Republicans Losing Bigger Battle Ahead of Midterms Even as Senate Democrats Cave
The stakes couldn’t be higher—and the clock is already ticking.
This article originally appeared on the Daily Caller News Foundation and was republished with permission.
Guest post by John Loftus
As the shutdown battle winds down, one thing is becoming clear: the Republicans have lost the messaging battle.
In fact, their messaging amid the shutdown has been nothing short of a disaster.
Although eight Senate Democrats caved Sunday night in a deal with Republicans to reopen the government — which prompted a Democratic civil war on healthcare funding and Chuck Schumer’s leadership skills — Republicans failed to make a compelling argument for why their opponents were holding the government hostage.
At the onset of the shutdown, Republicans attacked Democrats for wanting to “fund healthcare for illegal immigrants” and other pet left-wing projects. But that message did not stick. Forty days in, it has been completely drowned out. No one is talking about healthcare for illegal immigrants. In an interview with Dr. Oz, even Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo didn’t frame the issue about healthcare funding around that issue; she simply framed a question as how Republicans would respond when Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies expire.
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Second, amid the government shutdown, the Trump administration commenced the construction of its new ballroom in the East Wing of the White House. Liberals were apoplectic, with typical hair-on-fire reactions. Nonetheless, Republicans practically handed Democrats a perfect line of attack for the midterms. “Trump was too busy building a ritz ballroom that only billionaires will step foot in instead negotiating an end to the shutdown.”
Did anyone think that building a ballroom, not just amid the shutdown but amid shaky economic times when the affordability crisis is still squeezing average Americans, was a good idea? Liberals and Democrats often have hysterical reactions to anything Trump says or does, but in this instance, they had a point. And even if you disagree with their over-the-top reaction that the bulldozing of the East Wing was symbolic of the death of American democracy, the point still stands that it’s a terrible look for the administration. Democrats will certainly juxtapose those images and ACA subsidies expiring as midterm ad fodder.
Of course, there is the question of who is to blame for the shutdown. Some polls suggest that the blame is evenly split between both parties. However, one NBC poll, conducted between Oct. 24-28, found that 52% of voters blamed Trump and Congressional Republicans for the prolonged shutdown. Forty-two percent blamed Democrats in Congress, while 4% blamed both parties. CNN’s poll tracker showed that throughout the shutdown, Trump’s polling numbers remained painfully low. In CNN’s latest poll, conducted between Oct. 27 and Oct. 20, Trump’s approval rating stood at 37%.
Federalist CEO Sean Davis put it well in an X post Sunday:
“I don’t know who is advising congressional Republicans on strategy right now, but it is whoever it is has an IQ barely approaching room temperature. Republicans right now have no accomplishments, no plans, and no vision. Why on earth would anyone be excited to go vote for them 12 months right now?” Davis wrote.
He also pointed out that the GOP has focused far too much on foreign policy instead of the economic concerns of young adults.
“Newly minted college grads can’t find work and are saddled with debt. Where is their path to the American dream right now? Who is giving them a vision of a future worth fighting for? You cannot have a viable country or future when half your country and all its young people are locked out of the economy and locked out of ever owning a home or much of anything beyond next month’s streaming subscription,” David said.
Not only has the GOP lost the messaging fight on the shutdown, but they are also losing it on the economy in general, as their support among young Americans collapses. The Trump administration has floated using tariff revenue to give Americans some kind of tax credit or even a stimulus check, and even a 50-year mortgage, to alleviate the affordability crisis.
But are those actual solutions? Of course not. They are desperate messaging attempts that will ultimately ring hollow.
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The Trump administration needs to provide significant improvement in the lives of Americans in the next 6 months or so, or the GOP will be destroyed in the midterms.
This would help:
1. Get the ineligible OFF of taxpayer-funded entitlements, including health care, social insurance, SNAP, etc.
2. Fix the freaking voting system so voting results reflect how real citizens voted. This means getting all the ineligible voters purged from the voting rolls and standardizing voting rules/practices.
3. Stop with the foreign wars. Shooting fisherman from another, sovereign country is crappy optics.
4. Figure out how to address the judiciary - a district judge in BFE can shut down the president basically at will at this point. Either figure out a way around them or how to remove them from office.
5. And stop with the stupid shenanigans - a new ballroom, seriously? And a $2k gift to taxpayers? 50 year mortgages? More stupid tweets?