Shake the 2020 Blues and Look to 2022
As I wrote in Thursday’s installment of my Morning Briefing, conservative Republicans are dreaming a lot about 2024 because it’s a coping mechanism that helps to ameliorate the pain of the daily slaps upside the head we’re getting from the new puppet president.
There is also still a lot of justifiable anger over last November and the rather fantastical processes that followed.
All of the above is understandable but potentially dangerous because attention is being diverted from the most important and attainable goal for the GOP: winning the House back in 2022.
This column is going to be another tough love affair that will no doubt leave plenty of people annoyed with me. As you are all very well aware by now, I don’t care. This isn’t a drum circle bonding retreat, this is politics and we don’t need to be here for the hugs.
Let me be very clear about this before everyone rushes to the comments to stomp their feet and “Harumph!” all about the place: the anger over 2020 is righteous and understandable but it needs to be turned into fuel for the future rather than remaining an anchor in the past.
The way that it remains the heaviest of anchors is for conservatives to use what happened in the 2020 election as justification for resignation about the future. I’ve heard a lot of variations on “The GOP didn’t fight hard enough, I’m done with them!” lately.
No, you’re not. When Kamala Harris and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are the 2024 ticket for the Democrats, you’re not going to be wasting a protest vote. You’re going to get a Republican elephant tramp stamp and knock on doors until your knuckles bleed for DeSantis/Noem or Noem/DeSantis.
So let’s stop pretending.
What went on in 2020 has to be the impetus for election reform that — let’s face it — this country has needed for a very long time. This is a moment that needs to be seized and utilized. If conservatives don’t go all-out to try and affect election reform in the many states currently under Republican control (looking at you, Georgia) the Democrats will finally succeed in their ongoing efforts to federalize the process.
When that happens, the nightmare you THINK you’re living under right now will become a reality. Trust me, you’re going to be awash in regret if that happens.
I could keep haranguing the surrender attitude but I should probably move on to something resembling positive reinforcement here soon.
As I and many others have noted, the circumstances right now are not unlike those of 2009. Democrats had all the wind at their backs then and Republicans were you-know-whatting into that wind. The defeated mood on the Right was strong and — just like now — understandable. There was also a lot of consternation about election integrity back then. This isn’t exactly a new worry for conservatives.
Democratic strategist James Carville was so euphoric that he was hurriedly writing a book he would publish that spring which predicted that Democrats would “rule” (yeah, they’re creepy over there) for forty years.
A mere month after Barack Obama was sworn in, the wheels were put in motion for the first Tea Party protest that happened at the end of February 2009. That, as we know, led to the Republican Party steamrolling the 2010 midterm elections and retaking control of the House of Representatives. Sadly, the Obamacare damage had already been done but the 2010 shift in power prevented The Lightbringer from achieving much of his ambitious socialist agenda.
Joe Biden is attempting to inflict damage at a far faster rate than his old boss did, focusing only on executive orders to get things done. His handlers are driven by an unholy lust that seeks to undo everything President Trump did. It’s a scorched-earth approach that doesn’t care about collateral damage — the Democrats never do — and will leave an already pandemic-weary nation feeling even worse.
The only firewall free citizens have against complete domestic annihilation is a Republican takeover of the House in 2022.
Along the way, we most definitely need to address the “irregularities” that plagued the 2020 election. The GOP also needs to make sure that it hustles like it never has before to get out the vote (GOTV) and counter any Democratic chicanery. Unfortunately, GOTV efforts now have to factor in the mail-in balloting process. Even if Republican state legislatures can rein in the amount of time people are allowed to vote by mail, they’re not going to be able to get rid of it completely. The GOP needs a nationwide effort to make sure that every elderly Republican’s ballot is filled out and mailed in on time.
Conservative Republicans owe it to themselves, the country, and — yes — President Trump to try and get election reform done and then win in 2022. If Republican legislatures fail to achieve any meaningful election reform then — and only then — will it be time to throw our hands in the air and say that we’re done with them.
I brought up the Tea Party movement not because I think it’s time for another incarnation of it, but because I wanted to draw the parallels between then and now. What I was attempting to convey is that the conditions are ripe at the moment to get a jump start on winning in 2022, especially with the idiot Dems throwing all of their energy into impeachment. We don’t need another singular grassroots movement to be victorious next year.
We just need that attitude.
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PJ Media Senior Columnist and Associate Editor Stephen Kruiser is the author of “Don’t Let the Hippies Shower” and “Straight Outta Feelings: Political Zen in the Age of Outrage,” both of which address serious subjects in a humorous way. Monday through Friday he edits PJ Media’s “Morning Briefing.” His columns appear twice a week.
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