At the end of the second election season in which Republicans allowed Donald Trump to turn conditions ripe for victory into ballot box defeats one wonders “why”?
The first one could be somewhat excused because the nominee at the top of the ticket was The Donald himself, so it was only natural that the party would follow his lead. But the just-concluded election was a defeat of the Republican puppetmasters’ own making. And they should be ashamed.
Several candidates ballyhooed their Trump endorsement, including many who claimed that the last presidential election was stolen. These deniers, as well as the participants of the 6 Jan attempt to stop the certification of the Electoral College vote, violated the first principle of conservative self-rule: uphold the rule of law.
There has been no case where voter fraud has been proven to the degree that it would have changed even one electoral vote. And the 6 Jan attack of the Capital Building should have been denounced by everyone from (especially) Donald Trump right down to the dog catcher. Instead there are election deniers all over the country being placed on ballots and given a bully pulpit to spread their ‘banana republic’ rhetoric.
I am not a particularly sophisticated voter, but then elections are not decided by sophisticated voters. What beamed into my living room and junked up my mailbox was one of the most uninspired collection of campaign advertisements as any I can remember.
They, on the whole, did not tell the electorate anything useful for the next two years, let alone anything beyond. Everyone wanted to win but no one seemed interested in governing.
I wrote previously about Laxalt’s failure to address the truth about fuel prices. I guess – but am not surprised – that his people don’t read the editorial page of this newspaper. If he had recognized the opportunity, he could have refuted about half of the Cortez-Masto adds with that one thing.
Republicans’ candidate to run the office responsible for the state’s voting system was someone who could only further erode confidence in that system. That Jim Marchant was a 2020 election denier was actually the least of his problems as candidate for Secretary of State. He was part of a slate of candidates across the country working to elect other “we was robbed” candidates to build a coalition to make sure Donald Trump is re-elected. (Still think my ‘banana republic’ reference was too much?)
Candidate Sisolak made promises without telling how they were to be paid for and Lombardo told us nothing about what his administration was going to do which had any more substance than Sisolak’s promises.
Someone had to win and I think Sisolak’s handling of the Wuhan Virus made him durably unlikeable. Will Lombardo be a good governor? Only time will tell because his campaign didn’t give us anything much to look forward to.
Republicans did so poorly this election because of lack of effort, in my estimation. There were many subjects to get the electorate on their side about. The economy is still nowhere near solved. Massive, unjustified government spending – passed almost exclusively by Democrats - has this economy walking on its knees – at best.
President Biden taking from the strategic oil reserve to try to lower fuel prices is a threat to the future national security needs that reserve may be required for. Biden’s policies towards domestic energy production are at the center of the problems for solving this issue. Since Biden speaks for the Democrat party, Cortez-Masto is equally culpable.
The illegal immigration problem has grown exponentially greater since Biden took office and there is no solution on the horizon. Again, guilt by association should have had Cortez-Masto answering for the policies of this President.
Republicans who are hanging onto the Trump-as-messiah myth don’t understand that Trump was a necessary champion for that brief time he was in office. But because he is The Donald, he is not the man to carry the charge past that first battle season. He could have extended his legacy by another 4 years but chose repeatedly to not make the adjustments necessary to do so. He won’t be part of the solution because he has become part of the problem.
Now that Donald Trump has announced another run for the White House the question becomes, will the Republican Party once again elevate a candidate who has done so much damage to their brand or, will they instead work to recapture the desire and means to effectively govern?
