10-step recovery program for the post-Trump GOP

The inevitability has set in on the campaign trail. Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the United States. When the dust clears on Election Day, conservatives across the country must take stock of the mangled wreckage of the party and attempt to rebuild.

In many ways, Donald Trump is the frat lord POTUS that our country doesn’t need: late night tweets, dictatorial call to jail enemies, chanting of “lock her up.” All that lacks in a Trump candidacy are calls for his supporters to streak the national mall when he loses.

{mosads}As conservative lawmakers and hopefuls run away from Trump with reckless abandon, it’s time for GOP officials to begin to outline the plan for recovery. We’ve often heard of a 10-step program. The GOP desperately needs one.

Here are the 10 ways that the GOP can recover (and move on) from Trump:  

1.     Fire Reince Priebus – The first step to fixing a problem is admitting you have one. Republican leadership is weak and unprincipled. Priebus is a great strategist but weak visionary. The party desperately needs leadership that speaks to the hearts and minds of many Americans, playing on their dreams rather than their fears.

Political tactics work in the short term for an election, but changing minds requires a long-term vision, a vision we haven’t seen in the GOP in quite some time.

2.     Let Losers Lose – The GOP has supported too many weak candidates for the sake of electing Republicans. While having the majority in Congress and Senate lends itself well to governing, Republicans have to deal with the headache of these weak candidates shooting the GOP in the knees after they are elected and inevitably alienate more voters.

Giving losers a voice and giving them the money to win may be a temporary success, but this strategy rests on a shaky long-term foundation that has time and again led to failure. The party must aim to elect men and women of good character and strong intellect rather than win for the sake of holding a seat in Congress.

3.     Stop lecturing women – Conservative women are often too humble or have different priorities than to roll in the muck of modern politics. But norms are changing, and the GOP has some of the toughest women in the United States to usher in a new age of strong, independent women to lead the party and country.

For too long, women have been lectured by both parties and made to feel as if their ideas aren’t worthwhile. Conservative women are smart, capable, and full of ideas. It’s high time we start listening to what they have to say.  

4.     Devotion to Giving– Any politician can canvass in broken towns and communities during an election cycle, promising the world in exchange for a vote. But after the balloons fall, the communities often stay the same. A thriving GOP electorate, despite electoral success or failure, must give back in their communities, as often when it is hard as when it is easy.

Being a party that embraces faith means pledging financial resources, time, and energy. It’s not enough to let sentiment carry the day. Community growth starts from within when families become invested in their corner of the world.  

5.     Reward Our Military with a coherent foreign policy – There is no doubt that many conservatives are patriots who embrace the flag in a way that many of us could only aspire to emulate. The U.S. has failed many veterans, however, by offering a foreign policy that fluctuates between modern globalism to extreme isolationism.

When brave Americans enlist to serve, they have little to no ability to predict how the U.S. will respond in crisis because GOP leadership has failed to articulate a principled bedrock foreign policy. As a group that the GOP heavily campaigns to, the party owes our servicemen and women more.

6.    Eliminate the Political Class, Incorporate Outside Ideas – Before what seems now like a weekly Trump scandal, supporters were able to rally behind what Trump stands for: an outsider with a strong business. Trump’s message was rooted in border security, job creation, and winding down the political elite that have kept the status quo for decades. The message has been simple, and it has resonated. It might have worked for another candidate without the lewd, spew of egomania.

At least initially, Trump had his finger on the pulse of middle class and lower middle class America. The GOP must learn from his candidacy. This means constantly looking for outsiders for new leadership and ideas.

Building a political aristocracy is not conservative, but it has been building on both sides of the aisle for nearly a century. Replenishing the party with qualified outsiders and new ideas will make for a stronger party and one inclusive of all Americans.

7.     Quell the Conspiracy – The GOP must be the party of facts and principle. Too often, the Right whines of a left-wing conspiracy when they lose. The crazier the conspiracy, the more likely the left is to main stage some Looney-Toon conservative to drive more voters away from the GOP.  There is little doubt that media’s role has shifted from that of an umpire to that of a left-leaning color commentator.

However, that does not give the GOP the right to take their ball and go home or worse yet call for voters to flood Clinton rallies with “Rape” shirts for $1000. Conservatism demands better. GOP must pick better thought leaders if they ever want to change the hearts and minds of people.

8.     Don’t Pander to Polls – From guns to abortion to free trade to originalism, the GOP is a broad swatch of special interest, which often struggles to make conflicting views align. Rather than create a principled set of conservative views, the GOP marries itself to poll numbers. Democrats take the opposite approach.

Instead of panicking when their views were unpopular, they crafted strategies to shift popular opinion. For example, when gay marriage was wildly unpopular, liberals used TV, opinion editorials, and the news to convince the then majority of the American people opposed to gay marriage that they were wrong. And they convinced them. Leading with principle works.

9.     Embrace Science – Bringing snowballs to the Senate floor is among the ridiculous (and embarrassing) tactics that conservatives use to show themselves abhorrent to science and all things that normal people believe.

Science, however, could help the GOP. Science has helped pushed the discussion about abortion forward in a way that was inconceivable 10 years ago. Put away the tinfoil hats and stop running from science. There’s plenty to be learned and gained.

10. Be the party of life – The right to life and the right to natural death should be cornerstones of conservative ideology. Abortion’s constitutional merits continue to diminish, and the societal detriments of the death penalty have grown as apparent as any social injustice can.

While an intensely personal and sensitive argument for both issues, leaning on personal responsibility and social justice as paramount conservative qualities are far too often overlooked. Life is a precious thing and the values of conservatism must reflect this principle.

A ten-step program is never easy. Bad habits are hard to break. But with time and the right leadership, the GOP can rise again and can be a party that challenges America to be better, to be great, and be conservative.

Grant is a graduate of University of Virginia School of Law and Washington and Lee University.

The views expressed by Contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.