How to Lose Elections

 How to Lose Elections

 

What remains of the GOP is conducting a master class in how to lose elections. It does not bode well for the 2024 election cycle. 

 

At the top of the ticket, the presumptive nominee is going out of his way to alienate broad swaths of the electorate. After engineering the end of safe abortions and readily available reproductive healthcare, the former president continues to brag about this fiasco that alienates about half of the electorate. He alienates the law-and-order wing of his party by collecting indictments and civil judgments while undermining the rule of law. He alienates those opposed to foreign aggression against our allies by inviting Russia to attack our long-standing NATO allies in Europe. There does not seem to be a significant constituency he won’t offend as he seeks to establish a dictatorship should he be re-elected to the White House. 

 

The MAGA members of the GOP who lead the House of Representatives are not to be outdone by their party’s leader. After claiming to be the party most concerned about immigration problems at our southern border, they killed the very bill that would have given them what they sought. It is clear to everyone, that they did it at the behest of the former president so he could run on immigration in the upcoming presidential contest. How does refusing to accept what you demanded do service to the country, much less fix the immigration problem? They compounded the mistake by impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for not doing what they prevented him from doing by refusing to pass the Senate bill. Their hypocrisy is patent and helped Democrats capture another GOP House seat in New York is the special election caused by George Santos’ expulsion from Congress. The loss of another seat in the already paper-thin GOP House majority was dismissed by the new Speaker as one of no importance. They will hasten the end of that majority by refusing to take up the bill passed by the U.S. Senate that provides aid to Ukraine and Israel that most Americans and even members of the House support. Hopefully, those with sense in the House will by-pass the leadership and pass a discharge petition to bring the bill to the floor and pass it.

 

Closer to home, the GOP majorities in the super-gerrymandered Wisconsin Assembly and Senate see the handwriting on the wall as the newly constituted Wisconsin Supreme Court majority contemplates drawing new districts to bring back fair and contested elections to our state. To avoid an even worse set of maps from the Court, the GOP passed a set of maps proposed during the last redistricting fight by Governor Evers. Evers may sign it but hopefully he will kill the provision inserted in the bill making the new maps effective after the next election using his line-item veto. Either way, Wisconsin voters will have new legislative maps soon which will drastically alter the makeup of both legislative bodies and strip the GOP of its hold on the legislature. 

 

Retreating from their gerrymandered hold on power will not save the Wisconsin GOP as they continue to embrace issues unpopular with a majority of Wisconsin voters. Abortion bans and limitations will strip those in favor of reproductive healthcare away from their base. Support for voucher schools at the expense of public schools and underfunding the latter will alienate those who support a vibrant public education. Stripping the University of Wisconsin system of many of its branch campuses around the state will further alienate students and the local businesses who depend upon them to fill jobs after graduation. Continued rejection of legal and taxed recreational cannabis will further alienate young people and the old folks who take it as a sleep aid. Adding more fuel to the culture war fires with the continued criticism of critical race theory, diversity, equity and inclusion programs, gender affirming care for transgender young folks, and other divisive ideas will alienate more who have come up expecting just the opposite from our leaders.

 

With a strong national economy and effective Democratic leadership at all levels, the current GOP is on its way out and only hastens its own demise by staking out positions on the wrong side of just about every issue. Well done.