Be honest. How often do you really think about the Republican National Committee? Be even more concise – how much do you dwell on the living being who acts as Chairman of the RNC?
Depending on your level of political interest, civics engagement and knowledge of the day-to-day workings of the two major American political parties, your answers probably varied widely, somewhere between “never” and “practically on a minute-by-minute basis”. If most average folks don’t pay much mind to politics and government – which sadly, a plethora of evidence exists that they don’t – they devote even less mental energy to the leadership of those parties.
Party structure almost never surfaces as a topic of discussion on the establishment news media’s front pages and cable shows – unless, of course, there’s a hubbub among Republicans related to Donald Trump. Democrats don’t need to bother explaining the tortured logic behind their inane policies whenever Trump is the center of the headlines madness – they just simply toss more rhetorical bombs and dive into their latest round of “Orange Man Bad” and move on to their next monologue about how “climate change” and gas stoves are destroying Mother Earth, or Critical Race Theory, or other anti-American diatribes.
But like with other topics of this nature, Americans should care more. And if you’re a conservative, you must care about the upcoming vote for Chairman of the RNC, almost as much as you would about voting for a presidential nominee in your state’s primary. Why? Because whoever wins this weekend will have a major impact on just about everything the Republican party does in the 2024 presidential cycle and for the foreseeable future.
If your goal is to back Republicans, you want to win. If you want to win, then rubberstamp voting for current Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel is inconceivable. McDaniel made news when she first assumed the position because she’s Mitt Romney’s niece and was generally regarded as a blueblood Republican who still could be counted on to tirelessly work for GOP candidate victories.
This hasn’t always been the case, as was reported last week by Matt Braynard at American Greatness. Braynard detailed how conservative Republican Joe Kent lost his very winnable Washington state race for a House seat simply because the national Republican Party’s policies worked against Kent and other conservative candidates in their collective quest to bring change and reform to Washington.
Braynard told of how Kent was starved of resources when he needed it the most, being vastly outspent in the final stage of his campaign by a typical Democrat who would vote for anything the Democrat leadership comes up with. Braynard also relayed how the RNC’s data operations have fallen hopelessly behind that of the Democrats in the past decade or so, much of which came under the tenure of the current leadership at GOP headquarters.
Policies are handed down from the top, and that’s where McDaniel enters the frame. By all appearances, McDaniel is a nice gal and someone who gets along with pretty much everyone – including former president Trump – but her abysmal record makes it a necessity to send her packing. No one I know believes McDaniel deserves another term, but her fate won’t be decided by the grassroots.
In a piece with the misleading title of “The Case for Another Term for Win-Free Ronna McDaniel”, conservative bomb-thrower Kurt Schlichter wrote at Townhall the other day:
“If not to win elections, what is the purpose of the RNC?...
“Let’s have some real talk. There is no case for Ronna McDaniel getting another term. She did not get it done in her three chances to date, and there is no indication she will start getting it done in the future. Maybe she’s a nice lady. Maybe not. I don’t care. Nor should you. More importantly, the 168 committee members who will cast their secret ballot on 1/27 should not care either.
“They should elect Harmeet Dhillon (You can help lobby your state GOP reps at www.HireHarmeet.com). There’s just no case for Ronna McDaniel. You do not have to dig into the party’s financial shenanigans. You need not ask how the RNC has botched the lawfare piece again and again. You do not even have to point out how she is a huge middle finger to the very people we need to get out there and do the actual hard work of a political party.”
As you’d expect, Schlichter didn’t make much of a case to reelect Ronna – mainly because there isn’t one. I’m guessing based on past precedent that his next column – tomorrow’s – will contain the balance of his argument for kicking McDaniel to the side and bringing in Harmeet Dhillon, whose major claim to fame up until now has been appearing as a regular guest on Tucker Carlson’s program to shed light on various legal actions against leftist organizations and causes.
Dhillon comes across as a smart cookie who possesses all the right advocacy energy to dive into the upper reaches of the Republican National Committee and demand that the party apparatus be reworked to get candidates to where they need to be on Election Day. Braynard’s article suggested the consultant class won’t be happy about a new direction, but donors (large and small) to the RNC will feel more confident that their money is being well spent rather than lining the pockets of some schlep with an impressive nameplate on his or her door but no real track record for success.
Schlichter didn’t specifically mention it in this week’s column, but McDaniel’s generated discussion within the party for social media behavior where she’s voiced support for various “woke” causes such as “Pride Month”, which drew outrage from socially conservative Republicans while winning her no love from the leftists who push that sort of thing. We can’t be sure of McDaniel’s individual views on these subjects, but it calls into question her judgment.
By the same token I don’t think the Chairman of the Democrat National Committee (currently Jaime Harrison of South Carolina) would be caught dead Tweeting about an individual’s freedom of religion, speech or conscience, would he? Democrats never pretend to become more dedicated to constitutional individual freedoms to try and win over conservatives, so why would the head of the RNC stoop to trying to attract liberals with praise of “Pride Month”?
It would never work. It’s all mindless pandering to the establishment media, and just another reason why Ronna needs to go.
But more so than anything McDaniel’s done on her own to merit removal is her horrible record as chairwoman. As Schlichter pointed out, Ronna is oh-for-five in her last five high visibility elections as party leader, which means she failed in 2018 (Republicans lost the House majority, directly leading to Trump’s impeachment), 2020 (Republicans lost the presidency under extremely questionable circumstances and then she didn’t vigorously pursue corrective measures through the court system), 2022 (when, of course, Republicans lost ground in the senate and barely squeaked out a House majority when conditions were highly favorable for the GOP) – and two Georgia runoff elections that were also eminently winnable.
If a baseball manager oversaw five consecutive disastrous losing seasons, he’d be fired and relished to serving as some other organization’s hitting coach in rookie league or other ego squishing demotion. Yet McDaniel has the chutzpah to not only run for another term, but openly campaign for it and shame those who are pondering firing her.
The Republican Party isn’t regarded as the “Stupid Party” for nothing. The state RNC committee members (there are 168) who are hashing over whether to retain McDaniel are nuts – or under the influence of outside financial sources. Anyone with a smidgen of common sense sees the dire need for new leadership at the RNC – if for nothing else, a new face who isn’t associated with “Pride Month” and the automatic failure that goes along with it.
The recent battle in the Republican-led House of Representatives was a precursor to what should happen this week at the RNC gathering, only this time the “Never Ronna” forces should not give in under any circumstances. They’ll likely have the media and the Democrats calling them “dysfunctional” and “divided” again, just like the talkers did about the 20 conservative holdouts a few weeks ago -- but who cares? Since when would real Republicans care what the opposition thinks?
The business of the Republican National Committee can wait as long as it takes to bring in a new leader who won’t so passively tolerate failure the way Ronna McDaniel has. McDaniel should be embarrassed to show her face at GOP events, and also should be forced to answer for why the party always seemed to underachieve when she was at the helm.
So it’s true that most people aren’t interested in who leads the Republican National Committee, though they definitely should be. The events coming up in the next few days will certainly have repercussions in the impending election cycles. Do conservatives want to win, or champion mediocrity?
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