Republicans' Toughest Enemy: Themselves
Trump, Taylor Swift, and Tom Suozzi. These are just some of the examples of problems for the GOP that they alone created.
It is a common phrase that often the strongest enemy you’ll ever face will be yourself. This statement could not be truer for the current iteration of the Republican Party.
Seemingly, in state after state, district after district, Republicans keep running into problems. Whether these problems are scandals, extreme policies, to even just the basic quality of candidates, they all stem from the GOP itself—problems that were dug by the party.
Almost every election since Trump's victory in 2016 has been tainted in some way by these self-created problems. While Democrats have no doubt made mistakes here and there (see the near miss of Florida's 2018 elections or the 2022 Wisconsin Senate race), Republicans tend to have multiple per election cycle. This goes so far as to miss what should be easy victories, like nearly failing to gain the House in 2022 despite the multitude of advantages the GOP was given. Using another expression, nothing better explains this than the inverse of “grabbing victory from the jaws of defeat”, where it seems Republicans constantly keep on clenching defeat out of the jaws of victory. But it isn’t just that the GOP has these problems, but that many of them were created by the GOP.
To explain how the Republican Party creates many of its worst problems, look no further than the midterms. Part of the GOP’s weakness in the House elections was due to the low candidate quality in many districts nationwide. This was caused in part by the GOP due to the widespread retirement of the old, non-MAGA guard—often driven out by the current state of the party and the atmosphere it creates—who are then replaced with new recruits drawn out of the MAGA grassroots—who frequently either lack fundamental experience or have questionable histories.
This has continued into the 2024 election as well. The whole issue for the GOP surrounding both abortion and IVF are problems that were caused by the party (specifically through its agenda in this case). The entire problem that was George Santos and the special election that followed suit was created by the GOP. Even on other issues for the party’s image such as conspiracy theories—including the latest GOP infatuation with Taylor Swift—their roots are based in the Republican Party and its members, with no Democrats involved. These problems would not exist if the party itself had not started them, with the party often ending up actually encouraging the specific culprits to continue—or at least not punishing them even as their consequences come about.
This all could be easily summed up through one final saying: “Shooting yourself in the foot”. The Republican Party could do so much better in elections, all if it could stop with the self-inflicting trouble it gets itself into. However, if it were to do that, it wouldn’t be the party it currently is under Trump and the MAGA agenda. It is seemingly a package deal: have the agenda and particular appeal that Trump brings, but deal with the side effects that ultimately hurt the GOP.
Looking back at it, in a way this shows how lucky the Democratic Party is that the GOP often does a good portion of the heavy lifting in aiding Democrats to election victories.
Hello, Josh here!
I will be having my first paid article come out this Thursday (at 6 pm, like on Tuesdays). For those of you who are paid subscribers, you’ll have full access to the article to read when it comes out. Additionally, I will be sending out to paid subscribers a new figure of the Model in the next week (more information about this will soon be in the paid chat). For everyone else, I will give this little teaser:
“Despite only winning Michigan on the presidential level in the 2016 election, Republicans used to have a strong presence in the state. They all but ruled the state singlehandedly from 2010 to 2018, while still holding strong throughout the rest of the Trump presidency. It was only afterward that the state GOP started to fall—and once it started, there would be no stopping the impending crash.”
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