Republicans are riding a wave of enthusiasm and good will after a historic November victory, yet some congressional Republicans are still mired in self-sabotage. Or as Rep. Tom Emmer, the House Republican Majority Whip might say, some Republicans need to bulk up their winning muscle.
“We get people who sometimes have a problem accepting a win, right?” Emmer said during an interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation. “It’s never going to be good enough.”
Emmer’s right. For decades, Republicans floundered in reactive passivity, trailing a dollar short and day late behind the iron-fist cohesion of Democrats like Nancy Pelosi. For all her failed policy ideas, Pelosi mustered admirable tactical abilities to get bills passed. Pelosi helped usher in mammoth government debacles of Obamacare, green legislation (under Biden), and many more, thanks to Democrat political discipline.
Now her party’s failed results give an opening for Republicans to boldly show the electorate how conservative principles equal prosperity, thriving students, innovation, and peace. Emmer said he thinks the Senate GOP is moving too slowly to pass President Donald Trump’s America First agenda. I agree.
Republican Senators are dragging their feet, waffling over the bold strokes passed by House Republicans in their reconciliation outline bill to protect and expand the Trump tax reforms, unleash American energy production, and address the immigration crisis.
The time is ripe for Republicans to make generational shifts to restore fiscal health, counter damaging climate change hysteria, and protect our national sovereignty through strong immigration controls and border policies.
As the chief vote counter for the controlling party, Emmer corrals GOP House members to support the America First agenda.
“We have to perform,” Emmer said, pointing to cohesion among House Republicans for recent major bills like reconciliation and the CR spending bill. “The more we perform, the more accustomed our members will get to it. The beauty of our party, in my opinion, is that we don’t all agree. I think that’s what makes us unique.”
Republicans have every reason to go on offense. The wind is at their backs. Recent Fox News polling brought good news for Republicans — and bad news for Democrats. Half of U.S. voters approve of President Trump’s job performance, matching his all-time high, while a record-high 43% approve of congressional Republicans. By contrast, congressional Democrats nearly achieved a record-low approval of 30%.
Democrats are floundering because they refuse to moderate and continue to embrace big-government policies that created our national crisis.
NBC News also reported President Trump’s approval rating is tied for his highest ever, —and a stunning percentage of Americans say America is headed in the right direction. It’s a figure higher than at any point in more than two decades. If that’s not a generational shift, nothing is. The New York Post noted that NBC also “found that voters generally feel Trump is bringing ‘the right kind of change’ on the key issues — even tariffs.”
“Donald Trump has reinvigorated the Republican Party,” Emmer said. “Literally. He put the shock things on,” he said, motioning his hands like heart defibrillators on a chest, “and woke us back up. If you think about what he’s done for the party, he’s expanded the party like no one before him did, not even Ronald Reagan. If you look at how he moved the needle with traditional Democrat voters, working men and women, black voters, Asian voters, Hispanic voters, even liberal Jews. It’s nothing short of amazing.”
Now the challenge is how are conservatives going to cement this popularity by creating policy wins that result in measurable and sustained improvement in Americans lives.
“This is America,” Emmer said. “This isn’t about the Republican Party. This is about a movement to restore the greatest Republic the world’s ever seen.”
Republicans, it’s time to carpe diem. America’s future depends upon it.
Carrie Sheffield is a senior policy analyst at Independent Women’s Voice.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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