What’s to Blame for GOP Fundraising Woes

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This anecdote is a symptom of a larger issue within the GOP: elected leaders being ineffective at best, and full-fledged leftist at worst.  Indeed, this phenomenon was broadly covered in an April 2023 article by Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak, who noted that the most left-leaning GOP state representatives on average were found in states with the largest Republican majorities, such as Utah, Wyoming, and South Carolina — a stark contrast to Democrats, who pass radical legislation even with the slimmest majorities.  Too often, it seems that elections have consequences, but only when the Democrats win; the best one can hope for when voting Republican is that he can, at least temporarily, serve as a foil to the Progressives’ most radical policies.  Running candidates who can actually win is key, of course, but at some point, conservatives need to see tangible results, actual policy victories that not only slow the tide of progressive policies, but also begin to reverse them.  In this economy, donating hard-earned dollars to whatever silver tongued clean-cut businessman-veteran-Christian-family-man cookie-cutter candidate the GOP establishment trots out is too large a gamble for many to take.  We’ve been burned too many times.

Donald Trump is the antithesis of everything we would expect from a Republican political figure.  His speaking style, though highly effective, could hardly be called eloquent.  He’s a successful businessman, sure, but doesn’t have the dignified political legacy of, say, the Romneys, nor can he claim a compelling “rags to riches” journey like a Vivek Ramaswamy.  Perhaps most damning is that his personal life has been tabloid fodder for decades.  And, despite his strong rhetoric, Trump is far from an ideologue, exhibiting surprising flexibility on a range of issues.  To the shock of the political elite, Trump is perhaps the most resilient political figure in all of human history, as he is poised to potentially win a second term despite the two impeachments, absurd lawsuits, primary challenges, January 6, and all the other “scandals” the media have brewed up.

Why?  Because for the first time in nearly 40 years, it feels as though the conservative movement has more to offer than just being a bulwark against the radical left.  We see actual pushback, tangible progress.  Trump, regardless of how he may feel personally about abortion, showed extreme political courage in getting three conservatives appointed to the Supreme Court who have been instrumental in major legal victories, most notably the overturning of Roe v. Wade.  For the first time in decades, the world under Trump’s leadership became more stable as his administration defied conventional foreign policy wisdom to negotiate the Abraham Accords, a stark contrast to the global chaos under nearly every other administration over the past half-century.  His tax and regulatory cuts contributed to a booming economy.  Perhaps most significantly, his energy policies led to energy independence for the first time in 70 years.  Border crossings were at their lowest levels since 1971.  These policy goals have not been unique, historically, within the Republican party; the difference is that Trump actually accomplished them.  As a result, and despite his bombast and larger-than-life persona as an entertainer, Trump’s visit to East Palestine, Ohio somehow seemed far more real and sincere than anything else coming out of D.C. (or, for that matter, any state capital).

That isn’t to say that Trump’s record is perfect.  A critic may reasonably bring up, for example, his failure to cut spending.  That criticism is valid, but of course no president has cut the national debt since the Coolidge administration.  The U.S. response to COVID-19 is another frequent line of attack — but do you think the Republicans of elections past, the Bush/McCain/Romneys of the world, would have opened the country sooner?  Or the other GOP contenders in 2016?  Would some of the GOP governors who showed enough political courage to keep their states open behaved the same way if they faced re-election that fall?

I say this not to excuse any policy shortcomings from the Trump administration, but until the GOP consistently wins victories on spending cuts, such attacks seem a bit hollow.

What is most revealing, however, is the utter silence of Trump’s biggest critics in the GOP — the Paul Ryans, Mitt Romneys, George Bushes, and Liz Cheneys of the world — against some of the left’s most egregious policies.  George W. Bush famously ran an unapologetic Evangelical, pro-life campaign.  Why isn’t he on every conservative news outlet expressing outrage over the arrest of six peaceful pro-life protesters in the U.S.?  The former president lamented the risk to Afghan girls following the U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan.  Why isn’t he more outraged over the erasure of women here?  Sen. Romney has expressed opposition to men participating in women’s sports; why didn’t he express outrage at his own state’s Republican governor for vetoing a bill that protected women’s sports?