This isn't just about the racist "poisoning the blood of our country" rhetoric of Trump!
Last week, Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford was tasked by Mitch McConnell to negotiate a bipartisan compromise to fix the issues at the southern border and the asylum system overall. Lankford negotiated a sweeping package of reforms and additional funding with Chuck Schumer, only to see it summarily rejected by Speaker Johnson and House Republicans before they even had the details.
In the 2022 midterms, Republicans had a cornucopia of issues to run on. We were coming out of the worst of the pandemic, and they were able to lay all the global problems that and the Russian invasion of Ukraine caused for the world at the feet of the party in power. They ran on lockdowns, vaccine mandates, gas prices, flat economic growth, inflation, transgender rights, CRT and associated culture war issues around the schools. The border was also part of that, but was generally drowned out by the other issues.
Many Republicans expected a "Red Wave" and commonly predicted a 30-50 seat majority in the House and 5-7 seat majority in the Senate in the midterms. Steve Bannon even predicted a 100 seat House majority. Every metric was in their favor to capitalize on global problems affecting America. But the wave never materialized because they nominated extremist MAGA candidates all over the country, and Roe was overturned which energized young voters, especially women, to turn out in higher than expected numbers.
Throughout 2023, the new Republican strategy for 2024 became very clear with their messaging. They knew that many of the issues they ran on in 2022 were short-term, one-off problems that would likely be resolved by 2024. Now, with unemployment at record lows, inflation bottomed out, and the economy and stock market roaring, they are putting all their eggs in one big basket - the border and mass migration into the US.
This isn't just about the racist "poisoning the blood of our country" rhetoric of Trump. It would be a mistake to think that is the only way this is being messaged, although that it certainly part of it. Trump has increasingly talked about migrants coming from Africa and the Middle East, which adds the kind of racial and religious component he is looking for to scare rural and suburban white voters. But their electoral strategy on the border is so much more than that.
Last week, Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford was tasked by Mitch McConnell to negotiate a bipartisan compromise to fix the issues at the southern border and the asylum system overall. Lankford negotiated a sweeping package of reforms and additional funding with Chuck Schumer, only to see it summarily rejected by Speaker Johnson and House Republicans before they even had the details.
In the 2022 midterms, Republicans had a cornucopia of issues to run on. We were coming out of the worst of the pandemic, and they were able to lay all the global problems that and the Russian invasion of Ukraine caused for the world at the feet of the party in power. They ran on lockdowns, vaccine mandates, gas prices, flat economic growth, inflation, transgender rights, CRT and associated culture war issues around the schools. The border was also part of that, but was generally drowned out by the other issues.
Many Republicans expected a "Red Wave" and commonly predicted a 30-50 seat majority in the House and 5-7 seat majority in the Senate in the midterms. Steve Bannon even predicted a 100 seat House majority. Every metric was in their favor to capitalize on global problems affecting America. But the wave never materialized because they nominated extremist MAGA candidates all over the country, and Roe was overturned which energized young voters, especially women, to turn out in higher than expected numbers.
Throughout 2023, the new Republican strategy for 2024 became very clear with their messaging. They knew that many of the issues they ran on in 2022 were short-term, one-off problems that would likely be resolved by 2024. Now, with unemployment at record lows, inflation bottomed out, and the economy and stock market roaring, they are putting all their eggs in one big basket - the border and mass migration into the US.
This isn't just about the racist "poisoning the blood of our country" rhetoric of Trump. It would be a mistake to think that is the only way this is being messaged, although that it certainly part of it. Trump has increasingly talked about migrants coming from Africa and the Middle East, which adds the kind of racial and religious component he is looking for to scare rural and suburban white voters. But their electoral strategy on the border is so much more than that.
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