By Jeff Poor
It is pretty simple. The GOP has an economy problem heading into November’s midterm elections.
It is self-inflicted. Even if taking military action against Iran for the sake of limiting its nuclear capability was the moral thing to do, it comes at a cost.
The national average for gas prices was around $3 a gallon at the start of the war. The price got up to $5 but has leveled off at $4 a gallon in recent weeks.
Democrats are not going to let it go unnoticed, as if you haven’t noticed it yourself.
It isn’t clear how much more a dollar per gallon affects the average family’s budget. Whether it’s meaningful or not, perception matters. Perception is everything.
That’s the mistake Democrats made in 2024. Metrics suggested improvements in the U.S. economy. The media went out of its way to push the public to believe the economy was actually doing well.
Voters didn’t buy it, and the Republican Party had its best presidential election in two decades.
A similar scenario is playing out in this election cycle.
So-called Democratic Socialists have strung together a few high-profile primary election wins. Those candidates hold views that have historically been outside mainstream Democratic Party conventional wisdom.
The war of ideas is underway in the Democratic Party. But that is a long-term problem for Democrats. In the short term, they will likely still have a good election night later this year.
To compensate, Republicans are apparently implementing a national election strategy to highlight the looming threat of radical socialism.
To quote Peter Venkman from “Ghostbusters,” “Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!”
Capitol Hill Republicans are recycling an oldie but goodie to promote the messaging. The “Contrast for America” (a play on Newt Gingrich’s 1994 “Contract with America”) is House Speaker Mike Johnson’s late-stage election-year effort to tell voters Republicans are “common sense,” and Democrats are “crazy.”
The problem is gas is still averaging $4 a gallon around the country, and if you’re explaining, you are losing at this point.
For years, Democrats have paid lip service to these socialist ideas. Perhaps they never meant what they said, or knew deep down that student loan forgiveness, rent controls, universal health care, or any other government takeover of the private sector wasn’t realistic. But the true believers who work in the trenches of Democratic Party politics thought otherwise.
Combine this government-style utopian idealism with a general angst about the Trump administration’s policies, and that is a recipe for disaster for the GOP.
Yes, the contrast is important but not for 2026.
In Alabama, Republicans are publicly making the distinction, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The state GOP will have a good night in November, and Alabama Republican voters will play their part, including Tommy Tuberville, Alabama’s senior U.S. Senator and Republican nominee for governor.
“All they’re doing is pushing socialism, and socialism is just communism without a gun, at the end of the day,” he said in an interview recently. “And so, we need to understand the direction this country is going if the Democrats have an opportunity to get a leg back into this country in terms of leadership.”
As a gubernatorial candidate in Alabama, he isn’t wrong to make that point. But does that work outside of Alabama?
Let’s operate on the easy assumption that socialism is a bad system, and that at least a segment of the American political left is pushing it.
Rather than trying to win an election by saying Democrats’ ideas are bad, Republicans need to offer their own ideas.
It is easy for the loyal opposition out of power to point out what the party in power does poorly. That is why in late summer Democrats lead Republicans on the generic ballot nationally.
First, it will mean acknowledging the status quo is not acceptable, which is very difficult to do without coming across as anti-Donald Trump.
A more effective contrast would be proactive. Concede that things could be better and explain how to fix them.
It probably won’t win November, but it might limit some of the damage.
At this point in American politics, Republicans calling Democrats “communists” and Democrats calling Republicans “fascists” isn’t groundbreaking. Those terms have been tossed around as pejoratives since the end of World War II.
It doesn’t move the needle. The public is desensitized. If those tactics were effective, the 2024 election would have turned out differently. No major American political figure was labeled a “fascist” as much as Donald Trump was in the lead-up to his election victory over Kamala Harris.
If it didn’t work in the last presidential election, calling a slate of candidates who are nameless and faceless to everyone outside of where they are running “communists” or “socialists” won’t do the trick for Republicans, either.
