by Thaddeus G. McCotter
Winning an election is not an end but an opportunity—one that, if squandered, creates an opportunity for one's adversaries.
As a child, my mother warned me not to put my hand on the electric stove when the heating ring glowed orange. Even at that early age, an innate anti-authoritarian, I dismissed her advice, and once her back was turned, I placed my hand on the stove. While the pain has receded in memory, as I wailed about the blackened, serpentine scar seared onto my palm, I distinctly recall my mother calmly saying, “I told you not to do that.”
Well, it is time to pay it forward: do not grab onto the post-2024 presidential election “hot takes” served up by sundry pundits trolling for clicks and ratings. Doing so may not immediately char your palm, but it will eventually give you heartburn and immense, though avoidable, amounts of pain. So, let us disabuse ourselves of a handful (no pun intended) of the most red-hot, election post-mortem nonsense simmering in the political ether.
First, this election was not the ultimate triumph of MAGA and populist-Republicans.
Impressive as it was, the victory was but the second of Mr. Trump’s and the movement’s. But like all populist movements, it must now deliver the restoration of sanity, liberty, prosperity, and security it promised the electorate. If and as it does, the movement will be sustained and strengthened; grow in stature and esteem in the public’s mind; and, thereby, facilitate not only future electoral wins but, more importantly, lay the foundations for an abiding American exceptionalism.
Second, regrettably, this is not the end of progressivism.
True, the majority of Americans loathe identity politics, cancel culture, political correctness, and other societal symptoms of the left’s cerebral disease of cultural Marxism. Due to its radical socialist ideology, progressives, who largely cannot produce wealth, must rely upon the money of others—their favorite of subsidization being the taxpayers and corporate largesse. Indeed, the fact that in 2023, American companies alone spent 8 billion dollars on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs is a testament to the left’s ability to monetize its survival and success. Sure, in the wake of their 2024 presidential defeat, some Democrats have called for a jettisoning of progressivism, or at least parts of its agenda. But the left cannot and will not voluntarily close this cornucopia of other people’s money, and, bluntly, the base of the Democrat Party is no longer center-left. It is hard left. And it is going nowhere but further left, because that is the ideological core of its pillars of power: academia, the media, Big Tech, and the administrative state.
Finally, this is not a political realignment for the MAGA or the GOP. In time, it could lead to one, but it is too early for such a conclusion.
In many ways, Mr. Trump’s victory was a personal one. He is a unique figure in recent American politics—indeed, one may need to go back to Andrew Jackson for a similarly beloved and reviled figure. His recent victory bordered on a landslide, and, while it did abet slim GOP majorities in the House and Senate (the “trifecta”), the gains were nowhere near those of other similar presidential wins.
Thus, the conundrum: Did the GOP candidates who ran behind the top of the ticket and lost do so because they were not sufficiently MAGA and populist-Republican, thereby losing the support of many of Mr. Trump’s base voters? Or was the issue that these defeated candidates were identified as too aligned with Mr. Trump, turning off independent voters who split their tickets so a Democrat Congress would serve as a check upon Mr. Trump? After all, most independents and many new Trump voters were not all that happy with the options the two major parties presented them. They voted based on their personal, practical experience that they were better off under the first Trump administration than under the subsequent Biden administration; nonetheless, this clearly did not necessarily translate into voting GOP down the ballot.
Whether it be these or other yet unidentified reasons that led to the reduced coattails of Mr. Trump’s triumph, the Republican populists will have to divine them to consolidate and expand their majorities in future elections. Executive Orders can only do so much. (Ask Mr. Biden how his student loan forgiveness E.O.s worked out.) Because hard as it is to pass important legislation with slim majorities in Congress, it is damn near impossible if the Democrats control one or both.
In the grand scheme of things, campaigning is easy; governing is hard. Ultimately, then, winning an election is not an end but an opportunity—one that, if squandered, creates an opportunity for one’s adversaries. For despite all the elation or dejection in the wake of victory or defeat, nothing in politics is written in stone, and one forgets this age-old political truism at their own peril.
For those who disagree and stubbornly decide to slam your hand on the political hot stove, I suggest you consult all the Democrats who pronounced (now) president-elect Trump and the MAGA/populist Republican movement dead on November 4, 2020.
Better still, just glance at their charred palm.
***
An American Greatness contributor, the Hon. Thaddeus G. McCotter (M.C., Ret.) served Michigan’s 11th Congressional District from 2003-2012 and served as Chair of the Republican House Policy Committee. Not a lobbyist, he is a frequent public speaker and moderator for public policy seminars and a Monday co-host of the “John Batchelor Radio Show,” among sundry media appearances.
Thaddeus G. McCotter
Source: https://amgreatness.com/2024/11/16/winning-an-election-an-opportunity-not-an-end/
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