Rep. Marcy Kaptur, R-Ohio, complained in a recent interview with The Hill that she feels like a minority in her own party. Kaptur shared data showing that 19 of the nation’s 20 wealthiest congressional districts are currently represented by Democrats, and she cited unnamed Democratic colleagues whose callous comments demonstrated a complete lack of compassion and understanding for blue-collar Americans. And it’s not just working-class whites who feel left behind by Democrats. In 2020, significantly larger numbers of Black and Latino voters voted Republican.
Republicans see this as an opportunity.
Immediately after the November election, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, D-Calif., said: “This election cycle has made one thing clear: The Republican Party is now the party of the American worker.” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio wrote on Twitter: “#Florida and the Rio Grande Valley have shown the future of the GOP… A party built on a multi-ethnic, multi-racial coalition of working AMERICANS.”
But if Republicans think they can be the party of the “little guy” by erasing former President Donald Trump’s legacy, they are simply wrong.
In 2016, Trump spoke directly to Black Americans and asked them how their lives had improved by voting for Democrats. He urged them to vote for him, saying, “What have you got to lose?”
After his election, Trump prioritized criminal justice reform and better opportunities to re-enter society after serving time under laws like the First Step Act. He drew attention to Alice Marie Johnson’s plight, commuted her sentence, and later granted her a full pardon. His economic policies contributed to some of the lowest black unemployment rates in history. He was a sturdy supporter of historically black colleges and universities and an advocate for restoring $250 million in funding to them. He enjoyed unprecedented support from some of the most observable black pastors in the country.
Few Republicans have engaged in this type of outreach to the Black community. They proved to be too timid and did not dare to oppose the left’s labeling of them as racists and bigots.
The same goes for Latino Americans. With few exceptions, the Republican Party does not question the left’s lies that Latinos are discouraged by immigration enforcement and do not want a free market system. However, Trump understood that many Latinos immigrated here legally. Significant numbers fled countries such as Cuba and Venezuela, whose economies were devastated by socialism. Many of them are pro-life and want to defend religious freedoms. No one wants a United States filled with MS-13 gang members and other mindless criminals who are not deported because of lax immigration enforcement.
Trump appealed to workers, focusing on bringing manufacturing back to America’s shores, increasing job opportunities and wages, and cutting taxes. Trump is not the first Republican to appeal to this Democratic base. Ronald Reagan did it 40 years ago. Democrats should lose this demographic permanently. But Republicans stutter at the Democrats’ self-congratulatory lies about being champions of the oppressed – all the while Democrats suck up to billionaires and portray the working class as unsophisticated and bigoted.
Trump also understood that the overwhelming majority of Americans support law enforcement, especially Americans in neighborhoods where lawlessness is a plague. Trump condemned the hypocrisy of Black Lives Matter activists and others who call out looters and arsonists who are wreaking havoc in black neighborhoods, often destroying minority-owned businesses in the process.
Most importantly, Trump vigorously pushed back against Democrats’ biases and lies and their deceptions in the press – something conservative voters have been begging Republicans to do for years, instead of allowing the left to shove them into little corners where they spend all their time apologizing for what exists rather than advocate for better policies. Since entering the race in 2016, Trump has taught the GOP how to bypass the media and speak directly to Americans, and the left fears the GOP may learn this lesson.
It doesn’t have to be this way. As the current “insurrection” farce and “impeachment” circus demonstrates (once again), far too many Republicans behave like beaten dogs who never learn anything except how to grovel for scraps of leftist approval. The worst of them will vote for impeachment, despite its questionable constitutionality. But even most Republicans who won’t do this are talking about “carrying on” and breathing a sigh of relief that things will return to “normal.”
Yes, with Trump gone, Republicans are back in familiar territory. They repeat Democratic party lines (“There was no fraud”; “It was a free and fair election”; “Trump’s behavior was inappropriate”). Under pressure from Democrats, they are turning against one of their own (Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene). They boast that the Capitol is being turned into a demilitarized zone, with chain-link fences and razor wire, tens of thousands of armed soldiers and military checkpoints — all to reinforce Democrats’ latest narrative that Trump is inciting an attempted coup. (Hey, people. There was a real coup in Burma last week, and outdoor aerobics classes were still allowed during that coup.) They post harsh tweets as Democrats utilize their puppet president to shove our “rights” down our throats and undermine our rights through an unprecedented number of implementing regulations.
Voters want nothing to do with what national Republicans consider “normal.” In fact, there is a massive surge in support for a modern third party, and many hope Trump will make such an effort.
As if on cue, sober voices warn that a third party will destroy the right wing and leave the Democrats in power indefinitely.
I have news for them: the party is already broken and Democrats have all the political power – at least in the federal government. If the GOP doesn’t show some courage in fighting voter fraud, it will likely spread to the states. (Furthermore, even when Democrats aren’t in power, it’s strenuous to tell the difference.)
Here’s a fact: Voters have lost trust in the Republican Party. And Trump didn’t do that; Republicans did it.
