A Master Class in Political Combat

Revisiting M. Stanton Evans's 'Six Rules for Political Combat," and how well J.D. Vance is following them.

One of the legendary stories from sports is the despairing remark of Casey Stengel, the first manager of the hapless 1962 Mets, who said after yet another example of baseball ineptitude: “Does anyone here know how to play this game?”

Over the years it has been tempting to ask a parallel question about Republicans: Do any of them know how to conduct political combat, especially against the biased media? Too often Republican candidates and office holders accept the liberal premises behind hit questions, and never hit back.

J.D. Vance is someone who seems to have figured this out, and fights back effectively. My Power Line colleague Scott Johnson offers a complete account of what went down with Vance and ABC News’s completely partisan (and often hysterical) Martha Radditz today, but here’s a graphic that conveys Vance’s “Boom!) moment:

Which brings me to M. Stanton Evans’s “Six Rules for Political Combat,” in which he outlines how Republicans “can stop playing goalie and go on offense.” Vance seems to have figured out these rules. (These rules and other useful material can be found in the appendices of my biography of Evans.) They go as follows:

1. Politics Abhors a Vacuum. Conservatives too often wait merely oppose a liberal proposal, which leaves the initiative always in the hands of liberals. It is important to beat liberals to the lead.

2. Write the Resolved Clause. One secret of winning a debate is to decide up front what it is going to be about. Liberals seem to know this instinctively, conservatives all too often don't--which means they wind up discussing what solutions to adopt, or not, to problems that the liberals have selected. This permits the left to maintain the rhetorical offensive, define the scope of possible action, and wind up getting much of what they want. Conservatives must avoid the trap of simply debating issues as the left presents them, and instead define the issue for themselves.

3. Nothing Is “Inevitable.” This is one of the hoariest verbal-conceptual tricks in the liberal handbook. Usually what is called "inevitable" in Washington is something leftward activists or Beltway pundits assume or want, thus encouraging their cadres while demoralizing their opponents. Conservatives should resist this dismal counsel wherever it is offered, remembering that by their own exertions and advocacy they can change the dynamics of most political situations (and have often done so).

4. Fighting Is Better Than Not Fighting. A self-evident proposition, one would think, but apparently it isn't. Nothing can more certainly assure the victory of leftward causes than the failure of conservatives, Republicans, businessmen, et al., to oppose them. This doesn't mean every battle can be won, or that all battles can be fought at once. It does mean that, generally speaking, a vigorous, sustained resistance well-grounded in the facts can drastically change the feedback from the polls and focus groups that are so much relied on. 

5. Washington Is Not America. Republicans for the most part come to DC repeating this mantra to themselves, but once more there seems to be a memory problem. The enveloping atmosphere of the city, the hugeness of the government itself, the clamorous interest groups, the TV talking heads—all of this is hard to ignore or overcome. In these precincts, many liberal ideas are regarded as a done deal, something no sustained or decent person could oppose. Opinion surveys often reveal, however, that things look quite different outside the Beltway, especially after the opposition finally starts to oppose. 

6. Taxes Are Trumps. As all of the above suggests, the question of high and rising taxes remains what it has ever been--the gold standard of Republican issues. This is the great trump card of the GOP, a solid, powerful and intelligible topic that can be placed over against all the standard liberal promises of something-for-nothing from the federal larder. Whenever the GOP has been able to use this issue in credible fashion—most notably under Ronald Reagan—it has emerged the winner. Whenever it strays from the anti-tax position—as under George H.W. Bush—it gets itself in trouble.