Back in the Spring, a pollster was detailing his findings to a group of us. The Democrats were none too popular, he informed. And informed. And further informed. But at one point, the pollster stopped to remind: “Don’t get me wrong, that’s not to suggest the public is fond of Republicans.”
“We have the worst inflation in four decades, the worst collapse in real wages in 40 years, the worst crime wave since the 1990s, the worst border crisis in U.S. history, we have Joe Biden who is the least popular president . . . since presidential polling happened,” Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen explained on Fox News, “and there wasn’t a red wave.”
Barely a ripple.
Voters, he continued. “looked at all of that and looked at the Republican alternative and said, ‘No, thanks!’”
Calling it “an absolute disaster,” Thiessen advised the GOP to do a “a really deep introspective look in the mirror right now.”
Watch for cracks.
More than the abortion issue or the mixed blessing of Mr. Trump’s omnipresence, I think the GOP’s problem was the lack of any serious, cohesive and positive agenda. We are indeed facing massive inflation, crime, cultural revolution . . . but what are you going do ’bout it?
Answers aren’t coming from the Republican Party.
In last year’s red wave across my home state of Virginia, it wasn’t now-Governor Glenn Younkin who made respecting the rights of the parents of public education students a cataclysmic issue. Parents did that.
The Republican Revolution of 1994 rode a tsunami produced in no small part by the term limits movement. With term limits measures on the ballot throughout the country, the GOP gained 52 seats to secure a majority after 40 consecutive years in the minority — even defeating the Democratic House Speaker.
Want candidates to ride a popular, pro-freedom wave?
Better start splashing.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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5 replies on “Surfin’ U.S.A.”
1994 was pre-internet and even pre-Fox News. We also had a more mixed voting population. That election occurred after a presidential campaign where Democrats promised a middle class tax cut and then proceeded to enact what was then the largest tax increase in American history. They also wanted us to have Hillary-care.
Since then, many Americans have been voting with their feet, moving to states and areas where more people share their values – political and otherwise. Areas that were once swing districts are now dominated by one party. Wave elections aren’t as likely to happen when many of us have moved into enclaves where our own belief system carries the day..
Every poll tells us that the great majority of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track. One must, therefore, wonder why they would continue to elect those who put it on the wrong track?
Either we must have a very stupid electorate or vote fraud is still rife.
Well, let’s imagine that we’re in a train that pulls-up to a switching station, with three or more tracks. One group of trains staff argues for taking track A, another group argues for taking track B, and the A and B folk manage to restrict choice so that none of the other tracks may be selected by the passengers.
If the passengers say that track A is awful, but refuse to select track B, what does that really tell you?
How many of the repubs lost by way of fraud? There were already proven examples weeks before the election.
(Mail-in ballots sent to Canada? REALLY?)
Unfortunately nothing will ever come of any of it.
In answer to the age old saw “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Looks like we didn’t.
Perhaps in 2020 the Republicans were too surprised and stunned to act. But if in 2022 the Democrats are indeed engaged in wholesale violations of election law and the Republicans are not acting efficaciously against these violations, then we have to infer that the Republicans enjoy the abuse.
For my part, I’m waiting to see what if any court filings will be made.