Primary Battle is Key to Protecting America First Values
A realist’s case for GOP loyalty amid Democratic threats to conservative priorities.
4 min read
There is a thin, easily crossed line between the America First voter who has grown exhausted or disgusted with the Trump administration and the left-wing activist who views the country itself as the obstacle. Both can reach a point where the satisfaction of watching certain institutions or political figures suffer outweighs any concern for what replaces them. The difference between the right and the left is that the right still believes in national sovereignty, while the left stopped pretending to do so long ago.
When enough of the former decide that withholding their vote or even quietly boosting Democrats is the way to ‘own’ President Donald Trump or force the Republican Party into a purity test, it creates the opposite outcome from what they want. This is where the Republican Party finds itself in the 2026 midterms.
Burning the Republican Party to the ground doesn’t clear space for a cleaner America First movement. It only gives leverage to the forces least interested in that movement. It bolsters the influence of the Chamber of Commerce and the Neoconservative wing inside the right by giving power to left-wing Bolsheviks like Democratic Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin.
Slotkin recently went viral for describing her sinister intentions for young Republicans at a University of Chicago event on Oct. 13.
ON UCHICAGO CAMPUS: U.S. Senator from Michigan Elissa Slotkin hopes planned political prosecutions of republican leaders will scare young conservatives from getting involved in politics. @ElissaSlotkin https://t.co/p7NBJpDcQW
“I want to look at these signature cases and not just focus on the president, but on the people who enabled him,” Slotkin said.
“I want young people coming out of school to say, should I go work for the Trump administration? Like, that sounds fun, I might get an opportunity. I want them to be like, Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want, and so let me avoid participating in that,” she said. “I want that deterrence message.”
Her remarks illustrate the stakes with unusual clarity. Slotkin wants any enterprising young conservative to know that if they choose to do the hard work it takes to keep America a sovereign nation, they will become a direct target under the next Democratic administration. Slotkin isn’t alone. Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker made similar remarks in a March New York Times Magazine interview, detailing the party’s “Project 2029,” which seems like another plan to weaponize the federal government against political dissidents.
No elected official is free of self-interest. Anyone who pays attention to state or federal politics long enough knows that every politician weighs personal success, donor pressure, and media incentives alongside whatever principle they claim to subscribe to. Expecting otherwise means refusing to take a clear-eyed look at the actual incentive structure our form of government produces. Corruption leads to promotion. Some would argue the only response is to withdraw from the process entirely. Starve the beast of the votes it wants. But again, doing this means you are willingly opening the gates to a more evil beast like the Slotkin-style Bluecaps.
The realist response is not to withdraw from the process in search of an unattainable pure actor. We’ve already established that doing this is futile. You will never find this white whale. Instead, the only path forward for those on the right disillusioned with the state of the Republican Party is to treat the GOP primary as the arena where you battle it out for your candidate, the one that aligns most with your values. Then use the general election as a defensive move to keep that arena from being redesigned against you.
A Republican primary can still produce candidates who promote your priorities because the primary hasn’t been closed to them yet. If you are truly an America First voter, and not some blackpilled nihilist hoping to watch it all burn, you won’t find a champion on the other side. Democrats who once willingly competed in the marketplace of ideas on issues like trade, foreign wars, and immigration have either adjusted to align with the Bolshevik wing of their party or have exited altogether.
Source: Daily Caller
