The Republicans might take over both houses of Congress, but we still don’t know what they plan to do.
With Labor Day over we are now officially in the final campaign stretch of the 2014 midterm elections. Republicans went into this year quite excited that they might be able to win big after Obama reelection in 2012. At first it seemed quite possible. The economy is still growing but its not exactly booming, Obama’s approval ratings are below 50 percent, and midterm elections tend to favor the party not in the White House.
It’s still hard to tell exactly what will happen, the GOP could win control of the Senate, but it doesn’t like we are going to see a 1994 or 2006 style landslide. In fact, some prediction sites think things are going pretty well, all things considered, for the Democrats.
So what are we in for the GOP wins in November? Well it’s just not clear. Ramesh Ponnuru recently pointed out the fact that the Republican Party has chosen to run on a platform of nothing:
With elections looming in November, Republicans are counting on President Barack Obama’s unpopularity to deliver them control of the Senate. They’re not running on an agenda, refusing even in broad outline to say how they would reform the tax code or replace Obama’s health-care law.
I think that’s pretty much right, but it’s even worse than Ponnuru lets on. After all it’s not just health care and taxes than Republicans are mute on. We have no idea what their plan is to deal with global warming (other than claim it’s a hoax), or on immigration, or the crumbling state of our national infrastructure. In fact as Peter Beinart pointed out in The Atlantic even when they try and say something substantive on foreign policy all we really get with a bunk of vapid gobbledygook. And those are just the major issues that have been in the news recently. When it comes to issues like obesity, our aging population, or algae blooms there really isn’t anything there at all.
How does this policy free version of politics end? I really don’t know. Maybe a Republican will be elected in 2016 or 2020 and the party will just start following their agenda. Or maybe the so called “reform conservatives” will take over their party. But one thing is clear, everyone should be a little upset about this disturbing trend. Campaigning on nothing, other than “we are against what Obama’s for that is, is not a healthy way to conduct politics. Unfortunately its what we are getting from the GOP these days.
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