July 14, 2022
Midterms 2022: Republicans, don't get cocky
By
Bill Hansmann
The expression for which he is famous — "If anything can possibly go wrong, it will go wrong" — was around long before Colonel Edward A. Murphy gained fame by stating that dictum after the sensors on a U.S. Air Force test crash vehicle he was monitoring failed to provide useful data. Murphy's Law has remained a cautionary tale for all forms of human endeavor. It is only barely less certain than the law of gravity. While it is a given that what goes up must come down, it is only slightly less true that things will inevitably go wrong and muddy up what was seen as a sure outcome for any plan. The "law" applies to politics as well.
Republicans have anxiously awaited the 2022 midterm elections, believing that recapturing the House of Representatives and achieving a sufficient majority in the Senate to make it a filibuster-proof body is a certainty and will lead inevitably to a Republican president in 2024. They had best not discount the colonel.
Gas prices, which had risen to unheard-of levels, have not only leveled off, but fallen substantially in the last weeks. Joe Biden may or may not have been responsible for gasoline's unprecedented rise in cost, but the stickers placed on gas pumps depicting a laughing Biden pointing at the absurd amount drivers had to pay to drive away from the pump surely claimed he was. Now, no matter how addled his energy policies, he is able to point out the reversal of the high price trend and claim "he caused that."
The U.S. Supreme Court undoubtedly exceeded its constitutional authority when it made abortion universally available by its 1973 ruling on
Roe v. Wade. Though that decision was unconstitutional and morally bankrupt, it was seen as settled law. Pro-life advocates hated the wrong-headed decree, but it has long been baked into the cake of a polarized electorate. Its reversal in the
Dobbs decision has reopened that debate and threatens to put a dent in the female vote Republicans are counting on.
The seemingly endless mass shootings that have occurred almost weekly in the U.S. have caused most of us to realize that something must be done. Biden and his party claim they can solve this plague of gunfire by controlling the public's possession of those guns. Any sane person who looks objectively at the problem will realize that a country possessing over four hundred million firearms is not a candidate for gun control. But the perception that "empathetic" Democrats want to end the bloodshed while "bloodthirsty" Republicans want to perpetuate it cannot be ignored, no matter how insane it is. There are people who believe that nonsense, and many have the right to vote.
Hopefully, our trump card, pun intended, remains the feckless Biden. We can only hope he continues his ghastly gaffes and ridiculous remarks. A president who refers to the "honor" of the Holocaust before an Israeli audience and needs cue cards to tell him to sit or stand, then unwittingly displays those written commands to his audience, can only be seen as a gift that keeps on giving.
As the leader of the Democrat party, Biden will hopefully lead them over the cliff this November. But please, let's not forget Colonel Murphy. He stands ready, as always, to foil our plans. We had better do everything in our power to ensure that this time he will not have his way.
