Republicans Can Still Win
September 13, 2020 in News by RBN Staff
source: newswithviews.com
By Dr. Dennis Cuddy
The most recent poll shows Biden with 50% and Trump with 43% of the vote. However, with only 2 months to go before the November election, there is still a chance for Republicans to win if they employ the strategy of Ronald Reagan in whose administration I served.
The 1960s were dominated by Democrat presidents with the exception of Richard Nixon, who was not all that conservative, telling newscaster Howard K. Smith on January 6,1971 that he was “now a Keynesian (Socialist) in economics.” Ronald Reagan went beyond the usual Republican fiscal conservative base and emphasized social issues like education, court-ordered busing, school prayer and abortion. This appealed to many independents and socially conservative Democrats, and gave Reagan the margin of victory in 1980 and 1984.
In 1982, I was teaching at UNC-Chapel Hill and was asked to come to Washington where I became a problem-solver for President Reagan, for example solving the problem of racial-balance busing by showing it resulted in massive discrimination against African-Americans, and solving the problem of school prayer by presenting it as an issue of free speech.
I wrote the first draft of President Reagan’s published essay on education reform, and today, Republicans can offer positive new initiatives like voluntary compilation of successful new teaching methods and activities organized by subject matter and/or grade level for others to use. This could help reverse the downward slide in education since National Education Association president Catherine Barrett in February 1973 wrote that by the year 2000 “basic skills” would be reduced to just one-quarter of the school day so teachers could instead become “change agents” regarding students’ values. In higher education, there should be the introduction of “Contemporary Cultures” at the freshman level so students can learn about one of more foreign countries’ language, history, economics, culture, etc. This, in turn, should help universities seeking foundation grants and also help graduates seeking employment with multinational firms. Next, Republicans could call for a major RIF (Reduction in Force) in the U.S. Department of Education, because Washington bureaucrats do not solve educational problems, classroom teachers do. And monies saved from the RIF could be sent by Congress to the states specifically designated to increase teachers’ salaries.
