Op-Ed: No one really has any clue about what’s going to happen in the midterms. Most people agree with the GOP, and if that’s not bad enough, they have to also figure out how to counter the accusations of being a bunch of elitists out of touch with regular Americans.
With election season now over, the chatter on social media, particularly among conservative Republicans and Tea Partiers, is often about what’s going to happen in the midterms.
As usual, the GOP is in the driver’s seat, except this time the GOP is in a fight to protect its own survival — without any help from Democrats, who are focused on getting out the new voters of the Trump era.
Even though Democrats have spent the better part of the past decade trying to persuade Americans with “elites” that they can do better than Trump, Republicans see it differently.
“There is a difference in perception of how we perceive ourselves politically,” said Steve Schmidt, a state party executive director from Michigan. “There is an assumption we can just ride in on our horses. We don’t believe that.”
The big question in the debate over the 2018 midterms is: What happens when you have people who are fed up with the status quo in Washington and are ready to change it?
There is no shortage of theories about that, with one of the most popular being that Trump supporters turn out for the midterms in large numbers.
But while the Democrats’ strategy has been to make the American people believe their message about elites and the decline of American democracy when the truth is they don’t really know what the truth is and they’ve been lied to, Republicans are already laying the foundation for their own.
“We’re building a case to convince independents and Democrats that we can change this Congress by winning elections,” said Schmidt. “In 2018, we’ve got to be ready to win
