(Townhall) — Undoubtedly, the Captain has been advised of the dire circumstance. The Democrats, like their counterparts, are polling constantly. His recent desperate pronouncements like “the Republicans will wreck this otherwise peachy economy” are a tell. His now-infamous “Beware of the Make America Great Again Republicans” speech was the first indication that they were in trouble, perhaps big trouble.
The Democrat Dreamliner is going down.
Its Left wing created too much drag. The weight of their foolish policies made a crash landing inevitable. In spite of their best efforts to throw trillions of dollars out the windows, they continue to lose altitude. The passengers and patrons on board are probably being advised to brace for a hard landing, very hard. There will be casualties. Lots of them.
The Red Wave has been forming for over a year now. Recent polls from New York, Michigan and now even Oregon and (believe it or not) Minnesota show just how high that tide is rising. It’s safe to assume that the Democrats expected that they would likely lose the House. The map favored them holding the Senate by the skin of their teeth. They never thought they could lose gubernatorial elections in safe blue states like Oregon and New York. But recent polls demonstrate that that is increasingly likely.
This week’s Trafalgar poll showing Republican Scott Jensen pulling ahead of incumbent Democrat Tim Walz by a nose in Minnesota must have caused all alarms to flash red in the cockpit. They know now that independents and late deciders are breaking heavily against them. Worse, there is little they can do at this juncture to alter the trajectory.
There were plenty of early warning signs that this would happen. Sen. Manchin suggested that inflation was more than “transitory” and would become an issue when Dollar Tree raised its prices to $1.25. The president ignored him and ordered up another round of spending. We weren’t supposed to notice that hamburger was inching toward $5.00 a pound and lots of grocery items were coming in smaller packages. Discerning shoppers did notice nonetheless.
We weren’t supposed to notice the consequences of the defund the police movements in most of our liberal-controlled cities. Crime rates skyrocketed. Suburban housewives noticed. They heard of neighbors whose minivans were car-jacked while they were stopped at stop lights on their way to pick up their kids.
Minnesotans weren’t supposed to notice that the liberal mayor of Minneapolis and the governor allowed the Third Precinct police station to burn to the ground during the “mostly peaceful” protests following the death of George Floyd. Or that the rest of Minnesotans were expected to help cover the hundreds of millions in damages.
They also weren’t expected to notice the abysmal student achievement consequences that resulted from the forced closing of all public schools due to fears of COVID. Or that the governor nixed tax relief for Minnesota families and businesses.
They noticed.
The Left’s war on domestic energy has had severe consequences. Not only has it created pain at the pump, maybe more than anything else it started the inflation snowball rolling down the hill. If a strong economy runs on abundant, affordable energy, then the inverse is also true. Americans now expect the economy to slide into the ditch. In an almost poetic irony, their war on energy will result in massive Leftist casualties on Election Day.
With the help of the updraft created by friendly media, they got a slight lift following the Supreme Court ruling on Roe. They proudly marched out their proposals for abortion on demand for any reason. Democrats counted on the pro-abortion media smokescreen to distract voter attention away from issues like inflation and crime.
They counted wrong.
As it turns out, strong majorities of voters support reasonable restrictions on abortion. By overplaying the issue they only exposed just how radical the Democrat position is. It was never going to eclipse inflation or crime and it made them look as if they were out of touch.
Desperate times call for desperate actions. The old expression, “Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat” comes to mind. We’ve seen shenanigans like ballots being found in trunks of cars. So this ain’t over. But at this writing it’s clear that the Democrat Dreamliner is in trouble. Our friends on the Left are being told to brace for a very hard landing!
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not represent an official position of Alpha News.
Gil Gutknecht
Gil Gutknecht is a former Republican congressman from Minnesota.
