Republican Party | Barataria - The work of Erik Hare

The Democrats lost the election bigtime, far more than the Republicans won it. As a Democrat I naturally worry more about my own party and what we should be doing, but that’s far from the most interesting story. After all, the Republicans inherited the vacuum amid 37% turnout and approval ratings for Congress at around 14%.

That’s not a win, it’s a default. And it’s not good to have power without any strong mandate.

What on earth should the Republicans do about it? There are two main schools of thought. One is to show that they deserve to be in government by demonstrating competence, the other is to keep pounding the Democrats and show how bad the other guys are. Governing seems like the obvious choice, but the landscape that has to be crossed is full of landmines. This might be an interesting two years.

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How ya doin’? I know this is a tough time and the last person you want to hear from is a Democrat, but many of you are friends of mine. Some of the kindest and most decent people I know are Republicans, and I care about you. Much of my family were and are Republicans, too. You have to know I write this from the bottom of my heart.

I’m really worried about you – as a party. I think that this nation works best when there are two engaged, committed, fearless, and honest parties mixin’ it up – but also gettin’ ‘er done. And …. well, rather than just get mad and blame you all for the very public way your party is ripping apart I thought I’d offer my support and encouragement for you to get better soon. Really, anything I can do to help. But let me tell you why this is so important to me.

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