The 1980s Hangover and the GOPIf they ever want to win again—and that’s a big if—Republicans must play by the rules they helped create.
By Julie Kelly
November 10, 2022
Recriminations about who is responsible for the fizzled “red wave” on Tuesday began as soon as the disappointing results trickled in that night.
Fingers immediately pointed at Donald Trump; the Wall Street Journal editorial board, mouthpiece for the establishment wing of the GOP, on Wednesday branded Trump “the Republican Party’s biggest loser.” NeverTrumpers at the “conservative” Washington Examiner also blamed unexpected losses on the former president. “These midterm elections have made it crystal clear that voters want to move past the chaos and dishonor of the 45th president,” editors wrote on November 9. “They want the security and sanity that a competent and effective leader can provide. The Republican Party needs to recognize that, too, and act accordingly.”
Of course Trump deserves part of the blame for what we are told is a humiliating defeat. He is, by every measure, the leader of the Republican Party. Candidates jockeyed for his endorsement and he hosted get-out-the-vote campaign rallies across the country.
Trump owns a few duds, most notably longtime quack Dr. Mehmet Oz, who lost the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race to part-vegetable John Fetterman. But Trump isn’t solely culpable for a midterm election that, for now at least, defies the historical precedent that the party in charge of the White House suffers double-digit losses in Congress. (Republicans are still favored to win the House but by a much smaller margin than predicted.)
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The major difference between 2018 and 2022, of course, is how Americans vote. Just as Democrats capitalized on lax, pandemic-related election guidance in 2020, the party again took advantage of these rules in 2022. According to Ballotpedia, 28 million Americans voted by absentee or mail-in ballot in 2018. Early data shows 52 million voters requested mail-in ballots for this election; nearly half were Democrats while 28 percent were Republicans.
And therein lies the biggest obstacle—and source of blame—for Republicans. These reckless methods of voting are not going away any time soon and, in fact, will only get more irresponsible and opaque in so-called “swing” states now controlled by Democratic governors and legislatures.
This is clearly an area where national and statewide GOP officials faltered. No matter how much Republicans prefer to vote on Election Day, the party must work to change that habit. Republicans admittedly are at a big disadvantage since mini-colonies of loyal voters on college campuses and public employee union halls don’t exist for the GOP like they do for Democrats, so efforts must get underway immediately. Stubborn adherence to traditional ways of voting cost Trump the presidency in 2020—in addition to the other Democratic Party chicanery and lawlessness—and have now prevented Republicans from gaining a mandate-level majority in the House and any chance to take a slim majority in the Senate.
“Elections are not run anymore like they were in the 1980s,” Fox News contributor Mollie Hemingway said on Wednesday night. “There is now [an] extensive period of voting where people who are smart are running get-out-the-vote operations every day, hauling in ballots every day. Republicans keep thinking Election Day is a single day and they think if they get everyone excited for that last day that that will be sufficient. That is not sufficient. There needs to be an effective ground game. That is on Republican leadership. And there’s only so much that everyone else can do with their enthusiasm.”
Indeed.
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Source:
https://amgreatness.com/2022/11/10/the-1980s-hangover-and-the-gop/
