The past year was supposed to be a Republican revival of sorts, yet it turned out to be an utter disappointment. Republicans barely clinched a House majority and failed to take back the Senate, even handing Democrats an extra seat in the upper chamber, despite President Joe Biden’s record low approval ratings, growing economic pain, a historic border crisis, and the Left’s continued lurch toward cultural insanity.
The questions Republicans must wrestle with as they head into a new year and the next election cycle is: What went wrong in 2022? And how do we make sure it never happens again?
For starters, Republicans need to recognize that former President Donald Trump is a drag on the party. All but a few of his hand-picked candidates underperformed, even in states where other Republicans who had maintained their distance from Trump succeeded — for example, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. This is likely because many of Trump’s candidates, such as Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker, were unappealing on a personal level or, like New Hampshire gubernatorial candidate Don Bolduc, embraced fringe views that repelled independents.
But the problem with Trump goes deeper. He has no clear vision for the party anymore besides making sure he’s the one leading it. Instead of focusing on immigration or the economy as he did in 2016, Trump obsessively complains about the 2020 election and insists on relitigating it every chance he gets. It’s not a compelling campaign message — in fact, it is a losing message, as the midterm elections proved.
Second, Republicans need to get serious about the culture war. The Left’s efforts to force toxic racialism and radical gender theory on the public, and to turn our major institutions into breeding grounds for woke ideology, are by far the greatest threat to the nation. If we are to gain back any of the ground we’ve lost over the past several decades, we need to be aggressive — not just rhetorically but legally. Republicans need to draft specific policies aimed at rolling back leftism in healthcare, the military, the education establishment, and more. And there’s a guy down in Florida who has proven himself quite capable of doing just that.
The next election cycle will be an opportunity for Republicans to do what they should have done this year. But that’s going to require some introspection and realignment, both of which are long overdue.
