The Next Red Wave

The next red wave is coming: November 3, 2020.

The Deep State bureaucracy—while certainly weakened over the last few years by investigations, firings, and scandals—will stop at nothing to undermine the conservative agenda, even when that's the agenda chosen by the American voter. The liberal bureaucracy will continue to work alongside former liberal government officials from, yes, the Obama-Biden administration and Team Clinton. In the upcoming election, the Left's most prized goal is not to win control of the U.S. Senate, maintain control of the U.S. House of Representatives, obtain a majority of the governors' mansions, or win a tremendous number of state and local races. For liberal activists, those objectives are completely secondary, if they are on their minds at all. Goal Number 1—exclusively—will be defeating President Donald J. Trump, by whatever means necessary.

A red wave that surpasses the turnout figures of the historic 2016 election will be the only way for conservatives to win back the House, keep control of the Senate, and most important, keep President Trump in the White House.

Our opponents won't be caught off guard by President Trump again. I promise you, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and liberal, activist organizations began working on plans to defeat President Trump in 2020 before he was even inaugurated in 2017. In fact, we1 have evidence of FBI officials attempting to undermine President Trump as he was preparing to take the oath of office back in 2016 and continuing those activities after he became commander in chief.

The radical Left relentlessly forces its liberal agenda on the American people. Even when Republican majorities controlled both houses of Congress, the deck felt stacked against us. The confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, while ultimately successful on the thinnest of margins, were a good reminder of the chaos liberals can cause, even when they are in the minority. Since Justice Kavanaugh's confirmation, liberals have taken the House of Representatives. While that will not affect nominations requiring Senate confirmation, like cabinet positions and judicial nominees, it will—in the short term—affect conservative legislative priorities. We need to deliver to our President a solid, conservative House and keep building on our successes in the Senate.

Sure, even when the Republicans controlled the House and the Senate, we were frustrated. We were so close to repealing all of Obamacare and defunding Planned Parenthood, yet the Republican majorities failed us. In fact, we almost lost the Kavanaugh confirmation because of a weak, RINO (Republican In Name Only) Senate majority. This is why we are not just blindly calling for the election of Republican majorities; we're calling for the election of conservative majorities in both houses of Congress.

We deserve better. All Americans deserve better. We deserve the legislative priorities we voted for in 2016, and we have a president willing to sign those priorities into law. We face a real uphill battle against fired-up Democrats, from the moderates to the far Left, and at least two years of a divided Congress.

The so-called progressives too often succeed in forcing their leftist agenda on the American people, while the Republican majority we elected relies, with some exceptions, on President Trump to accomplish their goals. It is one reason why the House was lost to the Democrats in 2018.

President Trump has done a great job, but he needs a Congress that is willing to fully implement the policies he was elected to enact. Republicans in Congress, especially Republican majorities, cannot be wasted, as they were in the immediate aftermath of President Trump's victory. We saw a Republican majority House and Senate unable to deliver on key conservative goals. One example is the repeal of Obamacare.

While we are thankful that many so-called moderate Republicans have chosen to retire, it will take a red wave in 2020 to get the legislative agenda back on track so that the burden does not fall completely on President Trump.

He is working tirelessly for the American people, willing to cut bipartisan deals, but the Left wants none of it. The Left's goal is to defeat President Trump, who is arguably the most effective Republican president in decades. He is effective because he doesn't play by the old rules, which conservatives have opposed for many years. He is draining the swamp, and it is our job to fight alongside him against the Left, the elitist (and, dare we say, fake news) mainstream media, the Democrats, and the Deep State bureaucracy.

We deserve politicians who keep their promises. Aren't their promises the reason we took the trouble to go to the polls to vote for them? The only way to force action and hold our elected officials accountable is to know the issues and engage the political process. But doing that requires more than just fulfilling our civic duty at the ballot box. It requires being actively engaged in public discourse between elections. Battles—important battles—are won far more often in the court of public opinion than in any federal courtroom. These battles affect our lives every day.

If we allow broken political promises, political apathy, and the virus of bureaucratic deception to continue to erode the conservative agenda we chose, we could quickly lose the strong America we have been building since the 2016 election. Remember, we have already lost the House. Everything is on the table in 2020.

It's time to fight back and come together to generate the next red wave. We can't wait another moment. Now is the time to do it. It really is up to us. The clock is ticking. With President Trump's energy and willingness to relentlessly campaign and fight for the ideas we believe in, the wind is forming to create the next red wave.

Yet we must not forget that the Deep State bureaucracy will stop at nothing to undermine the conservative agenda—even when that's the agenda chosen by you, the American voter. You didn't elect the bureaucracy, but does it matter? The radical Left continues to ferociously force its liberal agenda on the American people. The radical Left is relentless. Why aren't we? The liberal, elitist mainstream media is muddling the truth with fake news and leftist propaganda. Whom can you trust? The Republican majority in both houses of Congress that was elected has, so far, proven itself incompetent—both feckless in its convictions and ineffective in accomplishing even the slightest reforms. Because of that, Republicans lost the House to leftist Democrats bent on destroying everything we have been building.

The deck seems stacked against us. It is. We deserve better.

America will never be perfect. But it can be better. A lot better. Yet if the America of tomorrow is better than the America of today, that is a victory. How much better depends on you.

There are things you can do, actions you can take to make America better. But it doesn't start in Washington. Yes, we hope the current administration, along with a stronger conservative majority in the Senate, can radically reform, repeal, and replace outdated, liberal policies and the out-of-control bureaucracy. But we're realists. Washington never really fixes anything. It starts right where you are. Without control of the House, that statement has never been truer for conservatives.

Think about it. Our political system allows us to choose our decision makers. But it does not allow us to control the decisions they make. We elect them, but they, not us, are the ones who actually make the decisions that shape our communities, our states, and our nation.

Those decisions come in the form of committee votes, council resolutions, budgets, legislation, amendments to legislation, directives, executive orders, and special appointments. Even when we vote yes or no on state questions and ballot referenda, we might think that we decided them. But guess who voted to include (or not to include) that question on the ballot? And guess who drafted the language of the question in order to make it more or less appealing? That was done by the decision makers we elected.

Some of these decisions make headlines. Many of them, however, do not. They just happen. Quietly. In a city council session you never heard about. So while we are right to focus on the presidential, House, and Senate races in 2020, we must never forget the importance of local races—right down to city council and school board.

After all, we are working forty, sixty, maybe even eighty hours a week, raising a family, and paying bills. Some of us are taking evening classes at the local university or community college to better our lives. Others are taking care of an elderly parent or perhaps a family member who needs some extra care. Some of us have our own medical challenges. We try to stay active in our churches and places of worship. And wow, our kids' sports teams sure have a lot of practices. We vote every November, or at least most Novembers.

By the time Saturday arrives, the last thing in the world we want to do is call our representative and leave a voicemail message to express why we want him or her to vote a certain way on an amendment to somebody's bill that's going to be heard by some committee next week.

But then, when the next week rolls around, we skim a headline in the paper or on our phone announcing that committee's vote that amended a bill to spend state money (which means our money) on abortions. And we think to ourselves, "That's horrible. That's not what I wanted my representative to do. How in the world did that happen?"

Even worse, the news media may not want you to know that your state or local government decided to spend your hard-earned tax dollars promoting abortion, so the headline might use terms like "reproductive health" or "family planning" in describing the latest measure passed.

But even when we have an idea of what's going on behind the scenes, by the time we get off work on a typical night, the last thing we want to do is drive over to the city council building to attend a hearing or go to a precinct meeting to vote on our county's party leadership or platform. Then, months later, we hear the news that our party voted somebody into leadership who is well known for being hostile to homeschooling or religious schools. And we mention to our spouse, "Can you believe what's happening to our party?"

We are tired. And understandably so. There's only so much gas in the tank. It's just too much. But we have time to recharge right now. Time to recruit great candidates up and down the ballot. The 2018 elections should be a wakeup call. While conservatives fared well in many statewide races, they fared poorly in the House, where Democrats seized the majority. This is a House Democrat majority bent on investigating every action by the executive branch; their leadership has no interest in legislating and some of their far-left members are calling for the President of the United States to be impeached because they don't like his policies.

Regardless, we do more than choose our decision makers. Choosing them, by voting, is a critical first step. But it's just the first step. We have the right, the privilege, and the moral obligation not just to choose them, but also to influence them once they are in office.

Decision makers are listening to somebody when they make the decisions. It sure better be us.

You can be certain others are clamoring for their attention, and exerting pressure in obvious and subtle ways. Special interests. Lobbyists. They're all fighting for a seat at the table. Shouldn't we?

So let us not overlook something here that is critically important: we get to choose our decision makers. Stop and think about that for a moment. Don't take that for granted. Do you realize how incredible that is? Citizens of this country are recipients of such a special gift. So many people living elsewhere in the world could hardly comprehend not only our freedoms, but our ability to choose our leaders. But we have to actually choose them. That means we have to vote.

It's not just a right. It's not just a civic exercise. Our vote is actually a sacred duty. Because it's a God-given right, it is a responsibility, even a biblical calling. If God has blessed us to live in a land where "we the people" are the government, and God has established and ordained the government, then it becomes our spiritual responsibility to vote. "Vote your conscience" isn't just a catchphrase. It's a biblical imperative.

The next red wave won't happen overnight. It won't happen in one race. It won't happen in one state. It won't happen by casting just one vote. It will require each and every one of us to engage—to really engage. That means doing more than just going to the polls on Election Day and pulling the lever for one of the names in front of you. The next red wave is about far more than just voting. That's why we wrote this book. It's not for politicians—though they could certainly learn from it. It's for you. It's for we the people. You can make the difference. You can be the difference. You can see we are up against a lot, but we can win. Again.