It was lousy to lose the House – but I’ve read a story where the Democrats are seriously considering impeaching Justice Kavanaugh…so, the Democrat majority will likely be short lived. But, we still need to think about the future.
Looking ahead at the Senate maps in 2020 and 2022, there isn’t too much of a risk to the GOP majority – absent a meltdown of epic proportions, the GOP might have a very enduring Senate majority. Like in the 10+ year range. More than long enough to replace both Breyer and RBG, assuming Trump is re-elected in 2020 (a likely event given how simply difficult it is to eject a sitting President). There are some 135 (or more, not sure) open Federal seats in the judiciary and you know that Trump and Cocaine Mitch are going to go into overdrive filling them – fundamentally, the Judiciary is going to be under our control for a generation. Over time, this will become more and more noticeable as more and more cases are decided in favor of the Constitution. A great deal of what Democrats have accomplished these past 40 years has been via the Courts…now that will stop, and a good deal of it might even be reversed.
But we clearly failed in the House…and there are simply too many big population States where we are just doing miserably. California and New York most notably, but also Illinois, Massachusetts and New Jersey. We can’t count on holding the red States all the time and forever. We’re going to lose some in the red States…better to shore up our position with some major blue State wins in both the House and Senate. To do this, we’re going to have to ask what the blue Staters want, and then figure out how to give as much of it to them as we can consistent with the Populist-Conservative stamp of the modern GOP.
It is a tall order, but not impossible. We lost the California governorship by 18 points..but if we just get 1 in 10 CA voters to switch from Democrat to GOP, we win the governorship…and perhaps a Senate seat, as well. And likely a few House seats, into the bargain. And have a shot at winning California’s electoral votes. It is certainly worth the effort. Heck, just forcing the Democrats to defend their California position is worth the effort. Every dollar and minute spent in California is a dollar and minute they aren’t spending invading our territory. We ran less than 400 House candidates this year – and that is just criminal negligence, in my view. No Democrat, anywhere, should ever be without an opponent. I don’t care if it is the most forlorn hope in history, every Democrat should get a challenger – and a challenger who is provided at least enough money to show up. You never know when someone might catch fire and by a combination of pluck and luck, do the impossible. It is also crucial to run in the deep blue areas because it at least gets people everywhere used to the idea of voting GOP – that there is always an alternative. And it can’t be emphasized enough that it is in the battles on enemy territory that you breed the sort of warriors who will eventually bring you victory.
As for what to do to convince them to vote for us – that will be a case by case basis. What works in suburban Los Angeles might not work as well in suburban Chicago. But I’ll suggest a few, broad strokes we could try.
1. Annul defaulted student loan debt and allow the rest of it to be discharged in bankruptcy 5 years after the student leaves school. The stuff in default is mostly money gone for good, anyways, and I don’t see any reason to fatten lawyer pocketbooks by forcing the kids to go through bankruptcy on it. It is also, to me, absurd that student loans are pretty much the only sort of debt that can’t be discharged. Either a person is making enough money to pay, or they aren’t – and if they aren’t, then that should be the end of it. Lots of youngsters get suckered by the schools into thinking that any degree will make them rich. The truth is that only certain degrees are big money makers. Part of this, I think, should be putting part of the liability on the schools…if a kid goes bankrupt on his student loan, some percentage of it should be charged to the school where the loan was used. That’ll force the schools to be more careful, and stop selling degrees as a path to easy money.
2. Always side with the private sector unions in their battles with large corporations. Never, ever, never, no how, no way take the side of the large corporation. If we can’t pick a side, at least shut our traps about it. If we want to have a shot at breaking the Democrat hold on the blue cities, we’re going to have to get working class people to at least consider us. They won’t if they think we are siding with the bosses.
3. Work is what makes a person dignified. We Conservatives know this, but we aren’t doing enough to make sure that work is rewarded. Income tax cuts don’t resonate with working poor people who don’t functionally pay income taxes. Nor do fights over property rights mean much to renters. While keeping taxes low and protecting property, we’ve got to find a way to do something for poor working people who rent. Something has to be done to show working poor people that we give a darn about them…and we’re trying to help. Perhaps some sort of income support for low-income working people? Perhaps allowing them to write off sales taxes on major purchases (autos, home appliances, that sort of thing) on their taxes? Perhaps a low-income per child subsidy? Not sure here, guys: just thinking and spitballing.
4. Make firm and public enemies of the super rich. Most of them are liberals, and the few that aren’t are open borders hucksters who want to move their factories to China. They don’t care about us, and they don’t care about America.
5. Make firm enemies of all large corporations. No one likes them. At all. Pick fights with them. Break them up. Rake them over the coals for their idiocy. Show regular folks that the corporations which they dislike are also disliked by us.
Just a few ideas to show where I’m going here. We’ve got to expand the map, and we won’t expand it by the old Chamber of Commerce, GOPe tactics. Something new is needed. Maybe others will come up with better ideas than mine and that’s great. But we can’t assume we’ll keep winning with what we’ve got. Trump has shown us that if we start talking about issues people care about (in his case, immigration and trade), people respond. Lets find out what else they’ll respond to.
UPDATE: Mueller writing his final report.
