Though agreeing the upcoming midterm elections look hopeful for Republicans, a panel of politics professors cautioned against optimism on Feb. 1 as a part of the Center for Constructive Alternatives.
Associate Professor of Politics Kevin Portteus argued Republicans face major hurdles in spite of increasing displeasure toward Democrats, while Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship Ronald Pestritto argued even electoral victories might not secure the policy gains Republicans seek.
“It’s extremely important to start having these discussions, because Republicans have really got to get focused,” CCA attendee Kathy Gremer said. “We’re relying on the fact that people are disgusted with the current administration and that they’re switching parties, and we’re kind of figuring we can just skate. We can’t just skate.”
Republicans must offer an alternative to the democratic policies on immigration, the economy, infrastructure, foreign policy, Portteus said.
“On critical issues — the issues that Trump identified, ran on, and won with — there’s generally very little distance between the Republican establishment and Democrats,” Portteus said, “and Trump has not changed that.”
Portteus said conservatives tend to turn on their elected officials when they find out they’re not perfect.
“The left knows this, and they manipulate it,” Portteus said. “Why do you think every Republican who becomes a threat gets tripped up in a sex scandal? Because the left knows that a critical mass of conservative voters will get a bad taste in their mouth and say, ‘Oh, I could never vote for that guy.’”
Portteus said the biggest hurdle Republicans must overcome is potential voter fraud.
“The Democrats could simply steal another election,” he said.
Portteus advocated for federal election reforms such as ending early voting, mail-in voting, and same-day registration.
Pestritto raised the question of whether elections and electoral victories even matter in the context of the modern administrative state.
“Will it matter if we win?” he asked.
“We have an administrative state that governs us. In fact, we’re by and large not governed in this country at either the state level or the federal level by elected officials anymore,” Pestritto said. “For most of us the rules we live under, the enforcement of those rules, these things are made and done by bureaucrats who don’t run for office and don’t change from one election to the next.”
Pestritto said in some cases the administrative state gets its way even in the face of legislative disapproval.
“Legislatures don’t do a lot,” Pestritto said, “and often when they do vote on things, those votes are disregarded.”
Pestritto gave the example of the bailouts of the financial industry and auto manufacturers after the 2008 economic downturn.
“Those are policies that were debated in Congress and voted down,” he said.
In order to make elections meaningful again, Pestritto said, we must address two issues: federalism and delegation.
If the government continues to violate the principles of federalism, the validity of state elections will suffer, according to Pestritto.
“State elections will continue to be meaningless if the federal government is allowed to continue to exercise blanket control over the state police power, regulation of safety, health, and morals,” Pestritto said.
Pestritto said delegation is an issue as well, especially at the federal level.
“We have to worry about Congress simply giving away its authority to agencies, writing laws so vaguely, so broadly,” he said. “Agencies can simply find some indirect justification in some vague law.”
