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“AMERICAN REBOOT”
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THE RIPON SOCIETY HONORARY CONGRESSIONAL ADVISORY BOARD U.S. Senators:
Shelley Moore Capito - Senate Co-Chair Todd Young – Senate Co-Chair Marsha Blackburn Roy Blunt Richard Burr Bill Cassidy, M.D. Susan M. Collins Steve Daines Joni Ernst Deb Fischer John Hoeven Jerry Moran Mike Rounds Thom Tillis Roger Wicker
U.S. Representatives:
Rodney Davis - House Co-Chair Jackie Walorski - House Co-Chair Darin LaHood - Vice Chair, Midwest Mike Kelly - Vice Chair, Northeast Dan Newhouse - Vice Chair, West Frank Lucas - Vice Chair, Southwest Ann Wagner - Vice Chair, South Mark Amodei Kelly Armstrong Don Bacon Troy Balderson Andy Barr Stephanie Bice Mike Bost Vern Buchanan Larry Bucshon, M.D. Michael C. Burgess, M.D. Ken Calvert Buddy Carter Tom Cole John Curtis Tom Emmer Ron Estes Brian Fitzpatrick Andrew Garbarino Anthony Gonzalez Kay Granger Garret Graves Sam Graves Jessica Herrerra Beutler French Hill Trey Hollingsworth Bill Huizenga Bill Johnson Dusty Johnson Dave Joyce John Joyce, M.D. John Katko Young Kim Adam Kinzinger Bob Latta Billy Long Nancy Mace Brian Mast Kevin McCarthy Michael McCaul Peter Meijer Carol Miller John Moolenaar Blake Moore Guy Reschenthaler Tom Rice Cathy McMorris Rodgers Steve Scalise Lloyd Smucker Pete Stauber Bryan Steil Glenn “GT” Thompson Mike Turner Fred Upton David Valadao Brad Wenstrup, D.P.M. Steve Womack
In this edition
With over a dozen cities in America setting new homicide records in 2021 and more police officers killed in the line of duty than in any year since 1995, the latest edition of The Ripon Forum examines “America’s Crime Crisis” and the steps that should be taken to reduce violence and increase public safety in our country. Leading the Forum’s coverage of this issue is an essay by U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber (MN8). Stauber spent over two decades as a police officer in his hometown of Duluth before his election to Congress in 2018. He is now a leader in the police reform effort on Capitol Hill. In his essay, he talks not only about the impact of crime on American families, but why he believes crime has been on the increase in recent years.
“The United States is suffering from a crime crisis,” Stauber writes. “Across our country, families fear for their safety when they hear stories of their neighbors falling victim to violent crime. And people are angry when they hear about criminals being released back into our communities due to woke district attorneys who refuse to press charges for criminal actions, leaving victims wondering why. Let’s be clear: this crime crisis and its devastation on the American people are a direct result of the Democrats’ obsession with the radical defund and disparage the police movement. Local politicians catering to radical activists rather than supporting law enforcement has dire consequences. The police profession has become not only undesirable, but more dangerous even for seasoned veteran officers who are just trying to keep their communities safe. Those with the noble desire to protect and serve are being forced into early retirement and recruiting into the profession has been difficult.”
Hannah Meyers of the Manhattan Institute examines some of these difficulties in an essay entitled, “The Existential Challenges Facing Police Departments Today.” The statistics she cites are alarming. “In New York City,” Meyers writes, “over 5,300 NYPD uniformed officers resigned or retired in 2020 — a 75% spike over the previous year … Seattle hemorrhaged 180 officers in 2020 and 170 in 2021 — a near doubling of the 95 officers who left in 2019. In Chicago, 660 cops retired in 2021, nearly twice as many as in 2018.” Meyers shares her thoughts on the reasons for these difficulties and explores some of the positive steps police departments are taking to address them. These positive steps aside, she concludes that departments face an array of challenges ahead: “Police departments will need to convince recruits that being a cop is worth the increased dangers and will still be gratifying work even when offenders are cycled right back out to commit more crime. However, until criminal justice policies and political posturing shift, it’s going to be an uphill battle.”
In an essay that shines a light on some of these policies and posturing, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares writes about the important role that prosecutors play in ensuring public safety and why he believes too many are increasingly falling down on the job. “There are some locally elected prosecutors who are choosing not to prosecute groups of crimes,” Miyares writes, “selectively choosing pieces of the law to enforce and pieces to ignore. This warped version of criminal justice has created a public safety crisis … This ‘criminal first, victim last’ mindset only leads to more crime, more victims, and less safety for our families.”
In other essays examining America’s crime crisis, Clark Neily of the Cato Institute examines “The Disappearance of Trial By Jury” and the fact that over 98 percent of federal criminal convictions came from guilty pleas last year, while only two percent of cases went to trial. And Megan Stevenson, a professor at the University of Virginia’s School of Law, and Jeffrey Clayton, the Executive Director of the American Bail Coalition, look at America’s system of bail and the prospects – and peril – of reform.
Bryce Pardo and David Luckey of the Rand Corp. write about the nation’s drug crisis and the growing threat of fentanyl. Brian Martinez of the American Conservation Coalition assesses a different kind of threat – the threat of climate change – and why it is a threat that young Americans would like to see Republicans address. In an interview, former Congressman and CIA officer Will Hurd discusses American Reboot, a book he has written about the broken system of politics in our country and his vision for change in the coming years. And in our latest Ripon Profile, veteran lawmaker Fred Upton reveals who inspired him as a child and what the GOP must do to reclaim its congressional majority in 2022.
As always, we hope you find this latest edition of the Forum interesting and informative, and welcome any questions or comments you may have.
Lou Zickar, Editor louzickar@riponsociety.org
“AMERICAN REBOOT” A Conversation with Will Hurd
Will Hurd has had a fascinating career. A former cybersecurity executive, undercover officer with the CIA, and U.S. Congressman representing the 23rd District of Texas, he is now a managing director with Allen & Company, where he is working with entrepreneurs on the cutting edge of technology to anticipate the shockwaves of the future. Hurd is also the author of a new book called American Reboot: An Idealist’s Guide to Getting Big Things Done. Described as a “bold political playbook” that offers “solutions to the era-defining crises that will shape the next 30 years,” the book is a combination of lessons that Hurd has learned over the course of his life, and recommendations to both the Republican Party and the American people moving forward. One could argue that the American people themselves are the stars of the book, and Hurd is their greatest admirer. Indeed, many of the lessons set forth in its pages are lessons that Hurd learned himself from the people he met on the campaign trail and while serving as their elected representative in Washington. If there is a villain in the book, it is members of Washington’s professional political class, who counseled him as a candidate to campaign only in Republican areas, and then rolled over without a fight as extreme forces took over the GOP. Hurd calls himself a “pragmatic idealist.” It’s easy to understand why he chose to leave congressional gridlock behind when he describes what that term means to him. “You talk about the things that matter and about what’s happening now,” he explains, “and you do it in a way that has an impact on the greatest number of people possible.” Today, Hurd’s greatest impact is being felt in the interviews and speeches he is giving about American Reboot and the vision it lays out for the future of America. The Forum talked with him recently about the book and his vision, and where he would like to see his country and party go in the next few years.
RF: You open the book by talking about your first campaign for Congress in 2010. You lost the election, but write that you walked away with some important lessons, one of which was the importance of showing up in places you weren’t expected. Could you talk about that and other lessons you learned on the campaign trail, and their relevance for Republicans and all elected officials today?
WH: I had to grow in order to win and beat someone who was fairly entrenched in local politics. I had to do something different. And that’s why I showed up in communities that had never seen someone like me. What I learned was that they cared about the exact same things as everybody else. They cared about putting food on the table, a roof over their head, and taking care of the people that they love and making sure those people were healthy, happy, and safe.
That lesson made me realize the disconnect sometimes between how people encapsulate what’s going on in the world via cable news or social media versus reality. That lesson was important. And then the other lesson I learned was that campaigns are actually quite straightforward. ID your voters and turn them out.
My tactical error in not doing that in that first campaign is something that I made sure I didn’t forget.
RF: When you look at the last election, Republicans like Glenn Youngkin did make gains among Latino voters. Is that because he and other Republicans have started showing up in places they aren’t expected, or do you think it’s because Democrats have taken the Latino vote for granted for too long?
WH: I think that the Democrats have not only taken for granted black and brown communities, but I think they have been wrong on two important issues that impacted those communities.
Those issues relate to law enforcement and the energy sector. In southwest Texas, for example, a large percentage of the population depends on law enforcement for their employment and livelihood. Another large percentage of the population is dependent on the energy sector for their livelihood. When you attack those two sectors, you are going to see an impact.
The opportunity for Republicans is to move beyond the thinking that we’ve seen over the last 30 years that the best way to win elections is to simply turn out the base. We need to grow the party beyond the base, because I don’t want to be in a governing position for only two years. I want to bring conservative values to the country for decades. And that means we have to broaden the coalitions and people who identify with the GOP.
WH: You win the way I’ve always won -- by bringing new voters into the primary. The professional political class tells you to talk only to ‘likely’ Republican primary voters. Which means only the people who have voted in the last four Republican primaries.
When you’re only talking to the people who are supporting you, then the outcomes are always going to be the same. And when those people are somewhere between only two percent and six percent of the entire electorate, that’s why we only talk to the edges of the party and not the middle.
RF: Which is more broken in your opinion – our political system, or our system of government?
RF: In the book, you call yourself a pragmatic idealist. What does that mean exactly?
WH: The idealist part is about helping the greatest number of people possible. The pragmatic part is by basing that off where we are right now. That’s how I would encapsulate pragmatic idealism, and that’s what I think most people want.
If you look at my home state of Texas, we went through a primary election on March 1st. Only three million people voted -- that’s Republicans and Democrats combined out of 30 million. That voter apathy was because 27 million people, or a significant portion of 27 million people, didn’t think either side is providing something of value to them. Neither side inspired them, nor did either side address the issues that these 27 million people cared about.
That’s why I think this philosophy of pragmatic idealism works. You talk about the things that matter and about what’s happening now, and you do it in a way that has an impact on the greatest number of people possible.
WH: Well, the two are interrelated, right? Our political system drives our system of government. And our political system today is designed not to produce problem solvers.
We need to grow the It’s designed to produce bomb throwers.
party beyond the base, because I don’t want to be in a governing position for RF: Picking up on the title of your book, how only two years. would you reboot our political system?
WH: It’s about having elected leaders who inspire rather than fearmonger. It’s about having leaders who ensure that their audio and video match -- meaning the things that they say are reflecting the things that they do. You have people in our party who are not jerks, misogynists, or homophobes. And you have people in our party who recognize there is way more that unites us as Americans than divides us and are willing to focus on trying to address some of those issues where there is conceptual agreement on what needs to be done. So for me, reboot is about getting back to a fresh instance of the operating system. It’s not changing things or getting rid of things.
