Tech Is The Republicans Last Hope

Embrace the future, or die

The 2022 American midterm elections were supposed to be a moment of triumph for the Republican Party. 

Following the 2020 presidential election, where Trump lost by a healthy 7 million votes and 74 electoral votes, the stars had aligned for Republicans in 2022: 

• Opposing party of the president, which almost always results in midterm gains.

• An unpopular president at that, with Biden’s approval rating sitting at 39% before Election Day. 

• Inflation at 7.7%.

• 88%(!) of people saying the country is on the wrong track. 

• Very winnable Senate seats in Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Hampshire, Georgia, and Arizona.

Republicans couldn’t create a better setup if they tried, which was why both sides of the aisle expected a “red wave” on Election night. 

Emphatically flip the House. Definitely flip the Senate. Put Biden on the sidelines until 2024 when the White House is back up for grabs. Those were the plans, and it looked possible, if not likely. 

Yeah, about that…

A lost Senate seat and a gain of just 9 in the House…

So much for the red wave.

Naturally, this leads to the question of why. 

In this article, I’m going to talk about what happened on Election Day, the Republican post-mortem and why it’s wrong, and finally, what Republicans need to do to avoid becoming the irrelevant party they are currently on the express lane to becoming.

Death By Youth

So, what happened on Election Day that led to the Republicans getting an ass-kicking?

It’s an interesting question because Republicans actually did alright in various demographics. They held serve in the White vote and increased their share of the Black, Hispanic, and Asian vote. In the case of the Hispanic and Asian vote, significantly so. 

Why the slaughter, then? 

Answer: the youth vote.

And especially young women.

These trends hold true regardless of race:

And considering the country is becoming increasingly diverse, this is bad news for Republicans.

I mean, just look at the youth vote margins in critical Senate elections. It’s an absolute bloodbath.

Not only did the youth vote go overwhelmingly Democratic, but they also came out in droves, with 27% of people aged 18-29 voting, the 2nd highest midterm youth turnout in 30 years.

These numbers are no bueno for Republicans.

Gen Z is a political generation. I live it; people in my generation really care about politics, and even if they aren’t all Democrats, they definitely aren’t Republicans.

It seems pretty clear that if Republicans want to win elections in the future, they need to attract more youth voters. You can’t rely on old people forever, especially as the country becomes more diverse. 

Republicans, however, don’t seem to truly grasp that.

The Republican Post-Mortem

Republicans have mainly focused on two explanations for the Midterm disaster.

1. Trump. Many believe that his influence cost them crucial independent voters that ultimately decided the election.

1. Poor candidates. It’s a popular opinion among the Republican establishment that the poor candidates (Oz, Walker) lost while the strong candidates (DeSantis, Kemp) won. 

Both explanations have merit for this election, but they are not satisfactory. They are too short-sighted. Sure, maybe if you throw out some better candidates and maybe if Trump lost his ability to speak, the Republicans would’ve had better results this time around. But the prevailing political winds are still against them. 

And that’s really the issue with the Republican party. Everything is in the name of winning elections and voters right now, long-term prospects be damned. It was that way with Nixon’s Southern Strategy, which made generations of minorities view the Republicans as racist. It was that way in 2016, when Trump was elected. And it’s that way now, with no clear vision for the country beyond opposing the Democrats. 

Reactionary, Never Visionary

That is the true problem with the Republicans: lack of vision. The party is always reactionary, never visionary. 

As one Republican operative put it:

“We tell people every cycle why they shouldn’t vote for the other guy but not why they should vote for us”. 

Or, as Prof. Hyrum Lewis sees it:

“Republicans have a narrative problem that originates with the idea of “conservatism” itself. Prevailing political mythology holds that the Democratic Party’s policies are “progressive” - meaning they promote change toward greater justice - while the Republican Party’s are “conservative” - meaning they try to slow or arrest this progressive change”. 

This is apparent even in something as simple as the visibility of the party’s platforms. Finding the Democrat’s platform took 30 seconds and was last updated in 2020. Finding the Republican’s took me a good 5 minutes of clicking around, and it hasn’t been updated since 2016. 

What do you think is more attractive to voters, especially young ones: a party that presents solutions, even if flawed? Or the party that angrily shakes their fist at the sky but offers no solutions of their own? 

Even the more “substantive” Republican candidates aren’t visionaries:

• I think DeSantis has a very good chance of becoming president, but he’s really at his core a culture warrior who is a competent manager. He doesn’t sell a vision for America beyond anti-woke. 

• Youngkin is really appealing to older and suburban conservatives for his fight against mask mandates and liberal education, but again, just a culture warrior.

• Who else is there?

This is not to say the culture war isn’t important, because it is. There’s a reason both sides are so focused on it. But Republicans are screwing up by focusing so heavily on it.

The Democrats have already won the culture war among young people. That’s the truth. The purpose of the culture war for Republicans isn’t to win hearts and minds, but to rile up older people to vote. 

This strategy has no long-term potential. 

Republicans have historically been able to win elections by riling up the old person base because there was a big old person base to rile up. The party might feel like that will always be the case. After all, people are supposed to become more conservative as they age. Who needs the youth vote when you have the old vote? They are more active on Election Day, anyway. 

However, times are changing. The culture war is not just about CRT and LGBTQ education, but it is also marked by polarization and echo chambers. For many, politics today is more than just who you vote for or what you think the tax code should be. It’s a reflection of who you are as a person. 

In a polarized country where everyone sits in their own echo chamber, Republicans can no longer assume that people will become more conservative as they age. Instead, they have to ask themselves, “what can we do to make ourselves more attractive than the Democrats”. 

Such a simple question, but it’s one the Republicans have been avoiding or ignoring for years. 

The Real Issues

As I alluded to above, I don’t think the answer to the question of “how do we attract voters” is to double down on the culture war. I’m not saying to stop fighting it, but ultimately, people are so engrained in their beliefs that no amount of culture warring will make them change their minds. It might awaken some dormant votes, but it will not attract new ones. 

Republicans need new votes more than it needs dormant votes.

So, I believe the Republicans should focus on substantive issues. Crazy thought, I know, but bear with me. 

In my view, the two greatest issues facing America over the coming decades are the economy and climate change. 

The U.S. economy is basically an everything bubble right now. It’s currently built on an ever-increasing population, cheap labor abroad, dollar dominance, petrodollars, low inflation, and low-interest rates. 

None of these things are guaranteed to continue. The population is flatlining, which is absolutely horrible for the economy. Cheap labor is becoming tougher to access as geopolitical tensions rise. The petrodollar status quo is under attack. Dollar dominance could be next. I don’t have to remind you what happened with inflation, and with the country increasingly unable to deal with interest rate rises, it appears that yield-curve control is inevitable. Couple this with the disgusting national debt that continues to exponentially rise and the slowdown in labor productivity, and you get a pretty bleak economic picture.

Climate change looks even more worrisome than the economy. Global temperatures are rising at a scary pace, and the consequences are potentially catastrophic. It’s a bad situation.

Unfortunately for America, neither party has great solutions to either problem. 

On the economy, the Democrats’ plans boil down to throwing money at the problem, and the Republicans’ plan is…nobody really knows. 

On climate change, the Democrats want to coordinate international efforts through stuff like the Paris Climate Accords (ineffective) and invest in clean energy (good, but not enough). The Republicans’ plan is once again ambiguous at best. 

So, you have one party trying to find solutions, even though they might not be effective. And you have one party that doesn’t propose much of anything. Not the best spot for Republicans or the country as a whole. 

Thankfully, there is an easy fix. 

The Tech Solution

The country’s problems are ones that politicians are largely unable to fix. Throwing money at the economy will hurt more than help, and diplomacy isn’t slowing global warming.

The only way forward is through embracing technology. Crypto to fix the inefficiencies of the financial system. AI and robots to boost productivity. Climate tech to suck Carbon out of the environment. Nuclear, solar, and hydro energy to power the country. Food tech to produce more sustainable food.  

This is how America prospers in the 21st century and beyond. 

For whatever reason, Democrats aren’t friendly toward tech. From AOC’s attack on Amazon to the Biden administration’s obsession with regulating the industry, the Democrats are almost going out of their way to alienate an industry that historically has been staunchly progressive (which makes sense, considering tech is all about ‘progressing’ humanity).

This is a golden opportunity for the Republicans. Embracing silicon valley makes too much sense:

• It gives Republicans a vision for the future to rally around. 

• It allows them to rebrand themselves as the party of technological progress. Instead of the party of grumpy old dudes, you are now the party of optimistic solarpunks and terrapunks.

• It differentiates them from the Democrats on a more substantive level. 

• It gives them a chance to attract the ~30% of independent youth voters, especially if the tech thesis proves correct. The economy and climate change are issues that affect younger generations the most. Fix those, and you start to look awfully good. 

Embracing tech does not require a significant shift in policy for Republicans, as the party is already not in favor of excessive regulation. The only thing embracing tech requires is a change in messaging. Instead of advocating for a “conservative” future, pitch a vision of America like Wakanda. Contrast your tech utopia with the left’s socialist utopia. 

Above all else, make it clear that you actually have a plan to solve the country’s challenges. 

That alone will do wonders for the Republicans. 

And once the tech’s benefits fully reveal themselves, the party will be as widely attractive as it’s perhaps ever been. 

Closing Thoughts

I don’t love politics. Weird thing to say from a Political Science major, but it’s true.

I never have C-SPAN on in the background. I despise poli-tainment. I don’t watch cable news shows. I don’t listen to political podcasts. I don’t even like talking about politics. 

But, I do pay attention to politics because I recognize its crucial importance. For better or worse, politics largely determine the future of the country. 

And that future is brightest when both parties are strong. The Republicans fading into obscurity is not good for the country, even when you take away the potentially disastrous consequences of dominant one-party control. 

The country is best served when the parties push each other and engage in substantive debates. It is in these debates where the best ideas come forth. The current culture war debates aren’t productive. No debates would be disastrous. 

A CEO with nothing but yes-men around him will always lose out to the CEO with a competent team around her.

Republicans need to get their shit together. They need to stop merely reacting to the Democrats and actually put together a vision for America’s future. They need to do this not because the country needs Republicans to win elections and save the country, but because the country needs both parties at their peak condition if it is to exit this century as strong as it was coming in.