‘Time for Republicans to end the Trump purgatory and begin new era’

Usually the US midterms are a referendum on the sitting president and his/her party, and the party in power will lose seats if not outright power in each chamber – the Senate and the House. And as it stands now at print, it looks like the Democrats will lose the House of Representatives, but only just; and the Senate will be decided in a December run-off, in Georgia once again.Historically since 1946, if the presidential job approval rating is below 50 percent, the president’s party loses an average of 37 seats. And if the presidential job approval rating is above 50 percent, the president’s party will lose an average of 14 seats. With an approval rating in the low 40s, Barack Obama in 2010 lost 63 House seats. Americans like checks and balances.But how does a president with 55 percent disapproval and 40 percent approval, who also appears to have cognitive decline, buck historic trends?As well as facing other tough external factors like the price of gas (petrol), inflation at a 40-year high, national murder rate up 30 percent, and an open southern border with illegal migrants and fentanyl flooding through?You need an opposition who cannot properly define itself. Trump held the Republican Party hostage, says Sarah Elliot (Image: GETTY)The Republican Party has been stuck in political purgatory for two years since the end of the 2020 election.President Trump could not face the reality that Joe Biden received 81 million votes and won.He began the narrative of stop-the-steal, told Georgia Republicans that their votes wouldn’t count in a Senate run-off and then the raid on the US Capitol building ensued.Most politicians with this record would be left for dead and abandoned by the party, except for Trump. Despite a few voices within the Republican Party who wanted to immediately move on – keep the message but find a new messenger –  Trump held the Republican Party hostage, along with his money-making grifters.With a die-hard following, the GOP leaders felt they had to kowtow to him and his followers. If you went against the MAGA-crowd, the mob would come for you.It became grassroots versus the donor class and suburban Republicans – a fractionalized coalition.Sitting in Mar-a-lago, Trump acted as kingmaker deciding whether or not GOP leadership were in favour or not.So it became very easy for President Biden to define the Republican Party as he wished: a bunch of MAGA, white supremacists who were a threat to democracy, and didn’t believe in election integrity.No matter how extreme and erroneous that depiction is.Thus the great 2020 rivalry between Trump & Biden spilled into the 2022 midterms, which became the 2020 election in overtime.And the voters, who are not happy with the direction of the country, bought into the Democrat’s definition and resoundingly underlined the point that any MAGA candidate who had questioned the 2020 election or who was backed by Trump would not be elected.So far not a single Trump-backed candidate in a toss up race has won.But as one era ends a new one begins.The GOP need not look far to who can lead them next, and who has the potential to unite the MAGA-base and the suburban-professional class.Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, an Ivy-League educated Naval Officer who only won initially by a half of a point four years ago, finds himself a victor by 20 points, making a purple swing state a deep red one.What’s significant is that the state of Florida is like a microcosm of the US, filled with people from all across the country. A great testing ground for national candidates, so his win here speaks volumes especially.DeSantis never locked down during Covid or kept children in masks or required vaccine mandates. Uniting Independents and Democrats, DeSantis even surpassed Trump’s number with Hispanics.Through his congressional redistricting efforts, Florida added four more safe Republican House seats which might just give the GOP the majority. He has the Trump chutzpah to take on lefty journos in a press briefing and will defend family values against the indoctrination of woke corporations like Disney.  His landslide couldn’t have come at a better time for Republicans.So whereas the Democrats read into these midterm results that overall people are not dissatisfied with President Biden, thus doubling-down on their radical agenda of identity politics, open borders, and energy dependency. It’s also very likely that President Biden will run again in 2024, barring unforeseen events.The Republicans will do their best to block the Biden agenda in Congress, but placing their 2024 hopes on a new generation of leadership, again from the Sunshine State. Sarah Elliott is board member and spokeswoman of Republicans Overseas UK.