Kaufman: The GOP is now more viable than the Democrat Party

Future Republican candidates must continue to show voters “of color” that we are the party of school choice, job creation, a sane foreign policy, liberty, and not of teachers unions, crushing regulations, elitist disdain, abortion, and cultural decay.

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Barring something unforeseen, Joe Biden will be our next president.

Among the myriad lessons of the 2020 election is the need to either abolish or significantly curtail mail-in voting. We also should enforce accountability, especially shown via the unilateral Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling on ballots showing up after Election Day. Bureaucratic ineptitude and assorted tomfoolery can affect future elections and cannot occur in 21st century America.

More importantly, since many news consumers live on the periphery, faux grievance causes us to lose sight of how well Republicans performed this week.

I wrote about the U.S. House and Senate earlier this week. The GOP lost the Oval Office, but Republicans should hold the Senate, and will add several seats in the lower chamber, where they expected to lose several. Republican House candidates overall ran 1.2 points ahead of President Donald Trump.

The party also gained a state legislative chamber, while holding all others — including Minnesota — and picked up a gubernatorial seat. Since this is a new decade, Republicans now control redistricting for congressional and state legislative races in most states over the next 10 years. By locking in their bicameral grip on the Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas legislatures, Republicans can draw new lines for nearly 100 congressional seats in 2022. That is enormously helpful.

Democrats’ down-ballot misery also has caused recriminations and quiet talk about replacing Nancy Pelosi.

Though he personally didn’t fare well, Trump deserves some credit because his coalition proved durable. And contrary to everything our media claims, he apparently brought more black and Hispanic voters into the fold than Republican nominees going back 60 years.

Future Republican candidates must continue to show voters “of color” that we are the party of school choice, job creation, a sane foreign policy, liberty, and not of teachers unions, crushing regulations, elitist disdain, abortion, and cultural decay.

Of course the presidential candidate in 2024 matters, but this “realignment” we hear about is ongoing. It’s not so much state-by-state (since Democrats did better this year in most of the Midwest than 2016) but secular, rich white people moving left, while culturally conservative black and Latino voters — and even Jewish voters —  move right.

Are Trump’s policies popular? Seems so. The nation is on the verge of ensuring a Mitch McConnell-led Senate can deter some of President Biden and Chuck Schumer’s agenda.

In recent months, Democrats claimed they would abolish the filibuster, pack the Supreme Court, and end fracking, among other mischief.  Most tellingly, they blocked a generous COVID relief package that would help struggling Americans. Voters noticed, and on Tuesday they said no to rabid progressivism, including government-run healthcare and fanatical environmental proposals. The monumental “blue wave” never materialized.

Yes, much of the country fell for Biden’s campaign of “wear a mask” and “I’m not Trump,” while repudiating the president’s often-undisciplined rhetoric and supposed chaos; but the nation clearly rejected the Democrats’ overarching message. Identity politics — promoted by the AOC wing, universities and the media  — was the big loser.

“Democrats just didn’t expect to win the presidency; they expected complete control of Congress,” former NRCC communications director Matt Gorman told Dana Perino Thursday. “It changes the make up of Biden’s cabinet.”

The question now becomes: will Biden comprehend this, or will his deceitful running mate and other extremists push him over the edge, likely leading to GOP success in 2022 and beyond?

 

A.J. Kaufman

A.J. Kaufman is an Alpha News columnist. His work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Florida Sun-Sentinel, Indianapolis Star, Israel National News, Orange County Register, St. Cloud Times, Star-Tribune, and across AIM Media Midwest and the Internet. Kaufman previously worked as a school teacher and military historian.