If a political party wishes to "control the narrative" - in this case, advancing the language commonly used to define words and policies - they must have effective and accessible media voices by which their words and policies can be explained. But they also require candidates and elected representatives who are willing and able to do the same.
The GOP as a political entity has long lacked both. We know who dominates the news media, and there are precious few Republicans among them. At the same time, many Republicans seem to lack an understanding of how and why they are being end-run, obscured and beaten.
Alternative media - such as TBR and Townhall - are indeed accessible, but nonetheless ineffective because the political party most likely to advance an agenda in opposition to the dominant cultural and social trends (again, the GOP), presently lacks the vision to comprehend the importance of messaging, language and media influence.Donald Trump owes much of his political success not to a comprehension of political science or for that matter: how government actually works, but rather to his willingness to transgress the rules established and enforced by his adversaries, most often expressed by him gleefully telling them all to go pound sand.
That's what many of us love about him. But in truth - it won't be enough. Especially if the Establishment GOP continues to act as though being a permanent minority party was their goal and that winning over new supporters was not as important as preserving their jobs.
For these reasons, if Donald Trump is to succeed in being elected again, he must be willing to fight not only the dominant news media, but also go over the heads of his own party and reach out to people who might not otherwise be inclined to support him - by telling the stories and providing a positive vision for America that the dominant media will not - but ones that his own party leadership seems to abjure.
For Trump to do so, he will need to veer substantially from his self-referential nature, and realize at age 77, that there are things more important than his own success -specifically: our survival as a free nation.
