Living Politicians Make Poor Heroes, But They Can Invoke Them

Now in the autumn of this critical political season, a midterm loss of Congress for Republicans feels inevitable, as the last five midterm elections saw the party in power lose seats in Congress.

This trend goes back even longer than the 2000s. Since 1946, the president’s party has lost seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in 18 of 20 midterm elections (90% of the time).

President Donald Trump (R) ran into this trend in his first term when, in 2018, Republicans lost 41 seats in the House—though they did gain two seats in the U.S. Senate.

Despite the pattern, a loss is not inevitable.

Consider Ronald Reagan’s 1980 election eve address “A Vision for America.” This speech came at a time of great national peril and discontentment, so, to give clarity to his positive vision, Reagan drew on American heroes from astronauts to John Wayne:

Last year I lost a friend who was more than a symbol of the Hollywood dream industry; to millions he was a symbol of our country itself. And when he died, the headlines seemed to convey all the doubt about America, all the nostalgia for a seemingly lost past.

“The Last American Hero,” said one headline, “Mr. America dies,” said another.

Well, I knew John Wayne well, and no one would have been angrier at being called the “last American hero.”

Just before his death, he said in his own blunt way, “Just give the American people a good cause, and there’s nothing they can’t lick.”

For more, click here to read my op-ed at FOX News.