Anger and disgust.
Those are the two emotions that Democrats have effectively been deploying against Republicans. Scandals, real and faked, were rolled out while lefty protesters shrieked, the media amplified the noise, and ordinary suburbanites muttered doubtfully.
And Republicans dithered.
They protested, they argued, they tried being reasonable, sometimes they tried being outraged, but it was muted, frustrated, and unfocused.
The Kavanaugh-Ford hearings focused them.
From Brett Kavanaugh’s opening remarks to Senator Graham’s biting denunciation of Senate Dem chicanery, to Senator Cornyn’s more measured condemnation, Republicans took the justified anger at the corrupt process and turned it on the Democrats.
They mobilized the anger, disgust and outraged, and released it. They stopped acting like an incompetent majority fumbling away opportunity after opportunity and started to act like a populist insurgency.
Anger is a powerful thing. As is disgust.
It conveys the arc of outrage. It comes with a willingness to call out the corrupt manipulations of the system that extend from Washington D.C. down to everyday local life.
This will be an anger election. If the Republicans don’t get angry, and stay angry, they will be outshouted by the Democrats.
And they will lose.
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