For true Republicans, extremists are company they are ashamed to be seen with

In an overheated socio-political environment, where across this great land the likes of Abigail Spanberger are household names, one name you haven’t heard in all the post-election postmortems was Phil Scott.

Scott is governor of the uber-progressive state of Vermont, home of Bernie Sanders, butterflies and designer ice cream. A moderate Republican running against a liberal Democrat, Scott squeaked by with 71% of the vote. America, it seems, is hungry for RINOs.

Lest we forget, it is the MAGA side of the party that are the real Republicans in Name Only. True conservatives don’t borrow money they don’t have, to lavish tax cuts on those least in need. They do not trample on the rights of others, they invest wisely in our economic future. They do not threaten sabotage of our federal budget and they certainly do not support armed attacks on their beloved U.S. Capitol.

Most of all, real Republicans know exactly what they want to accomplish, and they are proud enough of their agenda to, at their nominating conventions, put it in writing for all to see. Real Republicans believe in what that little American flag pin on their lapel stands for, including the peaceful transition of power.

Following the midterms — which Republicans lost more than Democrats won — most of the GOP elite have assigned their woes to Donald Trump, whom they view much as a tourist town views a tourist. They want his money (or in this case his voters) but then wish he'd go away.

The inconvenient truth is that Trump emitted an audible groan following the Dobbs decision, predicting it could wreak electoral havoc. Yes, he appointed justices who seemed inclined to overturn Roe v. Wade, he just never thought they would be stupid enough to actually do it.

Nor was it Trump who, in the aftermath of Dobbs, stampeded state legislatures, passing laws that would make murderers out of young American women.

So the bad news for the Republican Party is that it doesn’t have a Donald Trump problem, it has an issues problem.

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Pretend for a minute you are running for office and your team says you must be against abortion, against health care, against Social Security, against Medicare, against clean water and clean air, against free energy, and in favor of Vladimir Putin, in favor of unfair elections, in favor of slower internet, in favor of insider trading and in favor of burning coal forever. OK, Champ, now go out and win over those moderates you need to win.

How is that supposed to work?

It does explain, at least, the desperate GOP attempts to gerrymander, suppress the vote, lie about their true intentions and its attempt to pack state electoral offices with men and women who would willingly put a torch to ballot boxes from inner cities and other Democratic strongholds.

Baltimore Orioles Manager Earl Weaver once visited an ineffective pitcher Scott McGregor on the mound and said, “If you know how to cheat, start now.” If 60% of America disagrees with you on the issues, cheating is about your only hope.

It should be noted that Democrats were on the wrong side of the issues in the 1980s, and had been saddled with an albatross of a Supreme Court that expanded criminal rights, discouraged commerce and invented Constitutional edicts that simply didn’t exist. Many Americans were every bit as outraged with the liberal court of a half century ago as they are of the conservative court today.

Democrats doggedly skewed to unpopular ideas such as raising taxes to pay for boondoggles like urban renewal and cutting defense spending. When they slumped in the polls they blamed voters for not paying attention, or themselves for failing to get their message out.

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During a debate with President Ronald Reagan, one of the panelists asked Democratic challenger Walter Mondale a prescient question: Isn’t it possible that voters are paying attention and you have gotten your message out — they just don’t like the message?

But Democrats persisted. In 1984, they believed Mondale’s unwanted ideas could be sold by the more stylish Mike Dukakis. Reagan won 41 states.

It wasn’t until Bill Clinton moderated the party — reforming welfare and balancing the budget — that Democrats got back on track.

Do Republicans have their own Clinton, someone who can make conservatives attractive once again to sober-minded Americans? Well sure, the question is whether they can win a demographic of voters for whom anger is the chief motivator.

On election night, Phil Scott avoided the state’s Republican party gathering to watch the election results come in, saying he preferred to spend the evening quietly with his family. For true Republicans, the extremists are company they — and the preponderance of Americans — are ashamed to be seen with.

Tim Rowland is a Herald-Mail columnist.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: GOP needs to get on the right side of the issues if it wants to win