Note the part about President Ronald Reagan, a guy who understood the information war. That what must change in the road ahead. Here’s Newt Gingrich:
Friday’s decision to pull the House Republican health reform bill was not the end of health reform. In fact, it may have been the best step toward actually achieving real health care reform — if congressional leaders learn from the experience.
. . .
The current congressional leadership tried to pass a complicated, critical bill to repeal and replace Obamacare in fewer than three months.
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There are a set of principles for successful conservative reforms. President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher used them in the 1980s. We followed them in creating the Contract with America in 1994, reforming welfare in 1996 and passing the balanced budget in 1997.
As Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said: “First you win the argument, then you win the vote.” The best short book on her fight to reform Britain, Claire Berlinski’s There is no Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters, makes clear the moral, human arguments Thatcher used to dismantle socialism in Britain.
1. The number one goal of any health reform must be to communicate with the American people and convince them this will provide a much better future than the current system. Tom Evans’s The Education of Ronald Reagan outlines Reagan’s years at General Electric and the lessons he learned in focusing on educating the public, so they would educate the Congress.
In Reagan’s farewell address, he explained his legislative successes this way: “I’ve had my share of victories in the Congress, but what few people noticed is that I never won anything you didn’t win for me. They never saw my troops, they never saw Reagan’s regiments, the American people. You won every battle with every call you made and letter you wrote demanding action.”
A new health reform effort must start by focusing on the American people and winning their support. It will be President Trump’s health rallies in the states which win the day not clever insider negotiating in Washington.
Read more: Gingrich Productions
Image credit: The Reagan Library.
