The old Bobby Kennedy saying, “Don’t get mad, get even,” needs to guide the grassroots. Congressional Republicans getting on board President Trump’s legislative agenda is imperative. Passing the President’s big ticket legislative items will cement a new majority. That gives the establishment the chills, a subset of whom are DC-owned Republicans. Those Republicans are the chief reason Trump’s legislative agenda is stalled. They need to be primaried into nonexistence. Like the sanctimonious and condescending Jeff Flake. That’s the grassroots’ goal in 2018: send as many GOP obstructionists packing as possible. 

Rep. Mark Meadows, who leads the U.S. House Freedom Caucus, is trying to leverage fear to get Ryan and McConnell off the dime this September. Said Meadows in a Breitbart article from Wednesday:

“If Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell can’t get the president’s agenda done, I don’t know that they get to keep theirs, nor do I know if I get to keep mine. We’ve got to deliver. It’s critically important we do that in a way that conservatives have long espoused,” he said.

Meadows is alluding to the GOP losing its congressional majorities in November 2018. Majorities tagged as “Do Nothings” are more prone to lose.

Democrats have more Senate seats up for election next year. From Rasmussen Reports, based on an analysis of midterm Senate races from 1914 to 2014: Though 25 of the 33 seats up for election are held by Democrats (and faux independents, King and Sanders), the findings indicate:

If 91% of the Democrats/Democratic-caucusing independents are reelected, that would be 23 out of 25, and if 75% of the Republicans are reelected, that would be six of eight, leading to no net change. [91% and 75% are the average midterm reelect rates for the party out of power and party in power.]

There are intangibles that can skew elections, however. One is the times. Anyone disagree that the nation has entered turbulent, changing times? Two, events, now unforeseen. And, three, base voters’ motivations and engagement. Turnouts decline in midterms. Base voters have bigger impacts.    

Because most districts are drawn to a party’s advantage, House Republicans are likely to keep their majority. If the improbable did happen, it’ll mean base voters chose to sit home. The base includes new arrivals from Trump’s election last year. And good luck holding Senate seats without strong base support, too.

Democrats have plenty of problems of their own, indeed. They’re not raising money. The hard left is effectively driving a leftish party further to the margins. So, in a year -- 2018 -- that would normally be favorable to the out-party, the Democrats may not gain much traction.    

Meadows’ warning to Ryan and McConnell contains a flinch. They need to be put on notice that their leadership jobs are at risk before year’s end. McConnell’s job especially. No tax reform and Wall funding legislation this autumn means they’re fired. In business, they’d be booted faster than they could say, “The Apprentice.”

Okay, so Meadows is in the House, not the Senate. He and his bunch have limited pull Senate side. But the Freedom Caucus has the juice to bring Ryan’s speakership to an end. Ryan’s and McConnell’s fates are entwined. No legislation on the president’s desk mean they both pay. Accomplish or go.  

Ted Cruz and other intrepid souls in the Senate need to push McConnell. Insist on a full-court press: dangle carrots, twist arms, strip seniority and committee assignments from recalcitrant senators, among other tactics. Withhold NRSC support and dry up national fundraising for incumbents running for reelection.

Fat chance that McConnell plays tough and gets legislation through? Well, maybe. But even more justification then to oust Mitch before the first snowfall.

That’s the inside game. Out here on the hustings, its about fighting it out with establishment Republicans in as many district and state primaries (and the few caucuses) as able. It’s about taking control of state Republican parties and backing candidates who, no bones about it, support the president’s agenda.     

If “mad” isn’t turned into action, then mad is as useless as teats on a bull. It’s going to take coalescing at the base. That’s Tea Party patriots, conservatives, and Trumpsters cooperating to elect insurgents, like Arizona’s Kelli Ward. The Senate Leadership Fund, a McConnell-aligned superpac, just turned its cannons on Ward. Proof positive that the establishment GOP is worried about Flake’s prospects.   

There’s plenty of overlap among the three factions, but some differences. Many Trump voters are new arrivals. Their strong “America First” sensibilities are a huge advantage in retaking the nation from a decadent establishment and destructive Democrats and left. They need to be welcomed as critical to building a new, durable majority party.  

The nation is at a crossroads. Backtracking the Democrats’ way makes for a dark end. Need anyone explain how dark, given their actions and instigations in 2017? What’s Antifa but Stalinists in ninja get-ups? Isn’t it the Democrats’ de facto muscle?     

Understand the dealignment now occurring in the parties. It’s fluid, but establishment elements are coalescing across party lines. McCain, Flake, Graham, Corker, Murkowski, and Collins are joining hands with the Schumer and his ilk. These Democrats and Republicans share globalist aims; differences are in degree. They support trade agreements that disadvantage U.S. workers and manufacturers. They’re for open borders -- whatever their gibbering about border security.

Establishment Republicans tend to shrink before PC -- then placate it. Paul Ryan’s CNN townhall was an act of pacifying that network’s PC-drenched audiences. Ryan was also cynically positioning himself away from Trump, whom the establishment believes is doomed. (Trump’s not; it is.)

DC-owned Republicans favor robust interventionism and nation-building overseas. About the latter, the distance between Democrats and them isn’t as wide as it appears. Obama was a “pale pastel” interventionist during his terms.

As the hard-left labors to pull the Democratic Party further left, most Americans are center-right. The potential exists for an enduring Trump-forged majority coalition teeming with middle class and working Americans. Trump’s big legislative initiatives -- lest we forget repeal and replace -- are the cement needed to make a majority.

Even in the teeth of formidable opposition, the president has made the most of executive prerogatives. He hasn’t been daunted, and his successes are positioning the Republican Party for a long run as the nation’s dominant party. He needs GOP pols who will back -- not obstruct -- him on legislation and judicial appointments.

The grassroots aim isn’t to punish congressional Republicans next November. Trump can’t tolerate Democrat control of either or both chambers.

The plan to get the GOP where it needs to be is short and longer term. Press the existing congressional GOP majorities into action on the president’s agenda. On a parallel track, organize to cull out establishment hacks, replacing them with Trump grassroots loyalists.  

Trump’s election started the GOP’s overhaul. The 2018 midterms provide another opportunity to liberate the party from DC-owned Republicans. It’ll take more than a couple of election cycles to remake the party. Call it birth pangs.