It was reported that the national House Republican Study Committee published a memo listing four takeaways from the Virginia gubernatorial election: Republicans need to support parents, pandemic-related mandates need ending, police need support, and Biden's failing economic policies need opposition.

One of the most promising sentences in the memo was this: "We need to keep hammering away and work on bringing solutions to the table to address their concerns."

Republicans need to make specific promises they will fulfill if returned to power.  The worst response will be for Republicans to avoid rolling back progressive fascism and instead just cheerlead from the sidelines and hand out red jerseys.  If Republicans don't eliminate programs, offices, agencies, administrations, and departments, then our constitutional rights will continue to be undermined, and progressive fascism will persist to grow even more oppressive later.

The first issue identified supporting parents.  This issue stems from government schools propagandizing students with racist Critical Race Theory.  Also, schools have been sexualizing children and recruiting them into LGBT sexually deviant behaviors.  Defeated Democrat candidate Terry McAuliffe made the mistake of clearly articulating the progressive views that parents have no say in the education of their children or in the selection of textbooks.  Parents should be supported by taking all money away from government schools and giving that money to parents to choose where and how to educate their children.  If parents don't control the educational dollars, then government schools will continue to lower standards.

If you think things are bad now in government schools, then know there is no bottom how low things can go.  Reform of government schools is impossible without competition.  And competition is possible only if parents are free to decide whether their children stay or go to a better school.

Consistent with this, the Department of Education should be defunded.  There is no constitutional warrant for any national department focused on education.  Education is a responsibility for families, localities, and states.

The second takeaway was ending COVID-19 mandates.  This is a good one.  But there should never be a recurrence of medical tyranny.  A constitutional amendment should be pushed through Congress denying all federal funds to any local, county, or state government, or to any federal department, that mandates, coerces, or enforces lockdowns, mask-wearing, vaccinations, therapeutics, testing, occupancy requirements except for fire safety purposes, or social distancing, or that denies tort litigation against manufacturers or providers.  Until enough votes are garnered in Congress to pass this amendment, it should be used as a bludgeon against recalcitrant elected politicians in their next primary and general elections.

An argument is that vaccination against a deadly virus requires suspension of constitutional rights.  But authentic vaccines, such as for polio and smallpox, confer immunity to those inoculated.  Anyone vaccinated need not fear anyone unvaccinated.  Coercion is unnecessary.  The current COVID-19 shots don't meet this standard; they don't prevent infection from any variant of COVID-19 virus.  The CDC has acknowledged voluntary VAERS accounting (which undercounts incidents), from December 14, 2020, through October 25, 2021, of 9,367 deaths after receipt of COVID-19 shots.  Counts of other, non-deadly adverse events are much higher.  Currently, anyone harmed from these shots cannot sue either the manufacturer or the medical provider for damages.

The third lesson Republicans note is supporting police.  Progressive attacks against law and order include prosecuting attorneys declining to press charges against Antifa and BLM rioters, underfunding or defunding police, and restricting police actions.

The vast majority of citizens recognize that law and order is one of the few legitimate functions of government.  The number of police needs to be adequate for local circumstances.  Training and equipment for policemen should be excellent.  Tools needed by the police when facing rioters, pillagers, and anarchists, such as tear gas, water cannons, and large-caliber non-lethal projectiles, should be available without delay.

However, Republicans make a mistake conferring qualified immunity on police.  Our constitution stipulates that there is equal protection under the law.  Qualified immunity is a concept, legislated by the Supreme Court in defiance of the Constitution, which maintains that there are classes of people, particularly those acting under a charter that can include violent behavior, who are above the law.  Rather than qualified immunity, citizens should be able to bring civil and criminal charges against individuals and departments as appropriate.  To prevent abuse of this recourse, particularly for civil suits, it only is necessary to stipulate that the loser pays.  For example, if a policeman committed a crime interacting with a citizen, he should face scrutiny to determine if he committed a crime.  If a civil suit is brought, and the plaintiff loses, then the legal costs borne by the policeman or department should be reimbursed, plus damages can be assessed if the judge determines that the lawsuit was frivolous.

The fourth lesson highlights Biden's failed economic policies.  In particular, the ravages of inflation are noted.  Unfortunately, both blue and red teams have supported monetary inflation perpetrated by the Federal Reserve.  This inflation is experienced first by banks, financial institutions, and the wealthy by elevating stock and real estate prices.  It is experienced after some time by the poor and middle class with higher prices for rent, groceries, fuel, utilities, clothing, entertainment, and medical care.  Under this malfeasance, the wealthy benefit from a wealth transfer from the poor and the middle class.  The solution is restriction of the Federal Reserve's charter to protect the value of the currency.  Of course, without monetary inflation, Congress can't run up deficit spending or engage in endless wars.

It is important to understand that capitalism is the only economic system that has reduced poverty and raised standards of living.  Biden doesn't understand this.  As a result, his policies portend increased poverty and reduced standards of living.  Proposals taxing unrealized capital gains are an invitation for wealthy Americans to change citizenship. It is one way to hollow out capitalist finance.

A concrete action Republicans should take is to introduce a constitutional amendment requiring a supermajority in both chambers of Congress to institute any new tax or raise the rates of an existing one.  On the other hand, only a simple majority should be needed in both chambers to eliminate a tax or reduce any tax rate.

Republicans should not only promise to block Biden's Build Back Bolshevik plan.  They should promise to end government subsidies for unreliables (i.e., solar and wind energy) and electric vehicles.  As is being experienced in Europe, reliance on unreliables will produce energy poverty and hollow out industry.  Reliance on unreliables will raise energy costs, with the biggest adverse impact on the poor and middle class.

Republicans should pass legislation negating the unconstitutional legislation of the Environmental Protection Agency.  The first of these is their Endangerment Finding that CO2 is a pollutant.  CO2 is a primary component needed for photosynthesis, which sustains all life.  Over the last 60 years, atmospheric CO2 doubled.  The result has been the greening of the world, improved plant efficiency using water, and higher crop productivity.  The second is the EPA's plan to regulate utility greenhouse gas emissions.

If Republicans don't eliminate programs, offices, agencies, administrations, and departments, then constitutional rights will continue to be undermined, and progressive fascism will persist to grow even more oppressive later.  Liberty and prosperity need much smaller government.

Image: World Economic Forum via Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

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