this isn't the place for your establishment boot licking
a lot of us were never republicans in the first place, mostly since we don't like to scream about the Bible all day an then suck off tranny hookers behind the waffle house at night (I'm looking at you, Lindsey Graham)
find a vector of analysis that you are comfortable with and use it as your home base
the easiest "home base" philosophically speaking would be the enlightenment, and the American revolution as the approximate peak of "illuminated" thinking
basically, armor yourself with the belief that the individual is the most important cog in the machine of society... them learn to defend that argument honestly and without closing yourself off to other people's ideas
the most effective strategy I've found for arguing with low-information commies (college kids and hippie boomers) is to agree in principle that society SHOULD be tryin to help the poor and less fortunate, and that almost all democratic societies eventually start to curb rampant inequality, but that every society that makes the attempt eventually destroys itself while it fails to achieve forced equity
short version: humans are weak and selfish, all systems are administered by humans, therefore all man-made bureaucracies will eventually become ineffective and corrupted
societies do best when charity is voluntary the government does as little as possible
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