GOP Can Be Loved Again by Not Caving to Left

Be unafraid. Be very unafraid. This is the message that Washington, D.C. Republicans need to internalize — pronto.

From Capitol Hill to the White House, the GOP seems perpetually in fear. When Republicans see their shadows, they leap like terrified Cheshire cats into the chandeliers.

They need the courage, rather than the cowardice, of their convictions.

Just what do they fear? That the voters will punish them for doing what the voters sent them there to do? Obamacare repeal and replacement squeaked through the GOP House with just two votes to spare. At this writing, Republican senators are struggling to agree on even a manicure of Obamacare’s tentacles.

Meanwhile, on taxes, un-supply-side noises lately have emerged from the White House.

President Donald J. Trump told The Wall Street Journal, "The truth is the people I care most about are the middle-income people in this country who have gotten screwed," adding, "And if there’s upward revision, it’s going to be on high-income people."

Trump’s comments echo those of his chief strategist, Steve Bannon. A source told Fox News in early July that Bannon wants "the top tax bracket to have a 4 in front of it." An income-tax rate of at least 40 percent would hike taxes above today’s 39.6 percent top levy.

Why this whiff of class-war rhetoric? Three cheers for middle-class tax cuts, but why stop there? Americans who pay most of the taxes need relief, too. Boosting taxes on "high-income people" or "the top tax bracket" will earn Trump and Bannon precisely zero goodwill among liberals who hate the wealthy almost as much as they hate Trump and Bannon.

Also, the GOP Congress aggressively has probed “Russiagate” while showing shocking timidity about pursuing Hillary Clinton’s $145 million, pro-Russian, uranium-for-bribes swap; Bill Clinton’s $500,000 speaking fees from Kremlin-tied banks, the DNC’s election-related collusion with Ukrainian officials, and Obama’s offer of "more flexibility" toward Vladimir Putin after his 2012 re-election.

If the GOP thinks that backpedaling on Obamacare, taxes, and ethics probes will mollify Democrats, they are tragically mistaken. The left's resistance will hammer them, no matter what.

In the first six months of their respective terms, for instance, Obama saw 206 of his 385 nominees confirmed by the Senate (53.5 percent), while only 55 of Trump’s 257 nominees were approved (21.4 percent). Democrats filibustered 34 of Trump’s appointees, versus eight of Obama’s. A Senate Republican Policy Committee study concluded on Tuesday, "At the current rate, it will take 11 years to confirm all of the president’s nominees to fill jobs in the executive branch."

Simply put: Trump-hating Democrats never will give him or the GOP any breaks. If Trump sang Mr. Rogers’ theme, "It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood," they would denounce it as "a dog-whistle defense of anti-minority red-lining practices."

If Republicans are too scared to probe the Clintons’ and Obama’s collusion with the Kremlin, never mind. Democrats, regardless, will scream, "Russia, Russia, Russia!" until Lenin leaps from his tomb and dances through Red Square.

If "growing in Washington" is supposed to buy peace with CNN and that snotty treason rag in New York, good luck! If Republicans gave ice cream cones to orphans, these news outlets would test them for poison. If Republicans want to be loved, they should stop quivering at their desks and cease doing things that they think will make them look nice and win the love of Democrats and the liberal media. They never will enjoy either.

So, they might as well stop dragging their feet, caving in, and start sending President Trump more — much more — legislation to sign. They simply should keep their promises on Obamacare, taxes, immigration, border security, and shrinking the size and scope of the federal government.

If Republicans want to be loved, they can do so by restoring freedom and prosperity to the people who got them elected, not knuckling under to the left, who only offer permanent, holistic hostility.

Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News contributor and a contributing editor with National Review Online. He has been a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University. Read more opinions from Deroy Murdock — Click Here Now.