Charles Hurt: Republican Establishment Playing to Lose, Failing to Learn from Past

DENVER — Republicans in Washington are positively giddy over all the new polls showing President Biden tanking the Democratic Party ahead of next year’s midterms. Indeed, Mr. Biden is making history.

For a guy who got elected on a single pledge to not send Mean Tweets, Mr. Biden has managed to burn through an astonishing reserve of goodwill in a very short period of time.

All he had to do? Be nice. And don’t touch anything.

After 50 years in Washington, the guy was at the very least a known quantity. Sure, people rolled their eyes when he strolled into a room. They plugged their ears when he droned on and on. They smacked him gently away when he groped children and sniffed your hair. Everyone, of course, knew he made up stories.

But, still, people didn’t really hate Joe Biden. He was old, White, and harmless, which is the whole reason President Barack Obama picked him to be his vice president in the first place.

Yet, somehow, bumbling Joe Biden has managed to become the most unpopular president since the invention of the telephone. And that’s even as the media is still protecting him!

Joe Biden has screwed things up so bad that somebody had to come out with a new bumper sticker. “Mean Tweets 2024.” At this point, Mean Tweets would win.

And you think a 36% approval rating is bad? You just wait until people find out about what his children are up to. Anybody who says that number cannot get any worse, just watch.

Naturally, Republicans in Washington are buoyant over their prospects for next November, especially considering the narrowest of margins by which Democrats control both chambers of Congress. Republicans are sure to win the House and are on track to win the Senate despite facing one of the worst electoral maps in a decade.

It is entirely possible that given the much easier map of seats that are up in the election after 2022, Republicans could be looking at a near super-majority in the Senate by 2024.

And Mean Tweets in the White House.

But there is troubling news — at least for Republican voters.

Republican politicians in Washington are so bullish about their own future that already they are lining up for a “play it safe” campaign for the next couple of years. Don’t say anything. Don’t cause any problems. Stay real quiet and let Joe Biden sink his party.

After all, Democrats always do far more to help Republican politicians than actual Republican politicians ever do. That is why we got Donald Trump in the first place.

What made Donald Trump such an unstoppable political juggernaut is that before he beat the Democrats, he beat Republicans. Beat them like a rented mule.

Surveying Republicans in Congress today, it is hard to see what exactly Republicans stand for — other than just not being the party of Joe Biden.

In the Senate, for instance, 19 Republicans voted for Mr. Biden’s insane $1.2 trillion “infrastructure” bill, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. In the House, 13 Republicans joined Democrats to pass the boondoggle, explode inflation and give Mr. Biden a huge political win.

How is it possible that Republican leaders in Congress do not have a vivid alternative vision for the country that would keep their caucus together on such an important matter as the largest non-infrastructure “infrastructure” spending bill in history?

Simple. Republicans are not playing to win. They are simply playing not to lose.

Which always means the same thing: They win. You lose.

The only solution for Republican voters is to bring back Trump. Or maybe somebody even more destructive. More profane.

There is only one campaign Republican leaders in Washington should be running over the next three years. It’s not why we should vote for Republicans over Joe Biden and his party of lunatics. Democrats make that case well enough on their own.

Republicans need to convince voters why we should vote for them — over Donald Trump.

Otherwise, Mean Tweets 2024!

• Charles Hurt is the opinion editor at the Washington Times. 

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