(02-25-2021 08:19 AM)swagsurfer11 Wrote:  

(02-25-2021 08:06 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  If Trump hadn't made the GA runoff about him, and if Mitch hadn't screwed the pooch on the COVID relief bill, republicans would probably have won both Georgia seats. And then if they had a leader who could hold them together the way Pelosi and Schumer can hold the democrats together, we would be in a very, very different situation today.
Republicans need to:
1) Make 2022 and 2024 about issues; reprise Newt's Contract concept, identify winning issues and run on them; I do think the democrats may hand them the economy, but they had better have a plan
2) Do everything they can to secure the integrity of elections
3) Find a way to replace Mitch; I really liked the idea of offering Manchin the Majority Leader spot of he would switch, but that went nowhere
4) Figure out a way to hold and build on the Trump gains with blue-collar workers and minorities
5) Figure out what to do about Trump; I would like to see them find somebody who could appeal to Trump voters without Trump's negatives

1.) The Republicans abandoned their platform in 2020. Everything going forward in the near future is about Trump and election fraud.
2.) Not sure how much more secure you can make it.
3.) Mitch isn't going anywhere for 6 years.
4.) Trump blue-collar gains only work with Trump on the ballot.
5.) Nothing can be done about Trump. That's the dilemma.

1) They haven't had a platform since Newt's Contract in 1994. GWB's was to reduce the size of the federal government and get us out of nation-building. How did the work out?
2) A lot more secure. 2020 was an absolute joke.
3) I said before the election that my ideal result would have been for Amy McGrath to beat Mitch but republicans to hold the senate. If she had, I think republicans just might have held the two Georgia seats.
4) Trump got them because he pushed issues that resonated with them. If republicans push the right issues, I think they can grow those gains regardless of who heads the ticket.
5) The neocons hate Trump. I'd trade the neocons for the blue-collar workers, because there are a hell of a lot more of the latter.

Democrats are passionate about winning elections, because that's the only way to get power, which is the only thing they care about. Republicans are idiots about electoral politics. Passion versus idiots, passion wins.

(02-25-2021 08:19 AM)swagsurfer11 Wrote:  

(02-25-2021 08:06 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Republicans need to:
2) Do everything they can to secure the integrity of elections

2.) Not sure how much more secure you can make it.

Of course you’re not.

(02-25-2021 08:30 AM)mlb Wrote:  Don Jr. Or Ivanka will also carry those voters. They won't appeal to the middle though, especially Don Jr. The Republican Party has a lot of soul searching to do right now. They need to figure out the long term direction and they need to figure it out now as they need to start laying the ground work for 2024.

They better start laying the groundwork for 2022. Somehow I don't think they are nearly as far along as democrats were for 2018 by this time 4 years ago. Republicans don't think about elections until it is too late. Democrats think of nothing else.

Newt went to work on 1994 as soon as the 1992 results were in. That paid off. This time, republicans need to get busy now. The house should be theirs with normal mid-term swings. But they need to ensure those, and the senate is going to be harder, with about 20 republicans and only 13 democrats up. The good news is that they only need a net +1.

Trump won in 2016 because he said things that blue collar workers wanted to hear. He lost in 2020 because the neocons sabotaged him. Last I checked, there are more blue collar workers than neocons. George Friedman's book, THE STORM BEFORE THE CALM, forecasts a major struggle between common sense and elite experts. Neocons belong to the same elite expert class as democrat leaders. If republicans can posit themselves as the party of common sense and blue collar voters, and against elite experts, they can win. But they need to make it about issues that appeal to those voters. And they need to educate them.