Republicans Should Play To Win

Let’s be honest, Democrats are in complete disarray on an epic scale. Gone are the halcyon days of “hope and change”. There is no grand figure around which to rally their base. They have no galvanizing message, no political rhythm, no mandate. All of which is self-imposed.

This should serve as a warning to Republicans.

“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations”, said Greek philosopher Archilochus, “we fall to the level of our training.” Meaning, those who fail to prepare in the off season fail to perform in the big game. Republicans would do well to remember that. There is no great political competition for the right side of the aisle right now. There is certainly bluster, obstruction, filibuster, and mayhem. But rhetoric does not connote responsibility. Obstruction does not equate to brinksmanship.

The danger here for Republicans is laziness due to a lack of competition.

In the absence of true political opposition Republicans can slip into their echo chambers and applaud themselves for mediocrity. There was no fight. Yet they can claim a victory. Year after year, session after session, speech after speech. Without breaking a political sweat, they do enough to get by, write a congratulatory op-ed about themselves and slip into that decaying place of tepid insolence as political muscles atrophy and political will becomes flaccid.

All because they had no real competition. No reason to be what they claim to be in their campaign commercials.

The Alabama Democratic Party was the canary in the coal mine for the national level Democrats. Since losing ground in the 2010 Republican wave election Alabama Democrats have had only one statewide officeholder via one-term US Senator Doug Jones. An election that was marked with an asterisk.

Jones himself has recently said that the Alabama Democratic Party is a complete “disaster”, saying further, “It is just an unmitigated disaster that has nowhere to go. They can’t even get a quorum to hold a meeting. And the reason they can’t get a quorum to hold a meeting is because the leadership of the party wants to kind of do all these weird shenanigans.”

No real competition there.

On the national level Democrats have cascaded into self-imposed chaos. Longtime Democrat strategist James Carville and newcomer activist turned party leader David Hogg recently clashed over direction. Trading insults and ideas the two defacto leaders of the left opined conversely that Democrats should be replaced, or just march on in current fashion. Meanwhile, Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) is facing attacks from the left for daring to moderate his positions. Democrat members of Congress are bum-rushing the gates of ICE detention facilities. Jasmine Crockett’s verbal insanity embarrasses her colleagues, and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez is being touted as a viable candidate for the office of president in 2028.

Watching the Democrats shoot themselves in the proverbial foot on a near daily basis is the political version of the Mad Hatters tea party. Hyperactivity, riddles with no answer, poise without purpose.

If Republicans squander this moment in time it will not be because the Democrats had their act together and put up the better fight. It will be a loss that is solely born by the team that had everything to lose. Donald Trump, in a recent interview with NBC News’ “Meet The Press” said that “being challenged is okay….it keeps you sharp”.

The danger here for Republicans is the lack of challenge. The complacency that comes from controlling their own destiny. In the absence of challenge Republicans have two choices: get busy winning, or get busy slipping into mediocrity.

Author J. Oswald Sanders wrote a seminal classic called Spiritual Leadership. It’s a book that I have dog-eared, underlined, and reread more than any other next to the Bible. In the fifteenth chapter, while talking about the fact that leadership can mean great exertion and long hours Sanders said something that should be printed on bumper stickers, t-shirts and inspirational posters everywhere. That if a person “….is not willing to rise early and work late, to expend greater effort in diligent study and faithful work, that person will not change a generation. Fatigue is the price of leadership. Mediocrity is the result of never getting tired.”

That my friends is not a mantra for what to do only when your competition is at its strongest. That is a formula for success that is driven by a sense of mission, a time and place of calling, a moment when it is yours to do. Republicans have to move forward on the field of political battle whether the opposition is fighting hard or not.

Eric Cantona was a famed forward for Manchester United football club, and one of the greatest players to ever take the pitch. His philosophy was the same. “I don’t play against a particular team. I play against the idea of losing”, Cantona said.

Theres a difference.  If you play down to the team on the other side then you play less of the quality that you are capable of.

Republicans must play to win. They must seize the moment and play to the idea of victory with an actual game plan.

Anything less is mediocrity.