A Republican convention about fear collides with a midterm about prices

In a Reuters-Ipsos poll last week, 47 percent of voters said that the cost of living would be the single biggest factor in how they vote this November. Thus, when Republicans gathered in Dallas last week for their first-ever midterm convention, they had an important opportunity to show voters how the party would ease the affordability crisis.

Indeed, the Republicans had billed their convention as a showcase for its affordability agenda — no tax on tips or overtime, tax cuts and an economy they insist is finally turning the corner. However, the message that actually filled the American Airlines Center was not that Republicans would make life cheaper.  It was that Democrats are too extreme to be trusted with power.

President Trump used his keynote speech to warn that a Democratic-controlled Congress would be a “communist caucus.” Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) took a similar tone — “These people are sick.” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) described Democratic candidates as the most “dangerous, radical and frankly, weird” in American history. 

So, lacking an appealing economic message, Republicans are betting that they can make November an election about fear of Democratic extremism.

To be sure, this strategy isn’t baseless. Fifty-six percent of Americans hold an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party, and 48 percent use the word “extreme” to describe it, according to CBS News. Democrats should take those concerns seriously, especially when the party appears more focused on ideological debates than the immediate economic pressures facing working- and middle-class........

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