My Advice to the Republicans Ahead of 2018

I stumbled upon an article today from the Washington Post that made me laugh.  At the State of the Union Address in 2009, SC Representative Joe Wilson famously cried, �You lie!� to then President Obama. Yesterday, at his own town hall, he heard that phrase chanted by hundreds of people. But this time, it was directed towards him. It�s also fitting to mention that Obamacare was the subject that sparked the usage of that now infamous line.

            Wilson�s struggles are just a peek into the problems facing the Republicans right now. Despite their control of all three branches of the US government, the Republicans are having some struggles governing. These past few months have been highlighted by angry town halls, healthcare failures, and infighting, all of which do not bode well for the future. The first sign of impending doom came from a special election in Kansas that was decided on Tuesday night. The deeply red state almost elected a severely underfunded and relatively unknown democrat to Congress. That kind of loss would have been catastrophic for the Republican Party. But even though they still claim victory, sirens are sounding as 2018 quickly approaches and congressional campaigns begin again.

            Donald Trump won the congressional district in question in Kansas by 27 points in November. Estes, the Republican candidate, won by less than 7. Even Ted Cruz noted the anomaly by calling it, �a warning sign.� He added that, �The radical left is filled with fury right now.�

            Before I go on, I need to address the falsehood of that statement. While he is right that the �radical left� is angry right now, this election had nothing to do with that. If the �radical left� is the reason for this close election, where were they in November? The reason that this unknown democrat almost won is because the republican base is not satisfied with the job being done by their representatives. Cruz is simply trying to blame the opposition for his party�s own failures: a classic move that allows a politician to avoid responsibility for failure. The Democrats are not in control anymore, the Republicans control their own destiny now.

            In order to avoid disaster next year, the Republicans need to deliver on the promises they made to their base last year. Specifically, they need to focus on jobs. On the campaign trail, our current president claimed that he would be the �jobs president.� One of his famous campaign promises is that he would, �Put the coal miners back to work.� That was an empty promise.

            The majority of Republicans, and most Americans, are not concerned with travel bans or border walls. They want jobs. Congress needs to reprioritize their efforts and help the voters that put them in power or face certain doom in the midterms. The �radical left� will not sway elections. It�s the voters who feel that they are not being heard that decide elections. It�s been three months and the Republicans have done little to nothing to deliver on their promises of jobs.

            There will be another special election in Georgia next week. However, this election will be much closer. The democrat there, Jon Ossoff, is well-funded and is in striking distance of a seat that has been Republican for thirty-seven years. Our President only won the district currently up for grabs by 1 point. If defeated, the Republicans will have to find a way to change quickly to avoid disaster next year.

            All eyes are focused on Georgia this week. If the 2018 midterm elections were a movie, these special elections serve as a teaser trailer in the way that they set the tone and reveal information that is important to the plot. The amount of money being put into these elections could probably fund a decent movie too. And since American politics has devolved into a reality TV show, maybe my analogy was not that far from reality. We shall see.