Charlie Cooke has some prudent advice for the Republicans:
Enjoy the big victory, but remember, your brand is still badly damaged. In Fox News’s final pre-election survey, the national poll showed that while the Democratic Party had a net negative of 10 points in voter favorability—42 percent favorable, 52 percent unfavorable—the Republican Party was upside-down by 16 points—38 percent favorable, 54 percent unfavorable. The national exit poll showed a net negative of 12 points in favorability for each party. So, for the GOP, election night came with both good and bad news. The bad news being that even with this big win, Americans still do not like the GOP. The good news for Republicans, this time around, is that this election was not about you.
My advice is focus on the economy. Don’t get distracted from it by any of the bright, shiny objects of which there so many and, particularly, not by how much you may detest the president (assuming that is the case). You will be judged by whether Americans are better off in two years than they are now. Not by how fast GDP grew or how high the deficit is or how mean the president was to you.
I would suggest that the evidence of the last 15-20 years shows very few people think of being ‘better off’ in utilitarian terms. I think it shows the very opposite: a place where a couple making 500K a year in Manhattan and a couple making 45K a year in Topeka both consider their position to be a personal burden, rather a station surrounded by others more or less fortunate than they. Unfortunately not only are these the people driving the debate, but these are the people the debate trusts.
I have no idea what the solution is.
I’m skeptical the GoP will take any blame if the economy fails to improve – that will fall on the President whether justified or not. Personally, I think the GoP will bollox it up – I don’t think they are ready for serious reform yet, though at least the tea party influence should not be as big.
I’m skeptical the GoP will take any blame if the economy fails to improve – that will fall on the President whether justified or not.
…which will be a page directly out of the Obama playbook, blaming his predecessor for everything these past 6 years, despite the fact that the dems held Congress the last 2 years of Bush’s 2nd term. However, I hope the R’s will bypass the temptation to mimic such a pass-the-buck tactic.
Advice, most worthy pundits agree upon, is that the election defeat was based on voter dissatisfaction with government, not love/hate for either one party or the other. Basically, trust for the forked-tongued bureaucratic bureaucrat has been eroded, no matter what their political stripes are. This is also why so many voters are opting out to become Independents, as neither party is meeting their needs or standards for fairness or performance.
Consequently the R’s would be wise to earn back people’s trust by delivering honest, workable, passable bills that will help improve conditions in the current economy. This means being less reactive to Obama and putting energy into creative strategies and diplomacy within their continuing polarized Congressional chambers. It’s a tall order. But, focusing on less politicized, more straight forward agendas is the kind of work ethic and authenticity people want and deserve.