Republicans Vote to Keep Losing

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

A coach who joins a team after a winning season can expect a great deal of pressure to keep winning, and if that coach can't keep those wins coming, he or she can expect to be fired - perhaps even at mid-season, or at the end of the first losing season, or definitely by the end of the second losing season.

That's the way it works in athletics, but coaching in politics is apparently governed by a different set of principles.  Yesterday Ronna Romney McDaniel, a wealthy white woman from Michigan, was elected to her fourth two-year term as Chair of the Republican National Committee - after leading her party in three consecutive national failures at the polls.

Ms. Romney McDaniel initially won the leadership of the party in January of 2017 after receiving the endorsement of Donald Trump, the man who had just shocked much of the nation by winning the presidency on a Constitutional technicality known as the Electoral College provision.  The country had also elected a Republican House and Senate, and many believed that the GOP was once again on the rise and that things were coming up roses for the party of privilege.

In 2018 the Republicans strengthened their advantage in the Senate by a couple of seats, but somehow managed to lose control of the House of Representatives - bigly - with the Democrats picking up a net gain of 41 seats.  That was a major and stunning loss for the GOP, and it came in the middle of Donald Trump's term as President.

Then, of course, in 2020, the Democrats not only kept control of the House, but managed to win back the presidency  as well as control of the Senate by scoring fifty seats in that chamber.  Losing control of both the House and the Senate as well as the Presidency should have been enough to end the career of any coach, yet somehow Ronna Romney McDaniel managed to tenaciously cling to power like a barnacle refusing to give up its grip on on the hull of a stately private yacht.

And now 2022 has come and gone and things still remain grim for the Republican Party.  Yes, the GOP did take back the House, barely, while political analysts felt they should have done much better, but the Republicans also managed to lose a seat in the Senate which allowed the Democrats to claim a clear majority in the upper chamber.

Ronna Romney McDaniel had presided over three losing cycles for her party, and yet she still wanted to be its leader.  This time, however, some in the Republican Party had grown tired of the losing, and an opposition candidate arose from the ranks.  Harmeet Dhillon, a lawyer from California, mounted a vigorous campaign to take down Romney McDaniel.  Yesterday, after a somewhat poisonous campaign (some Republicans, being Republicans and unable to control themselves, had mounted a "whisper" campaign about Ms. Dhillon'ss Sikh religion), Ronna Romney McDaniel managed to prevail in a secret ballot and maintain control of the GOP for another two years.  The final vote was 111 for Romney McDaniel, 51 for Harmeet Dhillon, four for sleeper candidate Mike Lindell, and one for former New York Congressman Lee Zeldin.  

To Ronna's credit, she says that the upcoming term as leader of the Republican Party hierarchy will be her last.  She is probably right about that.

Thanks for hanging in there, Ronna.  Me and my Democratic friends appreciate you.  See you in the funny papers!