The Prickly Platform
Democrats won both chambers in 2026. Their platform didn’t. Voters rebuked an administration that drifted from its own promises and from the principles that elected it. Analysts will spend two years arguing over what the Republican Party should become. We’d rather start with the evidence and clear messaging.
The Prickly Platform is our running record of positions that pass four tests:
- 1Principled. Rooted in conservative first principles.
- 2Popular. Backed by a majority of Americans.
- 3Practical. Directly relates to the security or prosperity of Americans.
- 4Proven. Sourced to the data, and to the founding text or court precedent behind it.
This is not a campaign wishlist. It is time to listen to Americans and return to our foundation. Have thoughts or suggestions? Email theteam@centerclip.com
A record share of Americans say the federal government has too much power, the highest since Gallup began asking. Both parties feel it most when the other side holds the keys. That is the case for keeping it small no matter who is in office. SOURCE HERE
Energy and Manufacturing
Visit latestBuild nuclear.
favor nuclear power, one point shy of Gallup’s all-time high. One honest caveat: most still balk at a plant in their own backyard.
The bottleneck on cheap, carbon-free power is regulation, not physics. Let fission compete on a level field: no mandates, no favorites.
Let America build.
Nearly three in five voters back speeding federal permits for energy and infrastructure, including 52% of Democrats.
A permit that takes a decade is a tax paid in time. A government that cannot approve a power line on schedule is not protecting anyone. It is protecting itself.
Make it here.
of likely voters say Washington should do more to bring factories home.
Hamilton’s Report on Manufactures argued a nation that cannot make its own goods cannot secure its own independence. The conservative route is lower taxes and lighter rules, not grant programs that pick winners.
National Security
Visit latestPeace through strength.
say it matters that America has the strongest military in the world. 71% say the world is more peaceful when America leads from strength.
Washington told Congress that being ready for war is one of the surest ways to keep the peace. Deterrence is cheaper than war.
Strength, not occupations.
oppose sending U.S. ground troops into Iran. Support for the war overall sits just above one in three.
Article I gives Congress the power to declare war. John Quincy Adams said America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. Strength is for deterring wars, not for open-ended ones.
Secure the border.
support closing the border with added security and policies that discourage illegal crossings.
A nation decides who enters. That is sovereignty, not hostility to immigrants.
Deport criminals first.
back deporting people here illegally who have committed crimes, including 71% of Democrats.
The Preamble promises to insure domestic tranquility. Enforcing laws already on the books is not radical. Ignoring them is.
Locals work with ICE.
say state and local officials should cooperate with federal authorities to deport criminal illegal aliens.
The Constitution gives naturalization to Washington. Federalism lets states run their own business. It does not hand them a veto over the nation’s.
Personal Finance
Visit latestPut the first home back in reach.
support allowing more homes near shops and jobs. 64% back smaller lots in new neighborhoods.
Homes cost too much because local rules make building them illegal. Let owners build on their own land. Down payment checks only bid prices higher.
Lower taxes.
Nearly six in 10 say their federal income taxes are too high, the fourth straight year at or near 60%. That includes 64% of independents.
What you earn is yours first. Government should justify every dollar it takes, not the other way around.
Balance the budget.
support a balanced budget amendment, including 79% of Democrats. Support softens once specific cuts are named.
Washington’s Farewell Address warned against piling debt on posterity. Every family and nearly every state lives within its means. Congress can too.
Show me the price.
want hospitals and insurers to post real prices upfront. 86% want drug companies to disclose how they set prices.
Markets run on prices, and health care hides them. Give patients that power, not a single-payer bureaucracy. And stop letting Europe free-ride on American cures: make allies pay their share of the research.
Work for welfare.
favor requiring nearly all adults to work or look for work to get Medicaid. Support ranges from 32% to 77% depending on the argument heard.
The 1996 welfare reform proved a safety net works best as a springboard. Work requirements keep help there for the elderly, the disabled and kids.
Cheaper college, more paths.
of voters say a four-year degree is not worth the cost, up from 40% in 2013. More than nine in ten view apprenticeships favorably.
Easy federal loans let colleges raise tuition, as Reagan’s Education Secretary William Bennett argued in 1987. Fund skills, trades and apprenticeships, and stop pushing every 18-year-old through the same debt pipeline.
Liberty
Visit latestLet the money follow the child.
support education savings accounts, 84% of parents. Meanwhile only 32% are satisfied with K-12 schools, a 27-year low.
Milton Friedman made the case in 1955: fund students, not systems. Parents, not districts, are the customers.
Girls’ sports stay for girls.
say transgender female athletes should not compete in women’s sports, including 67% of Democrats.
Title IX exists because sex differences are real. Recognizing them is what created women’s sports in the first place.
Parents get told.
say parents should know if their child wants to transition.
In Pierce v. Society of Sisters, the Court held a child is not the mere creature of the state. Schools serve families. They do not keep secrets from them.
Judge on merit, not race.
say race or ethnicity should not factor into college admissions.
Justice Harlan wrote that our Constitution is color-blind. Equal protection means equal treatment, not engineered outcomes.
No late-term abortion. Let the states decide.
say abortion should be legal in the third trimester. Even among Democrats, only 28% agree.
Dobbs returned abortion to the people and the states, where the Constitution leaves it. Each state sets its own rules. It is not Washington’s job to write one law for fifty states.
Keep your handgun.
support banning handguns, near the lowest in Gallup’s history. In 1959 it was 60%.
The Second Amendment protects an individual right, as Heller confirmed in 2008. A right that needs permission is not a right.
Your property is yours.
oppose police seizing property before a conviction. Polls put opposition to the Kelo eminent domain ruling at 80 to 95%.
The Fifth Amendment allows taking private property only for public use, with just compensation. A shopping mall is not a public use. Seizure without conviction is punishment without trial.
Government does not censor your posts.
say the government should not be allowed to censor speech on social media.
The First Amendment restrains Washington, not the citizen. A government that can lean on platforms will lean on them.
Believe without penalty.
accept the freedom to believe marriage is between a man and a woman without government penalty, the highest on record.
Washington’s 1790 letter to the Touro Synagogue promised a government that gives “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” That protection covers traditional believers too.
Faith-based charities compete on equal terms.
support government partnering with religious charities to help people in need. 76% want religious and secular groups treated equally in funding.
In Trinity Lutheran and Carson v. Makin, the Supreme Court held the government cannot shut a group out of a public program just because it is religious.
Churches choose their own leaders.
support religious organizations making their own hiring and leadership decisions without government interference.
In Hosanna-Tabor (2012), a unanimous Supreme Court held that the First Amendment bars the government from picking a church’s ministers. Washington does not get a vote in the pulpit.
Faith does not stop at the stadium gate.
support public school students leading prayer before football games. Where courts draw the line: voluntary and student-initiated prayer is protected; school-sponsored prayer over the loudspeaker is not.
In Tinker (1969), the Court said students don’t shed their constitutional rights “at the schoolhouse gate.” In Kennedy v. Bremerton (2022), it said the same of a coach who prayed on the field. The government may not sponsor prayer, and it may not silence it either.
Politics
Visit latestShow ID. Prove citizenship.
back photo ID to vote and 83% back proof of citizenship to register, including 67% of Democrats.
Only citizens decide American elections. You show ID to board a plane. The ballot deserves at least that.
Back the police.
of Black Americans want police to spend the same or more time in their neighborhoods. 67% of all adults want current presence kept.
Public safety is government’s first job, and it is done best locally. Defunding was always a fringe idea, even in the communities it claimed to speak for.
Ban congressional stock trading.
support a ban, including 87% of Republicans and 88% of Democrats.
Madison wrote that men are not angels, so government needs checks. Lawmakers should not trade on what the public cannot know. That is cronyism, not free enterprise.
Term limits.
support congressional term limits, including 65% of Democrats.
The Founders pictured citizen legislators who serve, then go home. Careerism is what grows government.
How we build this list. A position earns a spot only when published national polling shows majority support. Neutral pollsters come first. Where an advocacy group paid for the poll, we tag it. Where support swings with wording, we say so. Positions that fall below a majority come off the list.
