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September 27, 2022

This past Friday, Kevin McCarthy and other GOP U.S. House leaders unveiled the long-awaited “Republican Commitment to America.”  It didn’t disappoint.  The plan was fittingly announced in Washington, Pennsylvania, not Washington, D.C.  It addresses the mounting concerns of America’s hard-pressed majority: the working- and middle-classes. 

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That’s most of us — whatever race, color, or creed.  We’re daily struggling under the spreading policy and governance failures of our shady, witless president, Joe Biden, and congressional Democrats.  Let’s not leave out Joe’s handlers and department and agency chiefs for ample rations of blame. 

The Commitment was modeled after Newt Gingrich’s uber-successful 1994 “Contract with America.”  The Contract was instrumental in securing the U.S. House for the GOP for the first time since 1956.  Republicans were swept in with 56 seats.  The GOP took the Senate, too, gaining an impressive eight seats.  The takeover was termed the “Republican Revolution.”  

House Republicans today need only gain five seats to win the majority.  But why stop at five?  With Biden and Democrats ruining the country, Republicans need to do everything possible to run the table.  Why in heavens name leave anything for the Democrats?       

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But wait, say you.  You’re holding your nose just saying McCarthy’s name.  If he has anything to do with the Commitment, it’s got to be a nothingburger.  After all, McCarthy is a “RINO,” a “puke,” a “sellout,” and whatever else can be thrown at him, including heaping handfuls of elephant dung. 

The midterm contests are larger than McCarthy or Mitch McConnell, the truly odious Senate leader.  The challenges we’re confronting are greater than the personalities.  Before you say, “Yeah, I’ve heard that before,” understand the Commitment is a tool for GOP House candidates, who, as a group, contain the biggest number of America First hopefuls ever assembled. 

Donald Trump — who put the “First” in America — has endorsed 150 House incumbents, challengers, and open-seat contenders.  Add 19 U.S. Senate incumbents and open race candidates.  The former — and, perhaps, future — president is too savvy to hold his nose and then walk away.  McCarthy, Trump calculates, is a man he can work with if enough America First candidates are elected and comprise the GOP House caucus.  A robust contingent of Trump-supported House Republicans would exert all sorts of pressure on McCarthy to play ball or risk losing the speakership.  

McConnell, on the other hand, is a backstabber whom Trump is trying to end-run.   

Florida senator Rick Scott — who deserves a huge shoutout for his 12-point “Rescue America” plan – would make an outstanding Senate Majority Leader.  Scott was a successful businessman and Florida governor whose beginnings were humble.  McConnell knows to worry about Scott.  Scott would work closely with a future president Trump or DeSantis.  Mitch only cares about playing the D.C. insider’s game, with plenty of benefits accruing to himself and Elaine Chao, his backstabbing wife.          

Cynical Mitch prefers a Republican Senate minority if that helps him retain top-dog status.  Trying to stay top-dog, McConnell has publicly disparaged Republican Senate candidates and pulled $9.6 million in super PAC money from Blake Masters’ Arizona fight with two-faced Mark Kelly.  In his elegantly passive-aggressive way, Mitch is signaling that America’s future matters a whole helluva lot less than his future.  All the more reason to send a few bucks to Masters and other Trump- and Scott-backed Senate candidates.