Republicans better wise up

Published 8:41 am Friday, November 10, 2023

It’s a pretty safe statement to say that Republicans were more than a little excited at the prospects of the arrival of a new election. After all, President Biden’s approval ratings are historically low, even to the point where leaders in the Democrat party are publicly saying that he doesn’t need to run for reelection. Honestly I don’t know that I’ve ever heard that being said about any president in our history, but it is what it is.

Add to the mix all of the divisions that are fracturing the Democrats regarding things like the war in the middle east, green energy policies, and out of control crime in primarily liberal cities and it would seem from the outside looking in that the GOP was perfectly positioned to reap a huge harvest ripe for the picking.

Yes, it sure seemed that way. But, as with too many things we encounter in this world, appearances can be quite deceiving.

The elections that took place this past week were a sobering if not stunning slap to the face for Republicans. Almost every race that was contested and earmarked as ‘essential’ by the GOP was shockingly lost to Democrats, including some that were regarded as ‘slam dunks’ by conservative pundits.

So what went wrong for Republicans? There are several things that stand out like a sore thumb, which unfortunately for the Grand Old Party aren’t going to be easily addressed but that will almost have to be if they have any hopes for success in 2024.

The first admission Republicans have to make is that the overwhelming majority of American voters are no longer married to either party and as a result aren’t blindly trusting either of them any longer. Right now 50% of all registered voters do not align themselves with either of the two major parties and classify themselves as independents, with the other 25% aligning with Republicans and 25% Democrats. That means the dominant party in our nation right now is neither Democrat or Republican, it’s “I’ll pick the candidate that impresses me the most, thank you.”

It’s very hard for either party to dance around the current en masse disassociation with our political system and the two party option, which are all viewed as ineffectual, selfishly partisan, far too political and too extreme for comfort. In other words, the overwhelming majority of Americans see that fringe groups on both the extreme left and right have taken control of the souls of the parties.

Also, the red elephant in the room is a complete void regarding leadership within the GOP party. There simply isn’t a Republican candidate that the overwhelming majority of Americans trust. With that said, I do believe that a few of them are making headway toward gaining that trust, but right now it just isn’t there.

Then, the ‘Trumpeters’ among us simply refuse to acknowledge that Donald Trump is the lone presidential candidate that the Democrat party truly wants to see representing the GOP next November. Why? Because not only has Trump already proven that he is beatable (I know it’s hard to believe, but continuously yelling about stolen elections does not make them real), but his absolutely chaotic style of leadership is the precise opposite of what most of those independent voters want to see today for their nation. The top indicator of support from those independents is very simple: stability. You can say and/or feel what you want about Trump, but there is nothing associated with him that reflects anything even resembling stability.

Add to the mix that Americans increasingly see the current political system as corrupt and you see the result reflected in those independent voters. Consider this: despite making up the largest bloc of the electorate, in many states, including swing states like Pennsylvania and Arizona, it is impossible for independents to participate in the presidential primary elections that determine the choices in the general election. To be clear, in an additional eight states it is the Republican Party that continues to bar independents from voting in their presidential primary.

Now I wonder – why would that be the case?

And there is no way around the fact that most Americans see the hard-right wing of the GOP’s ‘under no circumstance’ stance on abortion as unreasonable. The hard fact of the matter is that while very few Americans actually support abortion on demand for any and every circumstance, very few feel similarly about an across the board ban as well.

With all that in mind, it must be said that the Democrats are no model of solidarity themselves. There are huge cracks visible everywhere on the left, but as things stand now the Republicans are so disjointed and dysfunctional they simply are powerless to take advantage of them. Until someone the majority of Americans can trust as a true conservative leader emerges that will not change.

The elections last week are a mere reflection of just how independently minded voters appear to be leaning. They were a stark reminder that Americans are weighing a variety of factors as they determine who they will support, and that when a majority of voters clearly say they think the country is heading in the wrong direction it’s just as clear that isn’t solely because they are unhappy with Joe Biden.