Right now, everything is aligning perfectly for a GOP rout of the socialists who control Congress in the 2022 elections. Senior Democrats are retiring in the face of redistricting. Recruiting is difficult because attractive candidates anticipate a bloodbath, and no one wants to be shackled with the label of “loser.” The so-called generic ballot polls, where respondents indicate their preference for controlling Congress without regard to candidate or issues, is in the same place it was in 2010. Joe Biden is making Jimmy Carter look like a candidate for Mount Rushmore. Unfortunately, we have no reason to feel any great degree of confidence that this once-in-a-generation opportunity will not be blown.

Today, the NRCC Chairman Tom Emmer was on some show on Fox that had Jason Chaffetz (lolol) as the host. That, right there, is what law enforcement types would call a ‘clue.”

Chairman @tomemmer joined @jasoninthehouse this morning to discuss GOP efforts to retake the majority ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Our job over the next year is to make sure voters understand that Dem policies are driving inflation, the crime wave & are responsible for the border crisis.#FIREPELOSI pic.twitter.com/rp9hsz0l7h

— NRCC (@NRCC) November 28, 2021

EMMER: They realize that Democrats in Congress right now are completely out of touch with Main Street America and middle-class Americans. And our job over the next year, we know it’s going to be a dogfight, is to make sure it’s very clear that every day that their policies, their big-government policies, are driving inflation, are driving the crime wave across this country, are responsible for the open border, and we can go through all kinds of incompetent leadership that this administration has shown us since the beginning of the year.

I don’t want to be terribly critical until I see what they roll out, but from where I sit right now, it looks like the GOP will run based on the same old playbook they use year after year. I’m not sure “inflation” will get the GOP anywhere but engaged in a food fight with various fact-checkers. The problem is not inflation, per se. The problem is that distortions in the supply chain have increased gasoline by 50+% in most places and had a similar effect on food. Proper inflation–that caused by the trillions of dollars pumped into the economy–will hit but not for more than a year from now. I think the idea of blaming the Democrats for the economy, or even economic sanity, doesn’t fly given the fact that Biden’s Infrastructure behemoth, a bill that includes universal pre-K for 3-4-year-olds and a pilot program to tax you based on the number of miles you drive your car each year, only passed because of GOP votes in the House. A “crime wave” is less an issue than Democrat politicians actively colluding with Black Lives Matter and with Antifa to create civil strife that they can use for political advantage. Any failure to link the Democrats to the “bail reform” and “defund the police” causes is just malpractice.

It seems to me that vital issues are missing.

When Glenn Youngkin won the governor’s race in Virginia earlier in the month, education was one of the primary issues driving people out to vote. Not only were parents incensed by how schools had responded to the Wuhan virus they were enraged at the racism being inflicted upon their kids in the guise of Critical Race Theory. Twenty-five percent of Virginia voters said the most important issue for them was education. Yes, education is primarily a state and local issue. Still, the success of Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America was that he took issues that were not usually considered to be Congressional election issues and made them into national issues. The GOP needs to weaponize the behavior of the arrogant school boards and entitled teacher’s unions and push that to the center stage in 2022.

I can’t imagine attempting to campaign in 2022 without mentioning election integrity as a critical issue. You don’t have to claim the 2020 election was stolen to be able to say that it was not run in a manner that inspired confidence in the outcome and that fixing some of the issues, like the ability of federal judges to change rules in the days or hours before the election has to be curbed.

More significantly, I don’t see freedom on the ballot. The behavior of unelected bureaucrats like Anthony Fauci and others has been outrageous. The use of a virus to limit the freedom of Americans must be on the ballot. Even though much of the actual malicious behavior was at the hands of Democrat governors, their behavior should be a campaign issue the GOP campaigns on. Likewise, the impact upon the economy of the vaccine mandate and lockdowns needs to be a major campaign issue. I don’t see any mention of the overreach of federal law enforcement. I don’t see any acknowledgment of how the federal bureaucracy meddled in the 2016 and 2020 elections and the necessity of ensuring that the civil service stays the hell out of partisan politics. There is no mention of why Steve Bannon was indicted for contempt of Congress when none of the referrals by the House Republicans for lies told about the Russia Hoax were acted on.

Emmer mentions incompetent leadership by the Biden bunch, but that is not sufficient. Biden is hugely unpopular. His own party does not even support him. Biden’s unpopularity needs to be tied like a string of tin cans to the tail (figuratively speaking) every Democrat running for office. We saw in 2020 how every Republican was tied to Trump, and we need to give them a taste of their own medicine. Let’s Go, Brandon became an overnight hit for a reason.

As much as I’d like to be enthusiastic, I have to admit that Emmer’s interview left me feeling a bit like a James Bond martini.

I get the feeling that Emmer is completely ignoring the still palpable populist anger out there and is falling back on the same old GOP-Chamber of Commerce playbook. It is nearly like the last six years didn’t even happen. I hope I’m wrong, but I won’t be shocked when I’m proven correct.