Why the Republican Bloodbath?
By Al Baker - Posted at Forget None of His Benefits:
Do not trust in princes, in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation. -Psalm 146:3In 1992, during Bill Clinton’s run for the White House, his campaign analyst, James Carville, famously coined the phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Tuesday’s midterm elections was a brutal beatdown which most conservatives never saw coming. Why did this happen? It is largely because of the economy but that’s not it completely. When gas prices last January were $2.50 per gallon and now when they are $4.00 per gallon, people feel the pain. When grocery prices are skyrocketing, as they did under Joe Biden, people take notice. Most people don’t look down the road. They see only their present circumstances. People are angry and it showed in the election results.
Trump abandoned “American First” and put us in a war which no one wanted. People remember Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and they wanted no part of another long, drawn out war. It appears that Iran really was close to perfecting a nuclear arsenal and maybe Trump was truly in a hard place and sought to protect the west long term. Nonetheless, the people are tired of the gas prices and the Strait of Hormuz..
Furthermore, many of the candidates the Republicans ran were weak. Paxton in Texas and Graham in South Carolina are two good examples.
There’s at least one more reason why the Republicans were decimated and that’s Trump’s pride. I voted Trump in all three of his elections and have appreciated so many of his policies, but I have never liked his bravado, foul language, nor his narcissism. At times he can appear very presidential but at other times, especially when he is campaigning, he just cannot help himself and his crassness overtakes him. Ronald Reagan, on the other hand, who held similar policies to Trump, always maintained a decorum which enabled him to reach across the aisle to Tip O’Neill, the Democrat Speaker of the House, to enact important legislation. Trump has never been able to do that.
