Posted on 04/20/2017 4:45:56 AM PDT by Kaslin
Whatever happens in the special runoff election in Georgia’s 6th congressional district, Republicans better be paying attention. Democrats are motivated; Republicans are not. If Republicans don’t follow through on what they’ve been promising, what they’ve said for years they will deliver, they not only will lose in 2018, they will deserve it.
Democrats are fired up. Sure, it’s by hate, but the motivation doesn’t matter. Anger is usually the motivation for the party out of power, though rarely does it manifest itself in gangs of spoiled college kids attacking people and smashing things.
Still, Democrats are willing to use it, to stoke that hate, because it works.
But Republicans are mad too. The problem for the GOP is Republican and Democrat voters are mad at the same thing: Republicans. Obviously they’re mad for different reasons, but the reasons don’t matter; results do.
And the Georgia special election is showing some of those results.
Sure, Democrat Jon Ossoff was denied a majority and now will compete in a run-off election June 20. But it shouldn’t have come to this. This Georgia district is red. Yes, the Republican vote was split more ways than the only bottle of vodka at a writing seminar, but there’s no way a healthy GOP would have let the spitting image of the Obamacare pajama boy in the top 10, let alone to sit atop the leader board.
But Democrats are motived. They will show up, they will pay up, and they will work. Some Republicans will show up, and in this district that might be enough. But even those who show up will do so less out of joy than duty.
Since Republicans gained control of Congress and the White House, they’ve done…very little. And that’s the problem.
They ran on big ideas. They campaigned on principles, and they were elected for those ideas and principles. What voters got for their trust was nothing. It’d be one thing if they were like a fat kid locked in a candy store – trying to cram down as much as possible before they’re discovered. But that’s not the case. Their bluff has been called, and they appear frozen with fear at the prospect of having to deliver on their promises.
It’s rare air in which Republicans find themselves – they can pass legislation and have a president in Donald Trump who will sign almost anything they put before him. They’re a tap-in putt away from winning the Masters, and they don’t know which club to use.
A political base can’t be anything but disheartened to see the world at their feet and those feet stuck in the mud.
Whatever ends up happening in the Georgia runoff election, it won’t matter in the grand scheme of things; one seat out of 435 won’t shift anything in government. It’s more of a temperature taking than a harbinger of things to come…at least right now.
But if Republicans at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue can’t pull some victories out of their, um, “hats,” they’ll not only lose in Georgia, they’ll risk losing the House and the Senate next year.
Obamacare repeal should be easy. With reconciliation in the Senate they need only 51 votes to put something on President Trump’s desk. He’ll sign it, whatever it is, because he needs to sign something. They just have to do what they’ve said they’d do for seven years, what they actually did last year. But it’s apparently different when it’s real – so here we are.
If they fail on tax reform – not simply tax cuts but real reform of the corrupt system – they will leave 2017 with nothing to show for it but a Supreme Court justice. That’s not nothing, but Republican voters hoping for more will be less motivated to show up next year. And since very little, and especially nothing major, happens in an election year, this is pretty much it.
Can the GOP pull legislative victories and, more importantly, their heads out of their, um, “hats” before then? Well, they have until June 20 to convince voters who are among their most loyal.
Whatever ultimately happens in Georgia should be seen as the canary in the coalmine, not the end of the world or the beginning of a new one. It’s one election, after all. But that one election will tell us a lot about the mood going forward, about apathy and anger. Which one is growing or shrinking faster will be a bigger determining factor for who controls Congress after next year than who finally wins that seat ever will.
but there’s no way a healthy GOP would have let the spitting image of the Obamacare pajama boy in the top 10, let alone to sit atop the leader board...
Interesting.
What’s more interesting is that dems don’t get too drastic when they control everything either. Didn’t cut defense spending in half. Didn’t push income taxes through the roof. They passed that disastrous obamacare.
Other than that, it seems the most important thing for both sides is to keep THEIR INDIVIDUAL JOBS and not rock the boat.
Just do a little Gerrymandering if you’re in trouble.
Why in the heck haven’t the Republicans had a “Come to Jesus” meeting to determine their agenda and a game plane to implement it, starting with the outright repeal of obozocare?
They KNOW what the people want, I don’t know why they won’t just do it.
This should NOT be hard. They have Congress and a sympatico POTUS and SCOTUS. The environment has NEVER been better!
God, you just want to slap them, each one, individually!
This!
They should be working overtime repealing decades of entrenched liberal government regulations. Yes, I understand repealing Obamacare and tax reform are important but there's thousands upon thousands of little things they can be whittling away at as well.
The problems are: (1) the Republicans have four or five RINOs in the Senate, without whose votes we don't even have a working majority; (2) we are far short of 60 votes to break a filibuster, and the Democrats are committed to all-out obstruction; (3) there is a GOP faction, relatively small in the context of the whole House, that is more interested in ideological purity than in accomplishing anything; these folks prefer to run against other Republicans who are only 80 percent pure (which is easy) than to unite to beat Democrats (which is hard); and (4) there are differences on serious issues within the Republican caucus.
We all understand this. The question is, what do we do about it?
Exactly.
"both ends"??? Trump's been doing all the heavy lifting and has accomplished quite a bit on his own.
It's the fools on the hill who are to blame for all the inaction to date. How about good old Mitch getting Trump's Cabinet fully confirmed? How about Paul getting off his butt and enacting tax legislation?
What's a filibuster? Who created it? Is it written in stone?
No. It does not need to exist. It's a rule that Mitch can do away with, if he had the cojones.
Not to mention that there is a vocal minority in the party that is actively working against their President.
The value from punditry have been declining since the 2016 election, where most, especially Derek Hunter have been so wrong so may times.
That is why we must make sure to increase our seats in the senate in 2018.
Delivered: A supreme court justice delivered.
Delivered: Immigration law enforcement.
Delivered: Withdrawal of the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations and Agreement
Delivered: Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines
Delivered: Signed House JR 40 restoring gun rights to people with conditions falsely called mental issues by gun grabbers. They could revoke gun rights for eating disorders or stress. Especially VA and SSA recipients.
Delivered: House JR 38, Coal Mining Bill
Delivered: House JR 41, Resource Extraction making energy extraction for US companies competitive worldwide after Obama era burdens seriously hampering US competitiveness.
Trump is delivering and we really don’t expect much from the slugs in the Republican Party so it’s: SNAFU as usual.
Yeah, they've got to do what they promised ASAP. At some point, Democrats will smarten up and find candidates who have appeal in enough districts and states to retake both majorities.
US voters gave Republicans enough rope to save the nation. They're using it to hang themselves.
Simple, MONEY!!!!!
Pick a member of congress, let's say Maine Senator, RINO susan collins, now go dig up her financials and follow the trail back to obamacare investments.
I have given you and answer, but I will not give you the solution.
RINOS get in the way of success because they are Democrats in disguise.
But not for Trump. Ossof and the other two Democrats got about the same percentage of votes that Hillary got, and the combined Republican candidates got about the same percentage of votes that Trump got. The vote totals should not have been a surprise to anyone. And assuming that Republican turnout remains close to what it was on Tuesday then Handel should get elected with about 52% of the vote.
Sounds like a lot of what I see here lately.
I am sure the GOP has had their meeting and received their marching orders: Obstruct Trump.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.