Where’s the Republican Political Strategy for 2022? – The Epoch Times

Commentary

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Sept. 13 was down 1,049 points in response to the latest devastating inflation report from the Department of Labor. Overall year-on-year inflation, according to the Consumer Price Index, was 8.3 percent in August, with core inflation a shocking 6.3 percent year-on-year.

According to the New York Post,the CPIs food index surged 11.4%, its largest year-over-year increase since May 1979.

But thats hardly the only bad news in the Biden-Democrat economy. As reported by NASDAQ, U.S. household wealth fell by a record $6.1 trillion in the second quarter to its lowest in a year as a bear market in stocks far outweighed further gains in real estate values.

According to an August report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Americans total credit card debt increased by $46 billion in the second quarter of 2022: The 13% cumulative increase in credit card balances since Q2 2021 represents the largest in more than 20 years.

And on the producer side, as reported by Trading Economics, new orders for US manufactured goods fell 1% month-over-month in July of 2022.

Oh, and the national debt will top the $31 trillion mark before the end of the month.

Continuing record inflation: check. Food prices soaring: check. Americans net worth imploding: check. Credit card debt soaring: check. U.S. manufacturing in a slump: check.

The only reason that increasing gas prices doesnt get a check is that the Biden administration has been draining the U.S. petroleum reserve to its lowest level since 1984 (after the Arab oil embargo ended) in order to artificially lower gasoline prices ahead of the November elections.

Wheres Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader in the U.S. Senate?

Hes whining about fundraising problems while dissing candidateswho recently won Senate primariesendorsed by former President Donald Trump. In the most important midterm elections in recent memory, wheres McConnells overt leadership and national communications strategy in conveying exactly what the Republicans would do to reverse the disastrous policies of President Joe Biden and Progressive Democrats in Congress?

Perhaps McConnell wishes to hide his role in helping the Democrats pass gargantuan spending billssuch as the $280 billion computer chip funding billwhich are the root cause for high inflation. Or maybe he wants Americans to forget his caving to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumers Democrats last year when he handed them an emergency debt extension, which opened the floodgates for the Democrats spending bills this year, as reported by The Federalist.

McConnell is a creature of Washington. He has been in the Senate since 1985 and either the majority or minority leader since 2006. His Senate Leadership Fund PAC is the gold standard of the GOP establishment for campaign fundraising.

After Labor Day, that PAC pumped $18.4 million into Senate races in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina, Nevada, and Wisconsin. But none for the Blake Masters, the Trump-endorsed Senate candidate in Arizona who trails incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly by only 2 points, according to a new Emerson poll reported out on Sept. 10. And none for Republican Tiffany Smiley in Washington state, who trails long-time Democrat Sen. Patty Murray by a mere three percentage points, as reported here on Sept. 3. Targeted spending could put these and other Republican challengers over the top and McConnell into the majority leaders chair next January. Does McConnell wish to be the majority leader or not?

But maybe thats just the problem. If the Republicans take the Senate in November (no sure thing given the absence of a national strategy at this late stage), an influx of Trump-endorsed America First senators could put McConnells Senate leadership post at risk. This is a distinct possibility, as Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), appears to be jockeying for the position himself.

In a Washington Examiner editorial on Sept. 1, Scott specifically called out the establishment wing of the Republican Party for trashing some Republican candidates in swing states: Many of the very people responsible for losing the Senate last cycle are now trying to stop us from winning the majority this time by trash-talkingour Republican candidates [and are] giving anonymous quotes to help theWashington Postor theNew York Timeswrite stories trashing Republicans.

Was Scott alluding to McConnell (or his staffers) as being the source of some of those leaks? Thats entirely possible, as Scott called out McConnell by name in a Politico interview on Aug. 31, as reported here: Sen. McConnell and I clearly have a strategic disagreement here [on the quality of Republican senate candidates] We have great candidates.

Loss of political power means loss of big donorsanathema for a long-serving senator used to wheeling and dealing and controlling Republican caucus votes with PAC money. But if the Democrats hold the Senatewhich would largely be due to a poor Republican political strategy given all of the obvious political problems that the Democrats agenda has created for themselvesMcConnell would likely retain his position as minority leader (along with access to all that big donor money during high stakes pay-for-play deliberations in the next Congress). Has he calculated that its better to be a handmaiden to Schumers Democrats than to risk losing his Senate Republican leadership role? That would certainly explain his dissing of Trump-endorsed Senate candidates.

If any midterm election should be nationalized, its this one. The Contract with Americagreatly served Newt Gingrichs Republicans during the 1994 midterms. By focusing attention on a Republican congressional platform rather than simply on individual races, the Contract included a list of eight reforms the Republicans promised to enact, as well as 10 bills they promised to bring to floor debate and votes, if they were made the majority following the 1994 election. The reforms included three core Republican principlesaccountability, responsibility, and opportunitywhich resonated with many Americans. And the Republicans subsequently gained 54 House and 9 Senateseats and flipped both chambers of Congress.

As the 1994 Contract with America was introduced a mere six weeks before the elections, theres still time for McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (the prospective Republican speaker of the House) to produce their own Contract with America to galvanize voters this year by giving them real reasons to vote Republican, not merely to vote against Bidenomics and left-wing Democrat policies being crammed down Americans throats.

What might the 2022 version of the Contract include? Heres a starter list of congressional actions and legislation:

Real actions attacking inflation immediately, restoring U.S. energy production to pre-Biden levels, reversing left-wing cultural attacks by the federal government that is dividing Americans, returning federal law enforcement to the principles of equal justice under the law for all Americans, and shutting down the flood of illegal immigrants into the countrythese are simply logical actions that should be included in a 2022 Contract with America. A coordinated announcement by all Republican leaders and candidates with an accompanying nationwide communications strategy would give voters real reasons to vote Republican this year.

Whats preventing McConnell (and McCarthy) from doing the obvious?

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

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Stu Cvrk retired as a captain after serving 30 years in the U.S. Navy in a variety of active and reserve capacities, with considerable operational experience in the Middle East and the Western Pacific. Through education and experience as an oceanographer and systems analyst, Cvrk is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, where he received a classical liberal education that serves as the key foundation for his political commentary.

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Where's the Republican Political Strategy for 2022? - The Epoch Times