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Republicans Are Reactive, Not Proactive, but That Can Be Changed

AP Photo/Joe Maiorana

I think it’s incredibly important that Republican politicians understand that they may take the midterms with far more victories than Democrats, retaking control of both the House and the Senate, but I think something should be reestablished here.

Republicans didn’t truly win this fight, the Democrats just lost it.

Democrats set themselves up for failure when they began making their power and their party the priority over the people. Oddly, their push of the Overton window to the left is being done with reckless abandon. Democrats seem to be attempting to push unpopular policies that are destructive, not just to the American people, but to the party itself.

The two largest issues are the economy and the hard-left push in public schools, both of which Democrats are on the wrong side of and yet seem to have no desire or plan to hit reverse and back off from these losing positions. It makes no sense unless you’re looking at it through the lens of a radical activist. It further lends to the idea that the people running the Biden administration aren’t politicians and experts, but radical leftist activists.

This is becoming more and more clear, and as more people understand that the people in charge don’t know what they’re doing they turn away. This is all well and good for Republicans, but it’s almost as if Republicans simply lucked into being on the winning side. They didn’t particularly work hard to get here. The Democrats did most of the work for them.

Republicans have a very bad habit of being reactive. They wait until the Democrats go on the offensive before they take defensive measures…if they even go that far. This gives the left quite the advantage. They can plan, maneuver, and coordinate before finally launching their attack, forcing Republicans to scramble for a defensive measure that may or may not be effective. While not everything can be anticipated and Republicans will have to legitimately play defense, oftentimes Republicans are arriving at battlefields all but won.

There are Republicans in the past that have taken steps that force Democrats on the backfoot. Former President Trump was very good at this. For instance, Trump took proactive steps with our federal courts and began filling vacancies that had been there for some time. He didn’t wait until it was the trendy thing for Democrats to do, he just began appointing judges, effectively guaranteeing that if any issue went to federal courts, Republicans were almost guaranteed victory.

One of the things that made Trump so great was that he was a president on the offensive. He made the left react to him and it nearly drove them insane. Today, leftist politicians and talking heads alike can’t discuss a topic without bringing Trump into the mix. Trump was one of the first times the press wasn’t setting the narrative.

The narrative is just as important as the battle itself. You can be completely in the right but it won’t matter if the people think you’re in the wrong. Admittedly, Republicans are getting better at narrative setting, but it’s an offensive tactic that needs to be perfected. If needed, Trump provides great examples.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is also a good example of going on the offensive. While some would say DeSantis stripping Disney of its self-governing status is reactive, I would count it as offensive given the scale of it. This is a massive blow to Disney who virtue signaled that DeSantis was attempting to harm children and said they’d work to defeat him and his laws. Before Disney could do more than bluster, DeSantis dealt a major blow to the company.

The message is simple. Be as woke as you want, but dip your toe into the political realm, and don’t be surprised when the sharks that swim in those waters take your leg.

If Republicans kept that kind of mentality then the left would be a lot warier about acting up. As it stands, Republicans have been so passive that they are, in a sense, responsible for the left’s hubris. That hubris lead to radicalism.

More offensive action. Less defensive posturing.

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