Conservatives are fairly asking what the GOP has won for them in the Obama era. Here's a truncated list https://t.co/LDJP4tSoW8
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) January 26, 2016“Under President Obama, Democrats have lost 900+ state legislature seats, 12 governors, 69 House seats, 13 Senate seats,” GOP strategist Rory Cooper observed. “That’s some legacy.”
The nation’s fed up GOP voters will be quick to tell you that electoral victories don’t matter to them if they do not yield any measurable achievements, which is perfectly fair. What is not fair is how they quantify those achievements. For those farsighted conservatives who measure the pace of American political evolution over the course of generations, the devastation the Obama era has wrought to the Democratic Party should warm the cockles. “The absence of up-and-coming Democrats is evident in Washington, here the party leadership in Congress consists largely of aging veterans,” the New York Times reported. “The average age of the three top Democratic leaders in the House is 75, while the three most senior Republican leaders – with the new speaker of the House, Paul D. Ryan – average 48 years old.” Under Obama, a generation of Democrats who might have risen through the ranks in red and purple states was wiped out. Those are change agents who will never reach maturity and won’t be guiding their states or their country to the left.
...Republicans have prevented and paid grave political prices for blocking retributive legislation aimed at curtailing the fictitious scourge of gender payment disparities resulting from gross sexism. Along with centrist Democrats, they foiled unnecessary gun control legislation, which would have only had the effect of soothing Democratic nerves and not in reducing gun violence. They have provided a check on the Democratic Party that would rewrite the First Amendment to the Constitution to prevent institutions with which they disagree from engaging in political speech. After winning control of both chambers, the Republican Party forced Barack Obama to veto the repeal of the Affordable Care Act – demonstrating its frailty and highlighting how Democrats and Republicans alike are deeply dissatisfied with the law as it is presently constructed.
For the press, the headlines have written themselves. “GOP blocks bill to stop terrorists from buying guns”; “GOP blocks minimum wage, sick leave proposals”; “Senate GOP blocks Paycheck Fairness Act for the second time”; “Obama: GOP blocked 500 bills.” For serving as the firewall voters wanted, Republicans get no credit from their core supporters. They are, however, on the receiving end of all the condemnation the left can muster. Theirs is a thankless task.
