As someone who has been very involved in American politics, I can say with some authority that this is perhaps the most volatile and interesting midterm election season that I can remember. It should be noted that some of those midterm years happened when I was in my twenties and might be a little, um, cloudy in my memory.
Anyway, political types like myself go crazy with speculation and prognostication when midterms are looming, even though we all pretend that we don't like it while we're doing it. Polls can too often be lacking in veracity. One thing I prefer to monitor during big election years is where the money is flowing. Right now, I like the direction that a lot of it is taking.
Quite predictably, the Democrats' flying monkeys in the mainstream media are portraying Republicans as a sad sack lot who are going to be met with a disastrous buzzsaw in November. They may very well be right. However, because, as I have written many times this year, conventional wisdom and old rules don't apply anymore, I'm not so convinced. The only thing that the Democrats have to sell to the voters is "WE SUPER DUPER HATE PRESIDENT TRUMP." And now they have their commie chihuahua upstarts latching onto their pant legs.
I see some opportunities for the GOP.
Apparently, so do some donors. This is from Axios:
The Senate GOP's top super PAC and affiliates have more than doubled their fundraising record for the first half of an off-year — bringing in $85 million, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Senate Leadership Fund is a campaign powerhouse for the GOP. But its new leaders want to shake things up after a decade of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his allies at the helm.
- This is the group's first fundraising release since Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) took over as Senate GOP leader.
President Trump is more involved than ever, SLF executive director Alex Latcham told Axios in an interview.
Despite the overwhelming "YOWZA!" factor regarding the $85 million, the heavy involvement of President Trump is the most important piece of information there. He could simply be Barack Obama-ing phoning it in, after all. His staunch supporters knew that he wouldn't do that, but it's nice to see that he's not content with being a detached kingmaker.
As I have mentioned on many occasions, President Donald Trump is doing everything that he can to make the Republican Party obsessed with winning elections, which would be a radical departure from the party that I've dealt with during my 40-plus years of activism. The GOP has been comfortable waiting around for when the whims of the electorate and the cyclical nature of American party politics dictate that it is its turn to win again.
Trump wants to win every election. That's not possible, of course, but it's the only mindset that will help the Republican Party stave off being relegated to permanent minority status. If the Democrats take complete control of Washington again, we're all either gulag- or expat-bound. That's barring another civil war, of course.
The president will almost certainly do all he can to purge the McConnell stink from the fundraising machine, which he's already begun doing. As the Axios article goes on to note, the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) was run by a McConnell ally for years. That's over now.
It is difficult to take advantage of opportunities in an election if a party is light on cash. This $85 million is a fantastic sign that Republican ennui and/or apathy won't be a problem this year. It's not just the SLF that's chugging along; the Republican National Committee (RNC), National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), and National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) have combined to raise more and spend less money than their Democratic counterparts. April was a record-setting month for the NRCC.
We all know that none of this news predicts or guarantees victory. What it does mean is that the Republican Party's political infrastructure is a well-oiled machine at the moment and, with President Trump at the helm (if not on the ballot), there's always a fighting chance.
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