Tuesday’s elections were another reminder that Donald Trump thinks big while voters think small. Call it macro versus micro.
Trump negotiates peace in the Middle East and wields tariffs against China; most Americans negotiate with the grocery store clerk and worry about rent. The disconnect helps explain why Republicans keep losing ‘potentially’ winnable races.
I say ‘potential’ because the big elections were in solid blue cities and states where the chances of a Republican victory were minuscule.
Republicans, at least the MAGA wing, focus on the big picture -- restoring America’s global strength and national sovereignty. Democrats, by contrast, concentrate on the details of daily life, selling themselves as protectors of entitlements, abortion rights, and government benefits. Most voters, struggling with the cost of living, tune out lofty talk about tariffs or foreign policy and focus on their wallets.
The GOP establishment isn’t helping.
Instead of advancing policy, it obsesses over social-media squabbles like how Erica Kirk and J.D. Vance hugged each other at the memorial service, what Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes discussed, or which influencer has turned against Candace Owens. While the base is ready for a revolution, the leadership seems stuck on gossip.
This week’s results made that clear. New York City elected a self-described proud “Democrat socialist” to lead the city. Blue states like New York, New Jersey, and Virginia elected or re-elected Democrats. California’s redistricting plan will likely erase what’s left of its Republican delegation. None of this should shock anyone, as weak candidates in deep-blue states rarely win. But the down-ballot story tells more: voters approved higher taxes and new spending to fund a growing welfare state, even as cities crumble under crime and addiction.
Take Denver.
Voters there banned flavored tobacco after billionaire Michael Bloomberg spent $5 million promoting the measure.
Meanwhile, fentanyl and tranq addicts roam the streets, defecate on sidewalks, and make downtown unlivable. The priorities of the political class, and many voters, are completely upside down.
Trump, meanwhile, operates on a different level. He brokers peace deals where decades of diplomats failed.
He pressures China with tariffs that protect American industry.
He puts America first on the global stage.
Yet to many voters, those triumphs feel abstract. When you’re living paycheck to paycheck, facing $6 milk and $1,000 rent hikes, peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan is irrelevant.
Trump wasn’t on the ballot this week, but his movement was. And the GOP, under his nominal leadership, too often looks like the party of inertia -- talking about draining the swamp while the swamp thrives.
Despite Trump’s famous refrain, “We caught them all,” no one of consequence has been caught.
A few of the spygate players and mortgage fraudsters have been indicted but lawfare judges are slow rolling their trials or throwing them lifelines. The odds of conviction and any type of reckoning are slim. The DOJ and FBI remain intact, the same bureaucrats in charge, the same double standard at play. Justice delayed has become justice denied.
Even with both houses of Congress in Republican hands, few of Trump’s executive orders have been codified into law, leaving them vulnerable to immediate reversal under the next Democratic president. The “deep state” endures because the GOP refuses to use its power as aggressively as Democrats would in their place.
Remember how ruthless Democrats were during the Biden administration, weaponizing government agencies against Republicans and arresting political opponents.
I am not advocating that Republicans do the same, but Republicans bring knives to the fight while Democrats bring machine guns, with predictable results.
Consider the current government shutdown. Democrats are exploiting it to damage Republicans. Voters who lose food stamps or face higher insurance premiums don’t care about congressional procedure. They care about surviving.
Republicans could end the standoff by voting to end the Senate filibuster, a rule Democrats would discard in a heartbeat if it blocked their agenda. Instead, Republicans cling to “principle” while Democrats seize power.
Filibuster is an old Dutch word for ‘pirate,’ fitting since Democrats are hijacking the will of the American voters who elected a GOP Congress. The president is twisting the arms of GOP Senators to end the filibuster, but news reports suggest that is not likely to happen.
If the roles were reversed, Democrats would waste no time making Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico states, stacking the U.S. Supreme Court, and rewriting the Bill of Rights.
Republicans would do well to fight with the same urgency -- not to imitate Democrats’ lawlessness, but to match their determination.
When Democrats once again control Congress, Republicans will be relegated to the back benches, totally impotent and irrelevant as a political party.
And then there’s election integrity.
From ballot-harvesting to mail-in ballots and unsecured voting machines, Americans are losing faith in the process.
A Rasmussen Reports survey found that two-thirds of likely voters “suspect electronic voting machines may be vulnerable to online manipulation.” That’s not a partisan talking point -- it’s a crisis of confidence.
Trump is reportedly drafting an executive order on election reform, but executive orders are temporary fixes. Congress must act to secure voter ID, clean voter rolls, and ban foreign nationals from voting. Without trust in the ballot box, all other debates are meaningless.
If government cannot provide honest and valid elections, every November we are merely watching a show, much like professional wrestling with its choreographed outcomes.
Now is the moment to deliver. With Republicans controlling the White House and Congress, this is the best, and perhaps last, opportunity to clean up elections, secure the border, and make Trump’s “America First” policies permanent. If squandered, Democrats will undo it all within a single term, more likely within days of assuming power, and it may take decades to recover.
Trump’s instincts are right -- think big, act boldly.
But his movement must now connect the macro to the micro. Translate peace abroad into safety at home. Turn tariffs into affordable groceries, good-paying jobs, and affordable homes. Show voters not just the vision but the benefit.
In politics, people vote their pocketbooks. Trump has the vision to rebuild America. Now he must make Americans feel it in their daily lives. As he posted after Tuesday’s elections: “And so it begins.”
