In politics, you’re either on message or you are losing. Let’s get to it.
Welcome to On Message, a weekly look at where the battle lines are drawn and who is winning the war of words.
This week… THE FALLOUT.
With the midterm elections now over, it’s been fascinating to see the postmortem narrative evolve and settle. By that I mean what the general take has been on the results – so far as they have been determined.
In the days leading up to November 8th, the most repeated message was that a Red Wave was coming to leave a path of devastation among Democrats while Republicans triumphantly took control of the capitol in the most peaceful way we’ve seen since, well, 2018.
But the hype proved to be hyperbole and Democrats held onto the Senate while Republicans will hold a much-slimmer-than-expected majority in the House.
So, in the days following the election, as results became clearer, we saw Democrats gloating, Republicans in shock and everyone practically throwing out their backs as they lunge to point the finger at someone.
The main narrative that set in was an interesting one. That Republicans lost but most seem to think the lesson to be learned is that candidates backed by former President Trump lost bigly. Trump himself moved swiftly to jump into the race for the White House just a week after the election and only a few days after taking his first public swipes at his biggest potential challenger.
That challenger is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who was deemed the biggest winner of the midterms as he cruised to victory in his state (one that plays a huge role in determining who wins the White House every four years, by the way) and seems to have found a way to give all the anti-woke energy of Trump, without all the baggage and sentence fragments.
Politicians are known for reading polls – and those who do it best and fine-tune their message to match are usually the ones who win. But voters speak most clearly when they actually vote.
So, do voters simply not care about inflation, rampant government spending and looming energy issues? Or do they just dislike election deniers and red-meat throwing under-qualified candidates?
What Republicans – and Democrats – take from the election – and how it influences their actions as they govern and select candidates ahead of 2024, will go a long way to determining who wins the presidency and the direction of the country for the rest of the 2020s.
He who has ears… let him hear.
That’s it for this week.
More On Message in the next issue of the Utah Political Underground.
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