The new leader of the U.S. House’s Republican Study Committee, North Carolina’s Mark Walker, offered the American Enterprise Institute some interesting thoughts about the next year in Congress.

Rep. Walker on “effective conservatism”:

However long we’re privileged to serve here, whether it’s two years or twenty years, can you look back and say ‘was it simply about winning the argument? Or was it about making a difference? Are there measured marks of success where you’ve moved the needle forward? Now I think that consists of three things: 1) the right policy 2) the right approach, and 3) the right voice.

What do I mean by the right voice? If you go back to business and marketing […] products can sometimes reach a ‘maturity stage’: people are walking past it on the shelf in the grocery store. Kelloggs’ had that problem in thge late 1980s. So in 1990 they release this commercial, they had this New Englander eating this big bowl of Corn Flakes, but the tag line was this: Taste them again for the first time.

And when you talk about your question as far as the different factions, conservatives as a whole across the conference, I feel like it’s ‘Hear us again for the first time.’ We have an opportunity, an incredible moment in history right now, to allow our voices to be heard.

Rep. Walker on the opportunities for growing the conservative community:

There is fertile soil right now. We have the data on our side that the last eight years have not benefited any community. … The conduit of how we share that message is crucial. If we come in with our strong armor, if we come in attack, attack, attack… In any aspect of life, when you start from an adversarial position, you limit your gain immediately. And I feel like, if we’re willing to look across the conference, across the RSC, to talk about these non-traditional items, we have an incredible opportunity to impact our culture.