The Life of the (Republican) Party, Mostly Left Out in the Cold

by Dr. Ellen Brandt

 
Throw out some generous lifelines of access and support to GOP Media pros shunned by the current Dem-controlled MSM. We're so beaten down, we'll follow you anywhere.


The fifth Loyalist GOP Base constituency our Presumptive Nominee can and should woo - in fact, woo hard - is our left-out, harassed, annoyed, and looking-for-some-political-love Republican Media - especially that very large portion of it that's been shut out of the Dem-controlled official MSM for years.


The first thing to realize: We're legion.


We're not talking about Media wannabes marginalized or denied a strong voice because we lacked experience or couldn't cut the mustard.


In fact, the exact opposite is true. Starting as far back as the first Clinton administration - or about when Al Gore, King of the Greens, used to brag that he was reinventing the Internet, and - foolish us - we didn't believe him, there's been an inexorable, well-financed, and often downright malicious campaign to transform All Media into a Propaganda arm for the Limousine Liberals and their agenda.


In our previous stories on Economics Voters (In It to Win It - Economics Voters) and GOP Grays over age 50 (My Fellow Gray Voters . . . . ), we talked about how our current economy is really one great big Ponzi scheme, with the wealth of Mature Americans - who are already more than 2 in 5 of us and fully 1/2 of U.S. voters -  first stolen by Hot Money marauders, then redistributed in the forms of jobs and government-backed investments and programs to those constituencies which tend to vote for Democrats: the very young, certain select ethnic groups, and even illegal immigrants.


This movement of Wealth from the Experienced to the Inexperienced, the Well-Educated to the Poorly-Educated, the Highly-Skilled to the Far-Less-Skilled, and the Mature to the Immature has now occurred throughout our economy, affecting every sector, every industry, every job category, and every profession.


But one of its earliest and most thorough manifestations occurred within Media. Since at least the early 1990s, the U.S. Mainstream Media has become more and more concentrated in fewer and fewer hands - to the point where we now have a Media configuration very much like that in Third-World countries run by megalomaniac dictators.


You think we jest? Well, the latest studies by Media-oriented university researchers and think tanks have posited a core Mainstream Media in the United States that is now in the hands of just 6 major Media conglomerates.


Moreover, those 6 conglomerates - or at least 5 of them, the sixth being iffy - are themselves now closely aligned with the interests of Limousine Liberal hedge funds and investment banks on Wall Street, which essentially own them and are no longer afraid to - or constrained from - exerting their influence on both Content and Access.


Said conglomerates - as anyone sentient, let alone aware, must know - have been ruthless in culling pretty much every employee whose hair turned Gray, replacing them with less-educated and less-experienced - and therefore, much more malleable - workers, who now constitute much of the reporter and editor and broadcast commentator cadres.   


Of course, there are still some remnants of an independent Media around - newspapers and magazines and book publishers and websites run by free-thinkers and intellectuals, unbeholden to Wall Street owners and their demands.


Good for every one of them! no matter their particular political or cultural or philosophical orientation. It's the independence per se that really counts.


That being said, within this independent part of American Media, Republicans now surely predominate.


Many of these Internet sites, publications, stand-alone broadcasters, or film companies are owned and managed by experienced and skilled Gray creatives over age 50, who formerly worked for or at Media entities no longer extant or fallen into the hands of conglomerates.


They  - or rather We, because we're among them - are a very talented bunch, many extremely eager to do their part for the GOP in this and future election cycles.


Team Trump can make tremendous inroads with this left-out part of the GOP Media simply by acknowledging it's there and by reaching out to us in a friendly and cooperative manner whenever possible.


We already appreciate the Presumptive Nominee's comments about the bias towards Democrats, their candidates, their ideology, and their agendas within the current official Mainsteam Media.


Trump seems to be on the same page we are re the MSM. (See our previous story Shaping the Stream.)


We think Trump should, in fact, make these MSM biases a major theme of his campaign going forward, because it resonates strongly throughout the GOP Loyalist Base.


Many Republicans feel we have lost much of our influence, our ability to sway new voters, and our very voices as concerned Americans. Excessive concentration of the U.S. Media in too few hands - and those hands mostly on the Left - is now a key political concern across GOP ranks.


Of course, Trump's own Media savvy throughout the primary season has been remarkable. It puts him in the enviable position of being truly able to help the bulk of GOP journalists, filmmakers, and other Republican Media people who feel we've been left out in the cold.


We produce excellent and engaging work that almost no one sees or talks about, just because we aren't employed by one of those concentrated Media groups that control visibility and access - especially on the Internet, where so many people get their news today.


Candidate Trump should work hard to woo us into supporting him strongly. And he'll probably enjoy doing so, since deep down, he is as much a Media creative as any of us.


Here are a few things he might do:


***** Trump should stress that in terms of the Media, he is the polar opposite of Hillary Clinton - or Barack Obama.


Much of the GOP Media is angry-as-heck at Clinton, the Obama administration, and the Limousine Liberal worldview they've tried to force on this Nation via sheer bullying and limited access to ideas and ideology coming from anyone who is Not Them.

Trump needs to embrace the stance we outlined in our Shaping the Stream story, referenced above:


That the existing Mainstream Media needs to be transformed completely to include many more GOP practitioners and our ideas, ideology, and agendas for change.


Meanwhile, we need to expand and promote an Alternative Mainstream Media consisting of Republican creatives and our publications, sites, broadcasts, and other types of Media.


***** Trump should make a point of giving interviews to and establishing ties with as many left-out GOP Media people as possible, especially those without formal ties to mammoth Media conglomerates.


Not only will these deserving - albeit not currently famous! - Media practitioners appreciate the attention and the political access, they will almost certainly return the favor by reporting Team Trump's ideas and initiatives in a fair and balanced manner.


The Presumptive Candidate should consider appointing a key campaign staffer whose job is establishing and nurturing ties with reporters and other Media people aligned with the GOP, but not currently part of large Media conglomerates.


And make sure to include a substantial proportion of these Republican-Non-MSM creatives in news conferences and Media events of all kinds. It should pay off in positive coverage immediately.


***** The "left-out among the left-out" - GOP Media practitioners over the age of 50 - should go to the top of the list as potential allies for Team Trump and its efforts.


As we related above, pushing out Gray creatives age 50 and above has been perhaps the key tactic in perverting today's Mainstream Media, purging it of educated, sophisticated free-thinkers, unswayed by politically-correct Propaganda.


A large number of such purged Gray Media people are Republicans or GOP-leaning, since they were more apt to be tossed aside by the MSM, as it inexorably became more concentrated in Limousine Liberal hands.


The Trump team should create an active outreach effort to the portion of non-MSM Media people who are also age-50 plus. They are the Candidate's own Age Peers, who are quite likely to share many of his views and to treat his candidacy fairly and sympathetically.


***** Similarly, Trump should devote a significant portion of his Media efforts to Republican Women in the Media.


If the Presumptive Nominee chooses a female VP running mate - as we strongly believe he needs to do - she might serve as the point woman for extensive new outreach, with the overriding goal of getting as many female print, broadcast, and Internet Media practitioners as possible into the Candidate's camp.


Part of this outreach might be holding a regular series of Media briefing events geared to GOP Women in the Media and focused on issues and programs especially important to Republican women.


***** A key - however recalcitrant - portion of the GOP Media which Team Trump must try to bring into the fold are those established Republican publications and Internet sites which supported other, generally more traditionally Conservative, candidates during the hard-fought primary season and are still not particularly comfortable with the Presumptive Nominee.


These Media outlets wield significant influence with parts of the GOP Loyalist Base. And although they may not be ready to accept Trump unconditionally - or in some cases, even conditionally - the Candidate would score major Brownie points among the full spectrum of Republican voters by showing a real willingness to bury the hatchet with this segment of the Media. He should be brave enough to offer them interviews and access and to discuss even tough ideological points of conflict in a respectful and honest manner.


***** In even braver fashion, Trump should boldly enter various Media lion's dens on the Other Side of the political fence, meting out selective interviews to the likes of Salon or Slate or Mother Jones - or maybe even the Washington Post.


Some of these official MSM outlets are now so unfair and unbalanced towards the Presumptive Nominee, such Media interactions are almost bound to reveal their prejudices and biases for all the world to see, making the GOP Nominee look sage and unprejudiced in contrast.


This is especially true, since the Other Side's Presumptive Nominee, Hillary Clinton, persists in avoiding all Media which are not already in her corner, contributing to her unhelpful image as a robotic and pre-scripted politician, devoid of personality and hemmed in by a straitjacket of political correctness.


Nominee Trump's abilities and savvy in today's Media environment are now near legendary, even if many - perhaps most - traditionalists within and without the GOP Loyalist Base find some of his favorite tactics distressing or hard to countenance.


So be it.


We believe the Presumptive Nominee can emerge as a bona fide Hero among GOP-leaning Media practitioners, if he chooses to cooperate with us in a broad and generous sense.


He needs to take us along with him on his Technicolor journey towards the White House, making our jobs easier and allowing us to gain exposure, influence, and ultimate power alongside him, as this historical election cycle of 2016 proceeds.

My Reply to Bill Gates

by Dr. Ellen Brandt


No, Mr. Gates, the Developing World's most pressing problems are not ours. And if we fail to make that distinction, the entire World suffers.


While we've posted a couple of stories similar to this one in our Baby Boomers - From Anger to Action series, we think it might be useful to include one in our Party of Yes series as well, since it is the principal group of articles many of our fellow Republicans are likely to read.


That's not to say that everyone - GOP, Democrat, and Independent alike - should not absorb and take to heart the information and commentary in this piece.


Since the very beginning of the 2016 election cycle, we have been bombarded with what seems like a never-ending stream of Propaganda, utilizing the Limousine Liberals' number one tool in their arsenal of political correctness, which Republicans know is anything but correct - or decent - or humane - or, some would say, sane.


That tool is attempting to divide Americans along the fault lines of gender, ethnicity, religion, or anything else they can come up with - telling us that instead of identifying with all Americans as Americans, we should identify with our sex or ethnic makeup or religious background or . . . well, anything at all that presupposes an unbridgeable gap between Us and Them - the great Other that is not Us.


Bill Gates - sometimes writing with his wife, Melinda - has become the Limousine Liberals' go-to man for generic Propaganda about the so-called gender gap, posting story after story after story about poor women in the Underdeveloped World; how their problems are our problems; and how fixing these problems would somehow make the entire world all better again. (There! No more Boo-Boo. Have a lollipop.)


The major disconnect between this kind of Propaganda and our own economic and social and cultural reality within the United States - and Europe and Japan and Australia and Canada and the rest of the Developed World (plus, very significantly, China) - is that it is not our reality at this point in history.


The most pressing problems in the Underdeveloped World are not our most pressing problems in the Developed World. In fact, they are completely different.


By all means, Bill and Melinda Gates and their respected Gates Foundation should be able to concentrate their philanthropy and their attention wherever they want to. If poor women in the Underdeveloped World are their own personal major concern, they have a perfect right to spend all the money and devote all the resources they wish to help alleviate and reverse such poverty.


But don't try - by a harmful wrenching of reason and logic - to equate what may be major concerns in the (ever-smaller) portion of world that is Underdeveloped to our major concerns in the (ever-larger) portion of the world that comes under the heading of Developed.


Here's my reply to Bill Gates, posted in response to his latest story at LinkedIn's Pulse, which talked about the gender gap in the Developing countries and posited it as the most serious problem facing the World Economy:


Dear Mr. Gates,


Note that already, over 43 percent - or more than 2 in 5 Americans - are part of our Gray population age 50 and older. ***


*** Including Bill and Melinda Gates. Bill Gates turns 61 in a few months. Melinda Gates turns 52 this summer.


This statistic will likely increase, not decrease, over the next couple of decades - not only in the United States, but throughout the Developed World plus China - until our Gray populations reach a possible high of 50 percent - or 1 in 2 of us.


Because women in the Developed World still outlive men by several years, the proportion of women who are 50 and over - female Grays - is already close to half - Yes, 1 in 2 -  women in the United States, the rest of the Developed World, and China.


Whatever the reality may or may not be in the Developing World, with its much younger demographic profiles, the reality - right here, right now - in the United States and Europe and Japan and Australia and Canada and China is that any perceived gender gap between women and men is by no means our most major, pressing economic or social or cultural problem.


Nor is our most pressing concern perceived economic disparities among ethnic groups. Nor struggling Youth. Nor those poor, poor illegal immigrants whom Limousine Liberals incessantly talk about - Quick, give them mansions and yachts!


In the Devloped World plus China, our most major, pressing economic and social and cultural problem is that we have been lulled into creating Inverted Pyramid economies, with Youth placed at the top of our societal structures and Grays - again over 2 in 5 Americans and close to 1/2 of American women - shunted to the bottom, with many millions upon millions living in utter and hopeless destitution and despair.


For close to 30 years now - at least since the first Clinton administration - we have been favoring the Inexperienced over the Experienced, the Unskilled over the Highly-Skilled, the Poorly-Educated over the Highly-Educated. In short, the Immature over the Mature.


This is the economic and social and cultural profile of a typical Failed State - Somalia, say, or the Central African Republic.


It is the polar opposite of the economic and social and cultural profile of a Highly-Developed Nation - a civilized, humane, decent, and moral society, like the United States very recently was.


Restore the economic and social and cultural prominence of America's Grays over age 50, women and men alike, and you restore our society as a whole.

 
Fail to do so, and every American's future becomes bleak, indeed.

Trump and GOP Intellectuals - (Wouldn't It Be Funny If He Were One of Them?)

by Dr. Ellen Brandt


The Republican Intellectual class isn't comprised of fuzzy-brained Elitists in ivory towers, eating bonbons and corrupting impressionable Youth.

That's the Democrats. 


You can't run a viable Presidential campaign without harnessing your Party's brainpower. The fourth important constituency within the Loyalist GOP Base that Team Trump needs to get in its corner is the activist, free-thinking, independent-minded, exceptionally brainy roster of Republican Intellectuals.


In many ways, this is the most important GOP group our Presumptive Nomineee needs to entice into his fold - and quickly.


The Republican Party includes a wide range of well-educated, innovative, and sophisticated thinkers and the entities which support them - publications, think tanks, foundations, and research institutions. But a substantial proportion of the GOP Brain Trust is feeling left out, abandoned, and angry.


That's because while Trump has conducted a well-nigh brilliant campaign from the standpoint of Media and its calculated coverage, many in the GOP Intelligentsia feel that his Media-focused tactics have led him astray in the realms of policy and basic ideology.


They complain that Trump is still talking, writing, and performing for the camera - all (Sound) Bite and no (Substantive) Bark.


As a corollary to this kind of Media-focused strategy, Team Trump has not enlisted as much help from tried-and-trusted GOP experts and policy wonks as Republican campaigns are wont to do.


His closest advisors have clearly been expert at holding entertaining rallies, provoking a wide range of Media outlets to hang on his every word, and beating rival GOP candidates into submission.


These may all be superb skill-sets when you're fighting to clinch your Party's nomination. But they are less useful when you move onto the National political stage and have to appeal to as many American voters as possible.


Since neither major political Party holds the firm allegiance of a majority of U.S. voters, a National candidate can't rely on personality and showmanship alone. Ideology and ideas come into the mix, as do skills as a debater and convincer and the ability to teach and be taught.


I believe our Presumptive Nominee is finally showing a willingness to listen to the GOP Intelligentsia. His outward persona may be brash and aggressive to the point of machismo, but he is well-educated, with 50 years of experience in economics and finance.


Who knows? Perhaps there is an Inner Trump every bit as serious and wonky as the typical Republican Intellectual. It just has to be nurtured a bit and allowed to emerge.


We hope so! And we hope that our Presumptive Nominee will quickly make his peace with creative GOP thinkers and philosophers throughout the Party. A few brief suggestions for how to do it:


***** A little recognition goes a very long way. Trump should state frequently - it both flatters the Base and distinguishes us from the Other Party - that Republicans are now what we have called the Party of Yes.


In stark contrast to Democrats and their now stale and hated political correctness, the GOP is the Party of ideas, the Party of useful debate and discussion, the Party that is unafraid to offer new policies and new solutions to the Nation's - and the World's - most pressing problems.


While stressing this basic theme, Trump should express his appreciation for the Republican universe of intellectual thought, research, and endeavor we referenced above. He should acknowledge that no candidate - particularly a presidential candidate - works in a vacuum and that the immense and wide-ranging resources of the Party and its academic and research institutions will play an active role in his campaign as it goes forward.


***** The Nominee needs to surround himself with a substantial cadre of key advisors whose area of competence is the world of ideas.


Thus far, Trump's most influential aides have been Media and political strategists entrusted with establishing a political persona for the Candidate and popularizing that persona with a sufficient number of primary state voters to ensure wins.


While these strategists have clearly been competent in terms of this initial task, they almost certainly do not have the ability - nor perhaps the interest - needed to formulate a truly National campaign, in which the person at the top of the ticket represents an entire Party's success, not just an individual's.


We suspect that before the Convention - or surely by the time it is over - the Presumptive Nominee will have expanded his roster of aides within the upper echelon of Team Trump to include several ideas-men-and-women whose interest is primarily substantive and ideological, rather than operational or Media-focused.


***** In addition to welcoming some new top aides on board, the Candidate might wish to set up an entire Brain Trust of GOP ideas-oriented activists and thinkers. Trump might even want to call them My Brain Trust, as the term seems to fit his basic style.


This group, with individuals categorized by their experience dealing with a number of key issues or areas of expertise, should include not only some prominent sitting politicians, but also theorists, researchers, and writers aligned to Republican thought, from a wide range of academic and non-academic institutions, including scholarly journals, think tanks, foundations, faith-based groups, and business associations.


***** In a bold move, how about setting up a brand-new think tank, initially funded by Trump and others who share his values and interests, which can endure beyond the election and evolve into a major center for GOP research.


Call it the Great America Institution, if you like. Tap a respected and mature Republican political theorist - or a few of them - to head it. Possibly affiliate it with a top-ranked university or college. And integrate it - sincerely and respectfully - into the Nominee's campaign as a steady source of supportive research and actionable ideas.


This Center might be structured around various departments, specializing in areas of research on which a Trump administration - and other future Republican administrations - could draw: economics, geopolitics, healthcare, aging, culture, media, education.


***** As soon as possible, set up a Working Group within the Trump campaign whose principal purpose is acting as a liaison to GOP intellectuals - in academia, foundations, business and economic research centers, and at scholarly publications.


This Working Group might wish to commission a series of quick-turnaround white papers on various issues, which the Candidate can make good use of in his campaign, during rallies, debates, interviews, and other public appearances.


***** Make sure the Candidate's appeal is to as broad a base of voters as possible - and expand outreach efforts to prove it.


While Trump's calls for turning the GOP into a workers' party have gained him many adherents among unemployed or underemployed factory workers, truckers, oilfield hands, and others self-identifying as blue-collar - including a fair number of former Independents and Democrats - it has lost him some favor among GOP economists and small business groups and has seemed to ignore much of the traditional GOP voter base.


We applaud the Presumptive Nominee's foresight in comparing the 2016 election to the historical election of 1980, when - against an equally hostile-to-Republicans Mainstream Media - Ronald Reagan persuaded similar cross-over voters to switch allegiances, ushering in twelve years of GOP control of the White House.


But the Country - and the Electorate - and the Party - have all changed since then. Higher education or sophisticated skills training is the norm, not the exception. There are as many working women as working men. We are far more mobile, both geographically and in terms of career. And - as we have emphasized repeatedly - more than 2 out of 5 Americans - and 1 in 2 current American voters - are part of the Gray population age 50 and older.


What all this means is that Trump, while striving to maintain his popularity among those identifying as blue-collar, must also make a strong point of reaching out to the much larger group, within both the GOP Base and the population as a whole, who self-identify as white-collar, no-collar, or professional.


The Candidate should start orienting more of his rallies and presentations to well-educated voters and the groups they are part of, including professional and business groups.


He needs to make restoring the position and prestige of Main Street small business a special priority, since it has historically been this Nation's major source of economic and job growth.


And despite many Republicans sharing his dislike of the bad - often very bad - international trade pacts entered into by the Obama administration, Trump should at least embark on some friendly dialogue with primarily pro-trade groups representing bigger business - if only because so many lifelong GOP adherents are part of these groups, and he needs them to support his campaign.


***** Start to float some names of potential Cabinet members and federal agency heads that the GOP Brain Trust will thoroughly approve of. Ask for the input of academic and other experts whenever possible.


While all parts of the GOP Loyalist Base would be pleased to observe some thoughtfulness and sophistication in Team Trump's potential choices to fill key positions, Republican Intellectuals should appreciate it most.


The Candidate's status as an Outsider and a Maverick may have an appeal to parts of the rank-and-file. But policy experts and researchers want to be reassured that those Trump appoints to important key posts can fill those posts successfully, make difficult decisions, and carry out policy.


The Presumptive Nominee must give them this reassurance - and do everything possible to ensure that the GOP Brain Trust is in his corner.   



Next Up: The Left-Out, Harassed, Annoyed, and Looking-for-Some-Political-Love GOP Media.
 

Trumpio and Juliet

by Dr. Ellen Brandt


The Presumptive Nominee Should Court, Woo, Serenade, and Do Everything Possible to Put Women Voters in the GOP Column This Cycle.


Just the facts, Ma'am. Women voters lost the White House for the GOP in 2008 - when it probably could not have been helped - and in 2012, when it could have been.


It can't be allowed to happen in 2016 - an historical election year in which Republicans should have the edge. There is widespread dislike and distrust of the Other Party and its Presumptive Nominee Hillary Clinton - widely acknowledged as Limousine Liberalism Incarnate, at a time when the Limo-Liberals and their destructive agenda have placed much of the human race in peril, economic and otherwise.


Women voters are the third key group within the GOP Loyalist Base which the Trump Train must win over quickly. And despite a faulty start, marred by accusations of disrespect and out-and-out misogyny, we believe our Presumptive Nominee can turn things around, successfully courting not only the large - and highly activist - cadre of female voters within the GOP Base, but also many Independent women and crossovers from the Democrat camp.


Like their male counterparts, many women have become disgusted with the path on which this Nation is heading and are eager for the U.S. to change course dramatically, which can best be accomplished by a change of control at the top.


And as we stated in the last story in this series (My Fellow Gray Voters . . . .), the GOP and its nominee will have a built-in electoral edge in 2016, because Gray voters age 50 and older have been skewing very heavily towards the GOP in recent years. Grays 50 and over will make up about half of the U.S. electorate - 1 in every 2 voters - in 2016. Because women still outlive men by several years, that edge will be even more dramatic among female voters.


More than half of Women voters in 2016 will be age 50 and older. And more than half of Women voters within the GOP Loyalist Base will similarly be part of the Gray voter base over 50.


Trump, himself among the oldest Baby Boomers (now age 52-70), as is Hillary Clinton, should try hard to establish a climate of empathy and understanding with Mature GOP Women over 50, his own Age Peers and a group which was not particularly enthusiastic towards the GOP Nominee in either 2008 or 2012.


How can the Presumptive Nominee turn things around and win over Women voters of all ages, both within the GOP Base and beyond it? Here are a few suggestions we think he should heed from here on in:


***** Include many more women at the top of the Trump Campaign. Preferably, one half of all paid campaign staff should be female. And one half of the entire paid staff should consist of Republicans over age 50, with half of them female, to reflect the makeup of the GOP Loyalist Base.


Among the three top staffers at Team Trump so far, one has been let go because of an incident which qualifies as a (hushed up) sex scandal; one was loudly accused of assaulting a tiny female reporter; and the third made an incredibly silly remark three days ago - quoted all over the place - about how the Presumptive Nominee cannot "pander" to GOP women.


Does Trump not realize by now that he needs the steadying influence of more savvy female advisors who have his ear - and his attention?


***** As for the Candidate himself, he must exercise the utmost self-control and never - never, ever, ever! - make a remark, off-the-cuff or on, that Women voters (and the Media) can possibly construe as misogynistic, which we now all know is the Clinton campaign's favorite word.


Having a volatile temperament myself, this author well understands that it is hard to keep one's emotions under control, particularly when you feel that you're being attacked in some way.


However, I am not running for President. Trump is. And if he needs some sort of quick-fix therapy - hypnosis, perhaps, or increased intake of Tryptophans - as the Nike guys say, Just Do It! Shell out for your personal Svengali on staff, or have turkey sandwiches and buttermilk for lunch every day.


***** One particular kind of misogynistic comment has been - and will continue to be - deadly among Women voters. That, of course, is careless comments about women's looks.


Comments like these are the province of 11-year-old boys who play video games all night, sleep through math class, and give wedgies to one another chuckling maniacally. In other words, it's not a province presidential candidates should visit - ever. 


Beauty is very much in the eyes of the Beholder, anyway. Many people think Trump's favorite bash-ee, Rosie O'Donnell, is not in the least bit ugly, and she looks like so many women of Irish descent, it makes the Presumptive Nominee's attacks practically anti-Gaelic. And Carly Fiorina and Heidi Cruz are both exceptionally pretty women, who in no way deserved Trump's critical remarks.


In fact, it's the waking nightmare of some Republican female activists that Trump might decide to derogate Hillary Clinton's appearance. This would be an egregious mistake, because Clinton, a few months younger, not older, than Trump himself, represents not just women in general, but women over age 50 in particular. And we Grays - women and men alike - tend to be sensitive about our appearances as we age. 


Remember how miffed Trump himself became when another GOP candidate talked about his spray-on tan and how it was getting blotchy? What's sauce for the Gander is sauce for the Hillary Clinton.


***** Speaking about cosmetics, one effective conciliatory ploy we think Team Trump should consider immediately is setting up an Advisory Council - right now, pre-Convention - of 10 or 20 prominent female GOP activists, "to advise (us) on matters important to Republican women."


At least half of these GOP women should be over the age of 50, reflecting the Demographic makeup of both the American female population and the GOP Loyalist Base. And I would include some powerful women behind the scenes, such as those heading GOP PACs or prominent Republican fundraisers active in key States.


It might also be useful - and conciliatory - to include some leading lights in the Party who did not endorse Trump at the outset and might have been working for other candidates. Dare I say Nikki Haley and Carly Fiorina?


Such an Advisory Council would appear cosmetic at the outset. But the Trump campaign's goal should be to allow it to evolve into a trusted and valuable body of political allies, permitted to ride herd on the Candidate's pronouncements and proposals which are of special importance to the one-half of the electorate which happens to be female.


They may also make suggestions about new policy and programs which the Presumptive Nominee might wish to adopt and present to the American public as part of his evolving campaign.


***** One of the most dramatic - and effective - ways to get American Women voters on his side - and to cement the loyalty of GOP Women in particular - would be for Trump to choose a highly-qualified female leader as his VP running mate.


We are pleased that after a few false starts, Team Trump is at long last floating the names of several potential female VPs and leaking them quietly to the Media and others.


An especially good choice might be a woman leader who balances Trump's own strengths, in terms of experience, ideology, geography, and perhaps generation. For example, he might want to pick someone who has been a successful and well-liked governor or senator and who has been in the political arena for a number of years.


He might also wish to cement support among still-disgruntled Conservatives by choosing someone with impeccable Conservative credentials. He might focus on women leaders from the Heartland, perennially Red States in the Midwest, South, or West. And because he is among the oldest Baby Boomers, Trump might want to choose a younger Boomer or older Gen-Xer, someone in the 45-60 age range.


***** Once a female VP running mate is chosen, make her the highly visible Voice of the Trump campaign on issues important to Women voters, particularly GOP Women.


She should make one of her top priorities wooing and courting the one-half - 1 in 2 - Women voters this cycle who are age 50 and older - which happens to be the exact constituency that cost Candidate Romney the White House in 2012.

 
(If that boggles a few strategists' and pundits' minds - Good, it should!)


Besides focusing on this key constituency of Women voters over 50, a female VP running mate might also shine her light on several kinds of issues which appeal to the U.S. female electorate as a whole, not just Republican women. A few examples:


***** First up, Security issues. Women within the GOP may be even more focused on national security and safety than their male counterparts. And Security could be the hot button issue for every American as the campaign proceeds, with trouble spots around the globe heating up and domestic tranquility a continuing concern.


The Presumptive Nominee's Protect the Border initiatives have been quite popular among both GOP and Independent Women voters, as have his attacks on the Obama administration's horrid Sanctuary Cities agenda.


Trump also found very early support among Military Women, and he needs to continue to keep them prominent and visible within his campaign.


***** Media bias: Most Republicans of both sexes understand that the current Mainstream Media is very close to a farce, in terms of showing any semblance of fair and balanced coverage of the GOP, our candidates, our activists, our issues, and our ideology. But we think GOP - and Independent - Women are even more sensitive to this bias than our brethren.


That's because it is mostly a small cadre of smarmy, scowling, malicious, and thoroughly unpleasant male Media personalities who are doing the bulk of GOP-bashing. And GOP Women don't like it - or them!


And while some within the Party have disagreed, we believe Nominee Trump is correct to attack specific Media outlets whose anti-Republican rants have become intolerable. What he should not do, of course, is turn this into a matter of personalities and counterattack specific publishers or site owners. We feel it is much more effective to turn one's rage towards the offending publication or website itself, with the ultimate best goal of getting them to moderate their tone and alter their coverage, making the site more GOP-friendly.


***** Privacy. A Media-related issue important to many Women voters is Privacy. And interestingly enough, one's stance on this issue doesn't seem to correlate well with one's Party affiliation or place on the political spectrum - which makes it a fabulous campaign issue for candidates who get it right.


Research has shown that Women voters, GOP or not, seem to skew closer to Rand Paul than to Big Brother advocates Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton on matters of Privacy protection - so this is something Team Trump can use against the Democrats.


Women voters are extremely sensitive about - and largely opposed to - excessive Internet or other monitoring by the government, which we emotionally equate with stalking.


We tend to dislike unbridled data mining, which is used for many illegitimate purposes - like age-based or ethnic-based marketing and advertising or even the criminal theft and dissemination of health and financial records.


There's some anecdotal evidence that women are more likely than men to fall victim to identity theft crimes. And women are more often the victims of on-line malicious bullying, with GOP women possibly even more vulnerable, since a large proportion of malicious hacktivists on the Web skew far to the Left politically.


***** Economics issues. We believe that like their male counterparts, many GOP Women - and many female Independents - put Economic issues at the top of the list when making electoral decisions.


We talked about the GOP's large cadre of Economics voters in the first story in this series. Please read it now, if you have not already done so. (In It to Win It - Economics Voters)


Women within the GOP may be slightly more concerned than Republican men about the abuses perpetrated by Wall Street and about financial crimes and financial predators in general. (Although we think the majority of Republican men are 100 percent with us this cycle.)

   
The Presumptive Nominee's essential economic Populism resonates with many women within and outside the GOP. Women are particularly sensitive to Income Inequality and its ill-effects, since we have all-too-often been pushed to the bottom of the income ladder. That goes double - or more - for Gray women over age 50, which again means half the women in the GOP Loyalist Base.


Note, too, that because of societal and educational prejudices and individual preferences, GOP Women - like all American Women - are more likely to fall into the white-collar, no-collar, or professional categories than to self-identify as blue-collar.


This means that when talking about issues - or formulating agendas and programs - in the realms of economics and employment, Team Trump needs to focus on every category of worker, especially when appealing to GOP Women.


We believe our Presumptive Nominee can turn things around and appeal strongly to Women voters, not only within the GOP Loyalist Base, but throughout the American electorate.


Do most of the things - and make many of the changes - we've outlined above, and any remnants of the female voter problem we experienced in the elections of 2008 and 2012 will miraculously disappear.



Next On the List: Republican Intellectuals