Midterm elections no longer GOP v. Dems, but common sense v. chaos

That was President Donald Trump‘s patently unorthodox pitch during the 2016 presidential campaign, which got roasted by the usual suspects in legacy media. But Trump was simply reading the room correctly. He understood, and still does, that his in-your-face brand isn’t appealing to everyone, especially establishment Republicans.The overall premise is simple: You may not like me, but the alternative is infinitely worse. The midterm elections coming in less than 40 days are a binary choice between common sense and chaos. GOP candidates, of course, represent the common-sense side. To prove the point, here are the questions voters should ask their candidates between now and election day:Are you for or against illegal immigration?Are you for or against strong borders? Are you for or against the mass deportation of those in the country illegally, including those with criminal records?Are you for or against tax cuts? Are you for or against no tax on tips and Social Security?Are you for or against government-run healthcare?Are you for or against the elimination of private health insurance?Are you for or against maintaining the Electoral College, as the founders intended?Are you for and against stacking the Supreme Court?Are you for or against the abolition of prisons, the presidency, and the Senate?Are you for or against parents not being notified if their child seeks a sex change? Are you for or against men playing against women in sports? Do you support government ownership of most large corporations? Do you support communism and chaos, or capitalism and common sense?This appears to be a simple choice for anyone sane, sober, and a student of history. Massive expansion of government has never prospered. It has often failed. HBO’s Bill Maher once contrasted the difference between capitalism and socialism perfectly on his Friday night program, Real Time.GOP midterm Convention guests cheer for President in Dallas Texas (Washington Examiner/ Adisa Hargett-Robinson) “Here’s capitalist South Korea at night from space,” Maher said while showing a satellite photo of a glistening country full of lights from above.“Here’s socialist North Korea,” he contrasted with a pitch-dark photo. “In 1990, Venezuela was wealthier than Poland. But then Poland, finally free of Soviet-style economics, went all in on capitalism and now their economy is as big as Japan and people there have high wages, low inflation, cars, vacations, homes,” Maher continued. “Meanwhile, Venezuela traded capitalism for Hugo Chavez’s socialism for the 21st century, which turned out to be like socialism in the last century or any century, a f***ng mess.”“It turned one of Latin America’s richest countries into one of its poorest. Low wages, high inflation, shortages, outages, 8 million people fleeing,” Maher concluded, before taking a shot at socialist New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani: “If you think New York can somehow reinvent this wheel, you’re in for a rude awakening.”Republicans need to hammer home this argument during every interview, every speech. The free-stuff pitch sounds great until you apply basic math and logic. Just look at Mamdani’s performance in New York.The socialist mayor promised universal free child healthcare, but now says the program will only cover 2-year-olds and apply to only 2,000 eligible families in a city of 8 million people. In a related story, this is the same city that already has a projected fiscal 2027 budget shortfall of $10.4 billion and has no idea how to pay for this limited childcare program without widening said shortfall.Mamdani also promised free busing, government-run grocery stores, and lower rents. But so far, in order:A) Free busing hasn’t happened. B) Government-run grocery stores have not opened, aren’t expected to until 2029, and are already at twice the cost they were originally budgeted for.C) Rents in Manhattan hit a record $5,285 in August, marking the third straight month since the mayor’s celebrated rent freeze that this dubious record has been broken. For context, a studio apartment now goes for $4,186 per month, the highest on record.In other words, it’s a disaster in the Big Apple. And elsewhere. A cursory look at the nation’s largest cities shows voter disdain for its Democratic leaders. In Los Angeles, incumbent Karen Bass is widely unpopular.So with New York as a preview of things to come if Democrats gain back power, and with previous macro examples of failed states from the Soviet Union to Cuba to Venezuela to the aforementioned North Korea, the argument should be a relatively easy one for Republicans to make.The problem for the Red Team is that the current state of the economy is a mixed bag, with its most glaring problem advertised on every street corner with a gas station. The cost of gas sits at about $4.50 per gallon. Democrats have seized on the issue, arguing that they know how to make everything, including gas, more affordable despite inflation sitting above 9% during Biden’s second year while Democrats controlled the House and Senate. And if we’re talking about the Democratic Socialists of America platform, it calls for all fossil fuel production to be eliminated, along with all offshore drilling — not exactly the proper remedy for bringing down gas prices. WHITE HOUSE TV PRESS POLL RESUMES COVERAGEIn the end, and this always sounds either hyperbolic, but these midterms, this 2028 election… these are truly the most important elections of our lifetime. Vote accordingly.