Despite the best efforts of the media the midterm elections look to be a Red Wave. How big that wave is will depend on both how bad it gets in the next couple of months and whether enough Republicans run on something more than how bad it’s getting under Democrat rule. It could be very bad, which will likely convince GOP strategists that their goal is to simply get out of the way. That is a mistake. Republicans need to be running on promises about how they can actually mend what Dems have put asunder. But GOP politicians need to do more than come up with better policies, crucial as that is.
All the best policies in the world won’t execute or administer themselves. What often happened in the Trump administration—subversion of the administration’s policies by departmental officers and administrators at high and low levels—happens at all levels of government. The administrative swamp often drains Republican policies before the politicians can drain them. Thus, executives and legislators must identify able candidates for administrative positions in government or prepare to see their policies become dead letters or, worse, the means by which opposing policies are enacted. At all levels of government, the old saying is true: personnel is policy. Three new stories in three different states, one negative and two positive, demonstrate this truth. They are suggestive of what the GOP needs to focus on to win, not only elections but the policy battles that will ensure their constituents’ well-being—and further election victories that do not depend only on how bad the other side is.
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