality. Production belongs first and primarily to those who generate it, and that taxes are the price we pay for civilization.

Read the full article at High Plains Pundit.