Columnist and author Mark Steyn said Monday that even if Republicans win big in the midterm elections, the more conservative party will still be behind Democrats and liberals in the eyes of the American people.
Steyn told "Fox & Friends" co-host Brian Kilmeade that the left controls society.
"Election Day is one day a year, and the culture is the other 364 days a year. So, if you're not in there competing in the schools, competing in the pop culture, competing in the media, competing in the main-line churches, then the air that we breathe becomes liberal," Steyn said.
"That's the default setting in society. Whoever gets elected on a Tuesday morning in November doesn't actually make that much difference."
When asked what Republican candidates Mitt Romney and John McCain could have done differently in recent presidential elections, Steyn referenced the political spectrum.
"The reason candidates don't get traction is when they're trying to move toward the center," Steyn said. "Effective conservative leaders — [Ronald] Reagan and [Margaret] Thatcher, take the two most obvious examples — move the center toward them. That's what you should be doing. Mrs. Thatcher had a great line: 'Before you can win the election, you have to win the argument.'
"Unless you are in there playing for the big cultural stakes like the left does, you're going to lose, whoever is elected.
"The left is brilliant at framing the debate. So, if you want to talk about abortion, you're anti-women. If you want to talk about immigration, you're racist. If you want to stick to the definition of marriage that has prevailed for thousands of years before anybody invented the United States, you're homophobic.
"When you let the left win the language wars . . . when you make it impossible even to bring up those subjects, you basically ensure that you're gonna lose, whoever wins in November."
The midterm elections are scheduled for Nov. 4. Republicans need to gain six seats in the Senate to take control of the chamber. Many experts, including GOP strategist
Karl Rove, are predicting they will do just that.