As Republican Congressional Candidates Become More Popular, the Expectations Around Trump Intensify

Since the debates, Republicans have experienced a surge of momentum that Democrats, at least in their current state, had little chance of overcoming. Now, after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, that momentum has given Republicans an even greater boost that even leftist news outlets seem to be both fascinated and terrified by. 

This hasn’t just been beneficial for Trump’s campaign. Congressional Republican races are seeing the boost as well. 

According to YouGov, Republicans had been trailing behind Democrats, but more recently, that gap has closed to the point where both parties are neck and neck at 45 percent for voting intention. RCP has Republicans at +0.4. 

I’m not going to start spiking any footballs or declaring a red wave. I’ll not make that mistake again. What I will say, however, is that if this surge in momentum keeps up and Republicans start to gain more of a lead to the point where it’s almost assured that both the House and the Senate will belong to Republicans, then this is good, but it becomes a good problem. 

The issue is that with more power comes more expectations and, thanks to the Democrats being the most radical the’ve been since the 1920s, the expectations for Republicans to clean house will be exceptionally high. Americans, not just Republicans, will want to see Washington cleaned up, its priorities refocused, and for Republicans, more than a few heads will need to figuratively roll. 

I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that the last four years have been kind of scary. 

Democrats made it their business to invade our personal lives in more than a few ways. They locked us down, tried to force unproven vaccines into us, threatened our livelihoods if we didn’t comply, abused the economy to the point where people left and right anticipated layoffs, jailed people in order to reinforce a flimsy narrative, classified groups of people as dangerous enough to send the DOJ after them, attempted to empower the IRS with billions of dollars, and now we’re talking about a draft because we’re drifting closer and closer to war…and that’s just to name a few. 

What we have on our hands is an out-of-control government that sees the people as subjects to be used and manipulated, not the people they answer to. This attitude has come about thanks to advances in power the government gave to itself over the course of the years. The people in office right now, whether elected or appointed, do so with the utmost confidence that they answer to few or no one at all. Sadly, many of them are correct. 

If given all congressional chambers and the executive office, Trump and the Republicans will be expected to begin a purge of appointees, laws, departments, policies, and more. It will be expected that those who did wrong during Biden’s time in power will be wheeled out in front of congress to answer for what they did, investigated, and punished to the full extent of the law. It will be expected of them that laws be crafted, not for the people, but for the government that will further arrest any out-of-control growth, spending, and attack power against the American people. 

That’s a lot of responsibility, but these Biden years have taught us just how far the left is willing to go to obtain and keep power, and that can’t be allowed to happen again. This should be one of those moments we as a nation look back on and understand that we came very close to losing it all. We were almost that generation that lost everything that Reagan warned about. 

But this does present a problem. With that much expectation comes with the issue that if Trump’s time in office fails to produce at least most of what the people expect, then that could damage the Republican Party going forward. If they don’t give the people what they’re asking for, then confidence in the Republican Party will tank. Democrats will rise again thanks to the sudden surge in weakness and lack of motivation in the Republican base. 

The people will say, “you said fight like hell, so why didn’t you?” 

If Republicans want the 2026 midterms and 2028 locked, they’re going to need to do some serious damage to the D.C. machine in four years. I assume Trump chose J.D. Vance, at least in part, because he trusts that Vance will be able to continue the MAGA way after Trump is gone. That means this team, with Republicans, have to give people a reason to stay fired up so that Vance can either finish an already mostly complete job, or go far and above what we expected. 

Failure to do so could be disastrous for the Republican Party. 

Reagan said we’re one generation away. He was half right. I’d say it’s worse. I’d say we’re one weak term away. 

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