Ed Morrissey’s new book Going Red makes the case that, in order for Republicans to win national elections again, they’ll have to quit running top-down campaigns, roll up their sleeves, and become part of local communities.
It’s a lot easier to run a cookie-cutter TV ad than it is to build a grassroots organization, but that’s exactly what winning requires. And the good news for Republicans is that the GOP is, according to Morrissey, already on top of this.
I spoke to Morrissey today on my podcast, and according to the author:
[The RNC is] already doing this. This is not a secret. But it’s one of the most underreported aspects of what the RNC has been doing ever since 2013 when the autopsy came out—which is they’re building the type of organization that can go into these local communities and talk to voters and build neighborhood ambassadors that can go in and get their friends involved in politics and talk through the issues—and show how Republicans and conservatives can make their lives better. I mean, Reince Preibus is already doing this right now with the Republican Leadership Initiative.
What about the possibility that Trump just might now fire Priebus — and kill the program? According to Morrissey:
The thing is, they had this debate … about how, well, Donald Trump might ask Reince Priebus to step down. And then, Tuesday afternoon — before the Indianapolis primaries finished up — there was like this strange new respect for Reince Priebus within Team Trump because they had been briefed on the Republican Leadership Initiative. That was actually part of this sort of public embrace of Priebus. And it actually started before Priebus called Trump ‘The presumptive nominee.’ And, in large part, it was because of this network that Priebus has put together, and they realize now what the vaule of that is — and the fact that Priebus is the guy who put it together and knows how it runs. So yeah, strange new respect, indeed.
In a world of gloomy news, this should serve as a silver lining for some Republicans. Listen to streaming audio of my full conversation with Ed Morrissey here, and download the podcast on iTunes.