The GOP Congress Better Get Its Act Together, Or It’s Sunk

Guest Post by Kurt Schlichter

“Everything’s fine,” smiled Captain Paul Ryan smarmily as he steered the Titanic into an iceberg. “Now, let me get back to shafting our own voting base via my incomprehensible determination to cancel the tax deductions that Republicans use instead of cutting handouts to Democrat-voting freeloaders!”

We are sailing toward disaster in 2018 and no one seems to want to acknowledge it. Let’s look at the facts and evidence.

Data Point One: We scraped by in a couple of House special elections so far, including Punchy McSlugahack’s in Montana, but that Daily Kos reader-funded-12-year old non-resident Democrat dork is going to beat the charisma-free Republican in the Georgia 6 race next week. Our enemy is motivated and smells blood.

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Data Point Two: Because she is a droning non-performer, Theresa May took a 24 point advantage and turned it into a loss in Britain.

Data Point Three: Our GOP Republican legislators are droning non-performers who have a 10 point disadvantage going into 2018.

The bottom line is that despite the GOP’s advantages in incumbency, money, and (to a much smaller extent than the lying liberals say) redistricting, we have a very real chance of losing the House and maybe even the Senate in 2018. The Senate would be hard to lose based simply on number of seats in play, but we should have confidence in our party’s unique ability to screw-up and fail based on its unblemished track record of screwing up and failing.

Midterms traditionally go badly for the party holding the White House; it doesn’t help that Paul Ryan seems to be the Speaker of a House of Representatives on a different planet. He wanders about with this obnoxious, Comey-esque sanctimony vibe that demoralizes the base and ensures that we will stay home in large numbers while the pinkos turn out en masse. Mitch McConnell is a little better; he’s at least cunning and does what he can in a job that involves not just herding cats, but herding senile, narcissistic, and stupid cats.

“But stuff is getting done!” the GOP leadership insists, which might be true but is definitely irrelevant. It doesn’t matter if “stuff is getting done” if your voters don’t know it and support you. Now, when Paul Ryan talks directly to us on Hugh Hewitt’s show or elsewhere, he actually makes sense. He explains his strategy, so we can sigh “Oh, there’s a reason for all this and a coherent plan. Phew.” But then Ryan says something unbelievably stupid along the lines of, “As Speaker, my job is to pass legislation, not to go out and sell our agenda to voters.” No, that’s a steaming pile of Harry Reid.

The Speaker has multiple jobs, but they all boil down to winning. The Speaker’s job is not simply to be some goofy legislative super wonk. He needs to lead, which means getting us onboard as well as his caucus. And that means making sure we voters know what’s happening, why, and how it helps us. Yet the GOP fails to do that.

Stop failing. Start doing what we sent you to do and letting us in on the plan. Let us see you are intent on winning and you’ll start to rebuild the confidence your incompetence has shattered.

Here’s a good idea for a first step – work as hard as we do. Let’s see some late-night sessions. Let’s see some five day work weeks – and even some working on weekends. We work weekends. I work weekends. I’m writing this on a weekend. Why not you?

And let’s see you cancel the August recess. Work. We keep hearing about how you “don’t have time” to do your jobs, but then you propose to vanish in August? Hey, how about staying around that sticky, sweaty swamp of a city through August and getting your job done? I’m going to be working in August. Everyone else I know is going to be working in August. You bums need to work during August too.

And no, you don’t need to “come home to touch base with your voters.” We don’t want to see you here. We want to see you back in D.C., enacting the agenda we elected you to enact instead of chillin’ out at your crib and attending town halls filled with paid leftist shills where you tell us that you don’t have time to do what you’re being paid to do.

You must get the President’s agenda passed, but, at the same time, you must keep us in the loop. See, we don’t trust you. You haven’t earned our trust. We know you hate the idea that we are going to hold you accountable for what you do and fail to do and you don’t like it. Too bad. Because now we’re watching, so you better communicate with us to explain what we see and why it’s not surrender or failure. As the hep kidz say, we’re woke.

The enemy is motivated and energized, but right now, we’re “Meh.” The only way we will become un-meh is via results, and results aren’t merely passing legislation. “Results” means “a tangible improvement in our lives.” Because the situation out here is getting worse. Our country faces the terrifyingly real chance of falling apart if you fail – during the few minutes a day when you are not busy enacting the President’s agenda you should be reading my new novel about what might happen to our country if you keep failing.

So stop wasting time and effort cavorting with the Democrats about their fake Trump/Russia obsession. Those crusty senators with their “We must uncover the truth about these questions” nonsense need to stop. We all know the truth. It’s all a liberal lie.

Cut our taxes, like the GOP promised.

Rebuild our military, like the GOP promised.

Fix infrastructure (wisely), like the GOP promised.

Build a wall, like the GOP promised.

Kill Obamacare, like the GOP promised.

Oh, and how about recruiting some decent GOP candidates? Karen Handel seems like a nice lady, but she’s lousy at politics so she never should have gotten in the race. Her upcoming loss is going to motivate our enemies, and we can’t have that. We don’t have the luxury of letting nice people who are crummy candidates be our nominees. We need winners, not losers.

Put that nomination down! Nominations are for closers.

The Democrats are out there recruiting military vets – there’s one jerky liberal everyone finds annoying in every big unit, and that’s who they pick. They’ll preen and pose and get elected and then salute General Pelosi and vote as ordered on every item of Democrat soldier-shafting liberal hackery. That’s the threat – are you ready for it? You need to spend some time and effort on candidate selection and grooming; you need to make sure that in every district our money is on a winner. Are you doing that? Who is doing that? Why do none of us know about how you are doing that?

What we have here is a failure to communicate, which leads to a failure to win.

And we need to stop jamming our own voters in the name of some arbitrary, D.C. think tank g-generated conception of good policy. Good policy is what wins. How about not imposing anything upon us that hurts the GOP base? You see, you’re there to represent Republicans. Some goofs and wusscons have the idea that you’re there to represent all voters, but that’s nonsense.

You are there to represent the people who voted for you, not the liberal whiners and welfare cheats who didn’t and who hate you and us. So we’re not going to close off deductions that help Republicans and we’re not going to increase taxes on Republicans and we’re not gonna do other things that hurt Republicans. We’re going to hurt Democrats.

That’s called politics. Try it. It’s amazingly effective.

If you do, we win. If the economy is cranking in November 2018 and health insurance premiums are under control – and they will be if you keep your promises – then you’re fine. Otherwise, you’re gone. People here – like in Britain – will vote against you just because you are the status quo if they feel the status quo stinks. So stop the stinking.

Start by announcing that you are staying in session through your (undeserved) August vacation, then deliver on your promises. Nothing else matters. Stop procrastinating. Stop chasing Putin squirrels like suckers. Choose to win.

The iceberg is right ahead – don’t slam into it.

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18 Comments
BSHJ
BSHJ
June 12, 2017 12:29 pm

The current GOP ‘leadership’ WANTS to lose….they would rather complain as the minority instead of leading and getting conservative ideas passed with a majority…..because they take the vitriol and abuse by the left personally.

Trapped in Portlandia
Trapped in Portlandia
June 12, 2017 12:57 pm

Poor Kurt, he seems to think that our elected representatives are in their positions to actually do something useful. Kurt, I have news for you. Whether its Rs or Ds in control of the Senate and House, their only job is to maintain power by lining the pockets of their cronies. Doing something for the dirt people is simply not part of their job description.

Anonymous
Anonymous
June 12, 2017 1:10 pm

The Republicans no longer have excuses to fall back on.

Trump is forcing them, along with everyone and everything else in the nation, to show exactly who and what they are.

IMO, we’d be better off with a Republican minority that actually fights for the things they claim to stand for than a Republican majority that fights for the things the Democrats and Leftists stand for instead.

If you’re of a similar mind, call your local Republican headquarters and (politely) tell them this.

Maybe they’ll get the message and straighten out, although the Republicans aren’t really known for caring what their voting members think since they believe they will get a default vote as they portray the Democrat candidates as worse than they are (even when they aren’t).

Paul Niemi
Paul Niemi
June 12, 2017 2:13 pm

The intent of the article may differ from the effect. The idea of watching Congress go down, like the Titanic, has a certain vicarious appeal. We love them so much, after all. Bon voyage, Senators and Congresspersons!

Gilnut
Gilnut
June 12, 2017 2:25 pm

Anybody who uses the pronoun “we” in reference to any political party is suffering from severe cognitive dissonance. Lots of people are members of the political parties, few are “in” the party, even fewer are able to understand the difference.

overthecliff
overthecliff
  Gilnut
June 12, 2017 7:04 pm

You are grumpy,snide,overly skeptical and right.

MrLiberty
MrLiberty
June 12, 2017 2:51 pm

A change of course would require SOUND economic principles and understanding, MORAL fortitude and the ability to stand on such principles, and the ability to be able to explain to the American public WHY the continuation of the Welfare/Warfare state is no longer sustainable and WHY FREEDOM is the superior approach. But as BOTH major parties lack principles or ANY commitment to freedom, liberty, sound economics, or anything resembling a free market or society that stands on its own, devoid of rampant warfare or welfare, they better just prepare the submarines for the future salvage operations. Because this ship is going down and has been sinking for many decades now.

Rob
Rob
June 12, 2017 2:55 pm

If you voted this is all your fault. If you voted for an incumbent this is all your fault. Never vote for anyone who has ever been in government. Incompetence is far better than greed and will always be less destructive. Never return anyone to government. Ever.

Anonymous
Anonymous
  Rob
June 12, 2017 4:36 pm

Trump has never been in government.

Another reason to support him with everything we have.

Ed
Ed
June 12, 2017 6:26 pm

STFU, Kurt.

james the deplorable wanderer
james the deplorable wanderer
June 12, 2017 6:32 pm

And as you realize your message is to communicate with the people that elected you, realize also that the MEDIA WILL DISTORT YOUR MESSAGE, LIE about your accomplishments and in general try to defeat your messaging BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT DEMOCRATS.
Get that through your head, and ACT ON IT.

nobody
nobody
June 12, 2017 7:39 pm

I was under the impression that Republicans controlled the house and senate yet their biggest concern has been why Russia made Hillary, their hero, to lose the last election. The Democrats still run the show with the eager help of the Republicans. What a bunch of useless parasites. Sinking them all into the ocean would be a good start.

TampaRed
TampaRed
June 12, 2017 7:47 pm

What we need is a party that has most of the principles/beliefs of the Libertarian Party but made up of mature,committed grownups.

rhs jr
rhs jr
June 13, 2017 12:33 am

The HMS Titanic was loaded with gentlemen. The USS America is loaded with morally and mentally stunted rats and roaches who will kill each other at the first alarm; TPTB have been working hard to achieve this result since the Civil Riots Act of 1964.

TampaRed
TampaRed
  rhs jr
June 13, 2017 9:59 am

unfortunately jr,the results are going to be the same 4 both ships i fear–
the difference is that some of us on the america can see the iceberg coming but people are squabbling about which direction to turn,we still have time to turn or at least launch all the lifeboats as opposed to titantic’s iceberg which came out of the fog–
but will we do it?

Middle-aged Mad Gnome
Middle-aged Mad Gnome
June 13, 2017 7:08 am

Schlichter almost get some of it right. The Dems are at war with the Repubs and you would think the Repubs would like to win. If you hate the Dems and everything they stand for, you want the Repubs to win, even destroy the Dems. Alas, Schlichter doesn’t seem to get that traitors are hated even more than the enemy. So if the Repubs actually wanted to win, they would get behind Trump and that would be the primary message. Ryan and McConnell (and many of the other Repubs) are attempting to quietly accomplish some of Trump’s agenda without allowing Trump the credit. Trump is the anti-Dem symbol, and the Repubs refuse to get behind him. That is so obvious that most are inclined to believe the Repubs have no real interest in beating and even destroying the Dems. So first things first Schlichter. As part of a strategy to repeal and replace the Repub traitors, perhaps the writing class could destroy the legacy and reputation of one of these traitors. I’m thinking that might get their attention.

MMinLamesa
MMinLamesa
June 13, 2017 7:54 am

Kurt, your column presupposes that Ryan actually wants to help Trump fulfill the campaign promises he made to us. He doesn’t.

Don’t you remember how he refused to endorse Trump? Or to campaign with him in WI? Or his less then tepid support since Trump won? His hysterical hummahummas about repealing ObamaCare now that, yaknow, he actually could?

It’s all a bad dream for the UniParty and they’re resorting to slow walking this administration’s intentions. Watch as the mid terms heat up and the left dominated meme will be how Trump was unable to get anything accomplished but never mention it was because of opposition from his own party.

They want this nightmare to end as quick as possible and sabotaging Trump is how they intend to do it.

james the deplorable wanderer
james the deplorable wanderer
June 14, 2017 3:47 pm

Be your own lifeboat. Prepare yourself and your family accordingly – once the bullets start flying (today?) it will be harder to get what you need.