The Cost of Bashing the GOP
Approval ratings for the Republican Party recently sank to their lowest levels in a quarter century. According to Pew Research Center, an appalling 62% of registered voters view the GOP unfavorably. This is not just because the American people don’t like the leading candidates – Trump and Cruz – but because both candidates ran for president by bashing their own party and its leaders.
John Boehner certainly deserves some criticism, but he also delivered GOP majorities in three consecutive elections, actually cut spending two years in a row, and succeeded in reducing the deficit by nearly three-fourths. Mitch McConnell conquered the Senate in 2014, after 8 years of Democratic domination, and not one Republican in either house of Congress voted for Obamacare.
If presidential contenders express only contempt for their party it not only undermines GOP chances for winning the White House, but damages candidates for House, Senate and legislatures across the country.