Ben Sixsmith in The Critic has examined the Republican loss in Texas and come up with a few conclusions. Mr Sixsmith believes that demographic changes with more Hispanic and more Asian voters who he said tend to vote Democrat, has had an impact but he also believes that the Republicans have not helped themselves with their choices of policies.

Mr Sixsmith said that given the demographic and structural issues in Texas:….

“…Republicans had to build mass appeal — generating broad confidence and optimism. Instead, they embraced a bizarre form of political minoritarianism. Tarrifs appealed to marginal protectionists. The war on Iran appealed to marginal neocons. In states like Texas, strict abortion laws appealed to marginal social conservatives.

Of course, politics is not just a popularity contest. You can get away with controversial policies if you get results. But Trump’s most controversial policies have been failures. Tariffs raised prices. The war on Iran has been a destructive mess.

Republican messaging amid these failures has been catastrophic. A lot of this results from the fact that Donald Trump is such an ultimately squalid man. His charisma appeals to people until his narcissism and spite turn them off. A president who tries to plaster his name across national institutions, revels in the deaths of his enemies, and allows people around him to use his presidency as a chance for financial gain seems especially egregious in harder times.”

Mr Sixsmith makes some good points there even if they make for uncomfortable reading. Whilst I agreed with the idea of returning the legislation of abortion to the individual States instead of it being centrally controlled, because attitudes to abortion vary from State to State, this move has also opened up the wounds of this controversial issue. As Mr Sixsmith says social conservative politicians in Texas calling for more restrictive abortion policies that might not be as widely supported among the population as among small sections of the political classes and this might have had an electoral effect.

There were just not enough Texans who were prepared to suffer the negative effects of tariffs or the effects of the war in Iran or who were in favour of highly restrictive abortion rules to propel voters to carry on supporting the Republicans. I’m in agreement with Mr Sixsmith that people will support policies that are controversial or ones that might bring hardship for a period if it’s clear that these policies will in the end have positive results and that’s not been the case. Tariffs have hurt, the Iran war has been badly prosecuted and some of the socially conservative policies that have been pushed might not have been all that popular with the broader electorate.

Mr Sixsmith’s view of Mr Trump is interesting. I both agree and disagree with him on his assessment of the President. I liked the President’s bombast when he got in the second time and I thought that his charisma was good for the West and it seemed a great positive change for there to be a confidently and unapologetically Western man in the White House. But Mr Trump didn’t know when to turn the bombast off and there were times when maybe he should have done. The President is looking more sleazy but not half as sleazy as those surrounding the Administration who have exploited the Administration for their own personal fiscal troughing. Mr Sixsmith is correct that those surrounding the President may not have given the best impression to the American people in times of considerable hardship.

A political party does not exist in isolation, it needs to have a relationship with potential voters and to go where the voters are regarding policies. It appears that in some individual States the Republicans have not gone where the voters are with regards policy. They seem to have forgotten that policies that might be admired by think tanks such as involvement in regional wars or poorly thought out tariffs which have had second order negative consequences, might not be the same policies as that are desired by the people. Maybe if the Republicans had had policies with a broader appeal then this disaster might not have occurred.

Link

How the Republicans lost Texas

https://thecritic.co.uk/how-the-republicans-lost-texas/