Being a Better Republican: My New Year's Resolution for 2024

Reframing Social Issues

Too often, the Republican Party has gone to one of two unhelpful extremes when it comes to issues like abortion, gay marriage, or legal cannabis. One extreme is to go too hardcore too fast and scare people away. The other is to completely concede on social issues and let the Democrats pull our country further to the left. Neither one is helpful because neither one will expand the coalition. Only the most rock-ribbed MAGA supporter will vote for persecution of gays or pot users. On the flipside, if someone wants to vote for social liberalism, they'll vote Democratic.

Abortion

Starting with abortion, here's how you reframe that issue: As much as I hate to say it, after the disaster that was the 2022 midterms, I don't want to see ONE MORE male Republican run on anything more pro-life than banning abortion after three months except in cases of rape, incest, fetal defect, or when the life of the mother is at risk. There's too much at stake to risk it all on a platform any more restrictive than that. 

Consolidate our gains by winning the 2024 election in the Presidency and Senate so Roe can't be put back into place by a Democratic majority who will nominate radical pro aborts, and let the pro-life industry move the needle on this issue until we get to a day where public opinion is as abolitionist on abortion as it is on slavery or racial segregation. 

While we're at it, put plenty of resources into developing artificial baby growing chambers, so any woman who doesn't want to be pregnant can have her fetus removed by c section and put alive into an artificial womb, where it will be cared for until it's ready to enter the world. Once that's a reality, we'll be ready to ban abortion altogether.

LGBT Issues

The fact is, homosexuality and transgenderism have been a part of our fallen human condition since Adam ate the fruit. They're not going away until the Lord comes back. So here's how you become a better Republican on gay marriage: Take the government out of marriage and make it a religious matter. Don't officiate weddings at courthouses anymore. Marriage is a private religious matter and should be treated as such. Let the churches, synagogues, etc. set their own rules for marriage. There are denominations of almost any faith now that are gay-affirming. Let them officiate the gay weddings as well as normal weddings. Gay adoption, however, should be illegal. This is not because gay people are more likely to hurt their children sexually (they're not) or warp them into believing in their ideology (sort of true but no more than a child raised in a Christian home is likely to be Christian as an adult), but because every child deserves a mother and a father. Children who grow up without one or the other in their life are worse off almost across the board. 

As for transgenderism, the cure is simply to ignore it. Don't pay these people's delusions any attention. Don't persecute transgenders, but don't coddle them either. Give them gender neutral bathrooms to use alongside the usual mens' room and ladies' room, but don't let them define male or female any longer.

The latest controversy in the area of LGBT issues is in the school system. This is a line we MUST draw. Children should not learn about alternative sexual lifestyle of any kind at all until their late teens, whether in the classroom or from the school library. Once they are in their late teens, parents should have the right to opt their children out of sexual indoctrination. As for "straight" sex, children should be taught abstinence from an early age, including from pornography. Anyone who goes against this advice should THEN be taught about birth control, "safe sex," etc by their parents and their health teacher privately.

Or better yet, pull your kids out of public school and enroll them in private school or homeschool your kids. Most states have school choice now, including blue states (even my own state of Illinois has it to some extent, last I heard). So take advantage of it, or move to a state where you have that choice. 

Cannabis

Cannabis is an easy one. Here's me being a better Republican on cannabis: Legalization, across the nation! This is one issue where running to the "left" of the Democrats, who so far have promised the Moon on this issue and delivered nothing, is to our benefit. There's a saying that "without beer, prohibition doesn't work." The same is true for pot. Prohibition of pot has totally failed. People do it anyway, for recreation and medicine alike. The dealers continue to make money on it illegally, and the government doesn't see a dime of that in taxes. All the while, people are serving life sentences for possessing a natural herb that George Washington once grew on his Mount Vernon plantation. So, Republicans should immediately put forward a bill legalizing pot nationwide. And I mean LEGALIZE it. Make it legal to grow in your backyard like tomatoes or blackberries. Make it legal for medical use with a doctor's prescription at any age and recreational at 18. Yes, I said 18. If you're old enough to serve on the front lines in the military, you're old enough to eat candies containing a natural herb. The same goes for tobacco, alcohol, and while we're at it renting a hotel room or a car, gambling, etc. Can you imagine the wave of Gen Z (and soon Gen Alpha) voters that will come running into the arms of the Republican Party if we promised THAT to them?

In short, we need to avoid unhelpful extremes on social issues and aim for the middle for now. Let the church and conservative media handle those issues and hopefully people will come around.