Introduction

For convenience, key concepts are called out throughout the book. A more detailed explanation is also provided, should you or your campaign manager wish to dig into the details.

Warning: This book should be held in strict confidence and not shared with anyone other than your most trusted campaign staff. Any copies of a prior edition in your possession must be returned or destroyed immediately. Each copy of the book is unique, with minor differences so we can identify the source of any potential leaks. If you are responsible for such a leak—however unintentional—national support will be withdrawn and donors will be informed that you are no longer a reliable political ally.

[VT note: I've heard about this approach to identifying a leaker — it's called a Canary Trap. It would be great if someone could find and send me another copy so I can identify the tell-tale differences between them and publish the original version. That would make it harder for anyone to figure out which copy I found and subsequently track me down.]

If someone else leaks a copy, deny having seen it and blame the resulting news stories on the Democrats as an obvious smear. Conservative media will provide cover and things will blow over quickly. Our core voters tend to come from the non-reading population, so as long as cable television, talk radio, and social media do their work, you can keep following these guidelines with only minor adaptations and not have to worry about voter backlash.

Congratulations on receiving this guide! You have been identified as a leading contender for high office, either at the federal or state level. To support your efforts, this book will provide guidance on how to operate both as a Republican candidate and as an elected official.

[Violetta Tinari note: I am prioritizing uploads from the "candidate" section since that's most relevant right now. The post-election part can wait for later.]

Why This Guide Is Necessary (Background For New Readers)

The Republican party during much of the past half-century offered a mutually beneficial deal to the electorate. In exchange for favorable treatment of the wealthy and powerful, we committed to pursue a mixture of economic and cultural objectives that were important to conservative voters. Opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion, and non-white immigration were key drivers on the cultural side, and we promoted the concept of trickle-down economics and prosperity through globalization on the economic side. In theory, we would create an America where our voters would prosper and avoid influences in their communities that would disrupt their comfortable conservative lives.

The first half of the bargain was achieved, as wealth and power became increasingly concentrated in an ever-smaller part of the population. There were also efforts to deliver quality-of-life improvements for the American people even as we undercut their ability to influence the course of the nation. President Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency, safeguarding the nation’s natural environment, and by extension the wellbeing of its people. President Reagan ushered in tax reform, lowering individual income tax rates and later increasing corporate taxes to rebalance the tax burden. President George H.W. Bush created trade and diplomatic relationships across North and South America that were intended to create widespread prosperity and could have reduced the flow of migrants into our nation by providing them with stable livelihoods at home. President George W. Bush signed off on education reforms that were intended to improve the quality of public education and reduce achievement gaps between students of different backgrounds. Nothing like this would be tolerated in the Republican party today, but these approaches were useful at the time.

[VT: The reference to the EPA is self-explanatory. The remaining points appear to refer to the tax bill of 1986; any of multiple trade and democracy-building initiatives across Latin America, the most famous of which was the initial groundwork for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that was ratified under President Clinton; and the No Child Left Behind Act.]

Ultimately, many of the economic policies failed to deliver benefits to the public, partly due to faulty intellectual foundations and partly due to later policymaking that gutted key provisions. As a result, the party leaned increasingly on cultural issues, and we needed to convince voters that our focus on those policies was a satisfactory trade for our ongoing favoritism toward our donors. A network of conservative media outlets owned by wealthy individuals was developed to convince voters that the real threat to both their livelihoods and way of life came from Democrats’ cultural values. This set the stage for the great realignment of the voting population that appears to have reached its peak in recent years, powered by increasingly vocal media personalities.

As hybrid businesses that needed to both generate revenue and persuade large audiences to support the political stances of wealthy elites, conservative media outlets staked out increasingly extreme positions and rewarded Republican policymakers for doing likewise. Tapping into the audience’s deepest fears proved effective for increasing viewer ratings, and a self-reinforcing cycle was created. Raw emotions led to ruthless policies, which led to further socioeconomic problems and even deeper grievances that demanded increasingly brutal action by policymakers. Although Republicans were responsible for many of the economic policies that led to working-class Americans falling behind, Democrats had their own share of economic missteps on subjects such as globalization, and we were more successful in convincing voters to trust our handling of the economy despite the evidence. Even as inequality grew and quality of life declined for most Americans, we were able to maintain support by blaming immigrants, Democrats, and the decline in “American values” that their policies supposedly promoted.

The policy failures of the past created misery and rage among the electorate, providing us with a new path to power. This is the future you must master.

Due to the twin influences of economic decline and emotional manipulation, our voter base is now motivated primarily by fear, anger, and contempt for “others” whether they are Democrats, immigrants, minorities, LGBTQ, or new identity groups that may yet emerge. In a supreme irony, the voters most harmed by our economic policies are most amenable to our electoral tactics due to the rage that has been cultivated and our ability to validate, harness, and direct that rage toward useful targets.

A side effect of these tactics is that many former supporters in the upper middle class have drifted away from the Republican party due to the increasingly extreme positions we take to please the raging lower classes. This means that our key demographics for support are on opposite ends of the spectrum—the greatest winners and the biggest losers in the American economy. Wealthy donors see us as a safer bet than Democrats who keep trying to institute pro-worker policies, and the malcontents in the working class are convinced we are the last wall defending them from cultural erasure. Our electoral strategy is to keep delivering on those extremes and to peel away as much support from the middle as possible.

[VT: For website purposes, I'm using this blue italic text to imitate the callout boxes in the original book. These are supposed to be the "quick takeaways" for busy politicians.]

Campaigning and Governing in a Post-Policy Era

Since our voters now demand we act as the avatars of their rage rather than a serious governing party, we have entered a post-policy era. The primary objectives of previous decades have been achieved, and any further policy action is nothing more than a flourish added to a masterpiece. The concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a small minority is locked in forever. Workforce protections have been gutted and face an uphill battle as Democrats and unions try to claw back fragments of what existed before. An ultra-conservative Supreme Court is steadily breaking the federal government’s ability to function, while also encouraging state efforts to rig elections in our perpetual favor.

Democrats are playing defense on every front, so hold the line, maintain pressure, and seize new gains opportunistically.

We have shifted the public discourse so far to the right that the Democratic policy positions that we call “socialist” would be considered right-leaning in many other countries’ political systems. Countless other achievements are so embedded in the fabric of American life that they are no longer even questioned by Democrats, journalists, or the public. Electorally speaking, we have stormed the castle and pulled up the drawbridge behind us—anything short of gross incompetence on our part means that Democrats will have great difficulty reversing our gains.

This book serves as a guide to navigating the post-policy environment, both to help you avoid political pitfalls and to enhance your position wherever possible. At times, the explanatory portions of this book will run counter to Republican orthodoxy as publicly stated. It is important for you to have a clear understanding of reality to better manipulate voters and political opponents as desired.

In the absence of major policy objectives remaining to be fulfilled, as a candidate or elected official you are at liberty to pursue other goals and ambitions. The top three are wealth, power, and the sheer pleasure and notoriety that comes from thwarting Democrats/liberals/progressives, but you are welcome to pursue others provided they do not interfere with the party’s success. For suggestions on these topics, see the Appendix. The one nonnegotiable objective is to always oppose Democratic proposals if they carry a clear benefit for the nation. Anything else you may achieve along the way for yourself or your high-value donors is a bonus.

[VT: I haven't had a chance to transcribe the Appendix yet, but it's what you might expect. A variety of methods to secure benefits for Republican politicians at the expense of everyone else.]