When JD Vance appeared on a prominent podcast a couple of weeks ago, the vice president had an opportunity to pitch his message for the midterms. It didn’t go especially well.
Asked what he would tell voters who were disappointed by what had transpired since early last year, the Ohio Republican said: “Give us another chance, or give us another couple of years, to continue to work on the amazing things that we’ve been doing for the past two years.”
The phrasing was widely and swiftly panned — Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii called it “the most mind-boggling midterm pitch I’ve ever heard in my life” — in large part because “give us another chance” was an inherently defensive, and rather pitiful, message.
But the latter part of the vice president’s message stood out too: Vance apparently wants voters to believe total Republican control of the government in 2025 and 2026 has led to “amazing things.”
In other words, with time running out in the midterm cycle, the vice president tried to appeal to those who were simply delighted with the current status quo in the United States — and Vance apparently isn’t the only one.
House Speaker Mike Johnson sat down with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” hosts on Tuesday, and the Louisiana Republican sketched out a vision for governance after the midterms.
“What we would do in the next two years is exactly what we have been doing already,” Johnson said.
Congress’ top GOP leader went on to refer to recent “job numbers,” seemingly unaware of the fact that this year is on track to be the second worst for job creation in the United States since the Great Recession (excluding the pandemic).
None of this rhetoric seemed to do Republicans any favors, though it underscored one of the party’s central challenges: It isn’t just in control of the levers of federal power at a time of broad discontent, it’s also a party wholly lacking in a meaningful policy agenda, leaving the GOP with nothing to offer.
A Politico report from earlier this month noted, “Republicans used their midterm convention … to ask voters to preserve their congressional majorities and let them ‘finish the job.’ But with few consensus legislative goals, it’s far from clear what job they want to finish.”
Republicans want power, in other words, but they haven’t even tried to tell voters what they intend to do if they hold on to that power.
If the nation were riding high with peace and prosperity, the GOP’s pitch might be more compelling. But at the heart of the party leaders’ message is the idea that if voters just stick with the status quo for a while longer, failures will somehow transform into triumphs.
Why? Well, just because.
The result is an unexpected political dynamic with 43 days to go until Election Day: Democrats are telling voters that Republicans are offering more of the same, and the GOP House speaker is effectively conceding that Democrats are right.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
The post Democrats and Speaker Johnson agree: Republicans are offering voters more of the same appeared first on MS NOW.
