In 2020, the Republican party didn’t even pretend to have a platform beyond their allegiance to Donald Trump, eschewing any policy proposals in favor of a resolution to “continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda.” They lost the White House and the Senate in that election, but they appear to be staying the course heading into the midterms: According to Axios, Mitch McConnell has been telling donors and fellow lawmakers that Republicans will not be releasing a legislative agenda ahead of next year’s vote — a reflection of the utter nothingness at the heart of the GOP.
“We all know what’s wrong with the Democrats,” a person at a recent event recalled a donor asking McConnell. “But what are we going to be running on to help us win?”
McConnell’s response, as paraphrased by Axios’ source: “With all respect, that’s not what we’re doing.”
The GOP has been lacking in useful policy ideas for a while now, but the problem has gotten far worse since the rise of Trump—a man of zero real convictions, guided not by anything like a moral compass, but by whatever deranged impulse has overtaken him at a given moment. That same emptiness, that same pursuit of power for power’s sake, has come to define his party. On crises from COVID to climate change, Republicans are at best missing in action and at worst actively exacerbating the issues. Joe Biden and the Democrats have been far from perfect, but they’re at least engaged in the difficult work of serious governance. Their counterparts, on the other hand, have offered little beyond culture war grievance and in many cases outright hostility toward democratic norms and institutions.
Some donors may want a more cogent agenda beyond “obstruct Biden” and “troll the left.” But that doesn’t appear to be what the base wants, nor is it what the Trumpian GOP is willing or able to offer. “Donors especially are always asking for an agenda of some kind and McConnell pushes back hard,” the strategist said, telling Axios that such an agenda would “take the focus off unpopular Dem policies” and give Democrats “something tangible to tear apart.”
“One of the biggest mistakes challengers often make is thinking campaigns are about them and their ideas,” the operative said. “No one gives a shit about that. Elections are referendums on incumbents.”
Republicans may not have any real ideas, but obviously that doesn’t mean they don’t have an agenda; it just so happens that it’s mostly about attaining, keeping, and benefiting from powerful government positions. That’s why the Republican National Committee didn’t need to bother putting forth an agenda in 2020; asserting its “strong support” for Trump acted as shorthand for a series of positions too self-interested, stupid, or cruel to comfortably lay out in detail. No formal 2022 agenda is necessary to know how McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, and the Republicans would govern if they take back Congress in the midterms—they’re already doing it from the Capitol Hill minority.
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