Politics > Republicans

Republicans Need To Get Their Act Together If They’re To Win The Midterms And Beyond

Too many Republicans are so focused on single issues that they miss the big picture—and, unlike the disciplined Democrats, our party leadership isn’t helping.

Allan J. Feifer | March 4, 2026

After publishing over 250 pieces in the last five years, I’ve noticed recurring patterns. Among them, conservatives are becoming extremely myopic, reacting much like a bull in a ring to a matador’s red cape. Absent the red cape, the bull paws the ground, snorts and blusters, but stands pat until that red cape is displayed, and then, on cue, charges ahead, getting killed in the process. So it is with too many conservatives, who have a singular focus on limited aspects of problems, not necessarily the most important ones, leading us to what I would characterize as too many playing small ball, missing what’s important, and falling into the trap of being led to political slaughter time after time.

Samuel Johnson was credited with the phrase: “When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” Thankfully, few of us have been, or are in the position of imminent death. Absent that reality, people on both sides invent specious priorities and positions that seldom reflect actual imperatives, seeing themselves likely to die on the wrong hill. Frankly, too many of us don’t know which first-priority issues we must stand firm on and which issues we can compromise on. This leads to conservatives reflexively being against issues that divide us unnecessarily, thereby diluting our power and weakening us.

The midterms are barely six months away, and the Republican Party is already having significant problems that threaten the cohesion necessary to maintain control in Congress:

Let’s start with the current military operation in Iran. Senators Thomas Massie and Rand Paul, the usual dissenters, were joined by several Republican House members expressing sharp disagreement. What happened to political unity during a war that is now a fait accompli?

Health-care policy and the future of ACA subsidies. How many Americans even know that only the enhanced subsidies are gone, not the original subsidies?

Foreign policy and the use of military force as an instrument of necessary change. Trump is using the same authorization to defend the country that all modern previous presidents have used!

The budget reconciliation strategy and legislative priorities appear unfocused and largely ineffective.

Foreign policy transparency and the Epstein Files amount to sleight of hand and dominate too many minds on trivial subjects.

Internal caucus discipline and loyalty to Trump remain feckless.

These divisions matter because they limit the GOP’s ability to pass major legislation, even with unified control; expose ideological diversity within the Party (e.g., populists, fiscal conservatives, nationalists, libertarians, and institutionalists; create political risk for Republicans in swing districts who must balance party expectations with constituent pressures; and complicate Trump’s ability to push a coherent agenda in an election year.

Across all these issues, the core tension is between maximalist ideological goals and pragmatic electoral considerations.

Hardliners want bold reforms.

Swing-district members want to avoid attack ads.

Trump wants wins but not fights he might lose.

Senate Republicans are wary of politically costly votes.

This creates a structural problem: no single faction has enough votes to impose its will, and the narrow majority magnifies every disagreement, diluting our power and threatening to cede the field to the other side, promising to dismantle the progress made so far in short order.

Image created using AI.

Democrats, in addition to being statists, which means they intuitively move in lockstep to achieve their goals, also maintain far tighter party discipline than Republicans because they use a set of institutional, financial, and cultural enforcement mechanisms that the GOP either lacks or cannot wield with the same force. The difference is structural, not just attitudinal.

The single most important mechanism Democrats use—and Republicans struggle to match—is centralized control over the candidate pipeline and campaign resources. An almost coequal factor is Party leadership. I would argue that not since Newt Gingrich has the Party had a political architect of his caliber who unified our messaging and demanded appropriate fealty to the Party as a quid pro quo for Party support. Absent Donald Trump, we’d already have returned to the political wilderness. This can’t stand for the long term, and President Trump will be gone in less than three years, in either case.

If we get a shellacking in the midterms, it will be because of two factors:

·      We did not get our house in order.

·      We lost the messaging war.

It is not defeatist to acknowledge that the patient is sick. It is defeatist to give up and not make whatever structural changes are required to win. As a pilot, I always reviewed every mission for lessons learned. It was rare that there was no useful takeaway; sometimes complacency crept in, and you needed a bit of a scare to put you back on your toes. Israel got complacent, and October 7th was the result. Recent events in Iran demonstrate that Israel has got its mojo back; Republicans need to do the same.

It is a certainty, like death and taxes, that every consequential political figure will eventually fade away and with him (or her) a new set of leaders will rise with new priorities, narratives, and vigor. This is the way it should be.

What hasn’t changed is that to win, we must unify on essential elements and march as one in defense of those issues, something we’re struggling with right now. Until and unless we address our deficiencies in the House and Senate, we could have ten Donald Trumps, and we’ll have squandered the moment, charging endlessly at that red cape someone dangles in front of us, proving we’re the dumb animals Democrats paint us as.

Author, Businessman, Thinker, and Strategist. Read more about Allan, his background, and his ideas to create a better tomorrow.

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