by Bill Wilson
The old saying that “a nod is as good as a wink in a blind horse” came rushing to mind as I read an article at TheHill.com by Morgan Gstalter about an RNC internal poll. It seems the Republican National Committee (RNC) spent money to find out that “Trump voters” are not really into the midterm elections and that a number of GOPers could well lose because the Trump voters stay home or are “complacent.”
This self-evident truth is followed by what may be the most self-serving, liberal-Republican nonsense that has been published in a very long time. According to the article, the RNC study “states that the Republican Party should focus its messaging around Social Security and Medicare. ‘The challenge for GOP candidates is that most voters believe that the GOP wants to cut back on these programs in order to provide tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy’ the study states.”
Now if you are a liberal or a closet Democrat that may make sense. But for anyone actually talking to voters and looking at real data, it is about as far off as you can get. Nobody believes the GOP is going to cut Social Security except fevered Democrat ad-men. To advise that candidates run their races on messages that most people don’t care about and are not in the news is suicidal at best.
What are the issues that will motivate Trump voters and a wide segment of the American public? The answer to that question is easy, it is the implementation that is near impossible. Impossible for one simple reason: the forces that comprise the Republican establishment oppose everything President Trump is trying to do. They are working overtime to defeat proposals that would implement the very policies that motivate and inspire millions of voters across the country.
Those voters, those citizens that could be the margin of victory in the midterm elections want serious action to stop illegal immigration. They want to see their government care more about their jobs and their communities than they do about foreign workers. And, they want to see more opportunity for their children and more income for themselves.
They know the Democrats will not deliver on any of that. The increasingly socialist Democrat party wants totally open borders — no country, no nation — just some rancid stew lorded over by the bureaucrats at the UN and other elitist boondoggles. They know the democrat-socialists want as many give-away trade deals as they can ram down the throats of the American worker. That feeds their tech-masters, and puts more billions into the pockets of people like George Soros and Google’s Eric Schmidt. And, they know full well that when a Democrat taxes they tax the middle class. It is the middle class that got hammered by ultra-leftist Barack Obama, not the wealthy.
So, with all of that, why would the Republicans at the RNC not jump on these issues and run them as hard as possible? Why would they waste money on nonsense about Social Security when a clear winning hand is sitting in front of them?
The reason is obvious. They don’t raise issues that could work because they oppose them. There has been no meaningful vote or Congressional action on building the southern border wall because Paul Ryan and his ilk don’t want it. While the President has made strong progress on trade, the real action is yet to come and is being blocked by globalists inside the GOP. They certainly do not want to have candidates bragging about the successes to date when they plan to reverse those gains at the first opportunity.
And, while many inside the GOP want to pat themselves on the back for the tax cuts, they seem much less willing to point out the huge impact on blue collar families — more jobs and rising incomes — than they do about capital gains and estate taxes.
The Free Dictionary defines the title — a nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse — to mean “You cannot get people to take a hint if they are determined not to.” Sounds like a perfect description of the RNC so-called poll to me.
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Bill Wilson is the former chairman of the Board of Directors of Americans for Limited Government.
