By Andrew Morse
On Monday, Oct. 6, the College Republicans welcomed their first speaker of the semester to the Rose Hill Campus. The Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel discussed the consequences of the 2014 Senatorial midterm elections and answered questions from the audience in Keating 3rd Monday night. The midterm elections will be held in November and will play a significant role in how the last two years of President Barack Obama’s final term play out.
Strassel is a member of the editorial board for The Wall Street Journal. She writes a weekly political column titled “The Potomac Watch.”
She also writes many of the unsigned editorials appearing in The Wall Street Journal, which express the newspaper’s opinion on political policy. She is the only member of The Journal’s editorial board to be located in our nation’s capital.
Rather than share her predictions for the November elections, Strassel delved into the consequences of the elections’ potential outcomes. She outlined her thoughts on two different scenarios: one in which the balance in the Senate remains relatively the same and a second in which the Republican Party wins a majority.
If the Congressional balance of power remains the same after this November, then Strassel believes the next two years will be spent hashing out the same problems our country is facing right now. She blames a lot of the lack of production from the current Congressional regime on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).
“He does nothing. When people talk about dysfunction in Washington, the reality is that the dysfunction is one man,” said the columnist of Reid.
She accused the Nevada senator of turning down proposals in an effort to protect the Democrats’ public support and the party’s majority in the Senate, as well as sparing them from having to make tough votes.
A victory for the Republican Party in November would give them a majority in both the House and the Senate. Strassel is more optimistic in her view on this scenario, but warns that we will not see the drastic changes many conservatives would like. Rather, she predicts many smaller changes in an effort to build long-term momentum.
“Having a majority in Congress gives you more clout and a bigger megaphone, but you cannot run Washington from Congress,” said Strassel. “Conservatives hoping for Obamacare to be repealed, drastic budget cuts or an overhaul to Medicare will need to temper their expectations.”
The Wall Street Journal columnist believes that Democratic leadership will use filibusters and the President’s veto vote to protect their high-priority issues.
Strassel believes that Republican lawmakers will have opportunities to achieve their less ambitious goals if they pick their spots wisely.
By attaching policy initiatives to appropriation’s bills and forcing the president to make tough decisions in the view of the public, conservatives will be able to achieve some of their more minor and realistic objectives.
Although these midterm elections are important, Strassel believes that the next round of midterm elections will be even more critical to the direction of our country’s policy initiatives.
“Democrats are not that fussed about losing the Senate, they feel any loss will be short-lived,” said Strassel.
This November’s midterms feature 21 Democrats up for re-election in some of the most difficult and tightly contested states, where only 15 Republicans are up for re-election in mostly right-wing states. The next round of midterm elections will feature 24 Republicans and only 10 Democrats for re-election.
Strassel is excited to see how this round of elections turn out.
“There are some races Republicans should win like Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia. What will be interesting to me are the races which people thought were out of reach [for Republicans], but are now in view like Connecticut and Iowa. The GOP could have a good night in November,” Strassel said.
When asked what she expected during the last two years of the Obama Administration, Strassel replied, “The president will face a choice, whether a Republican or Democratic Senate. Does he want to do something final with his legacy, or does he want to lay the groundwork for the next Democratic candidate? If he decides he wants to do something it will most likely be with immigration.”
College Republicans President Benjamin Shull, FCRH ’16, was very excited that Strassel came to campus.
“I think it was fantastic, getting a chance to talk about Senate procedure and both domestic and foreign policy, it was fascinating,” Shull said. Also the president of the Fordham Political Review, Shull is happy this discussion focused on the midterm elections, because he feels they do not receive enough attention.
On Oct. 23, the College Republicans will be hosting Dana Perino, former White House press secretary to George W. Bush. They are also looking forward to their debate with the College Democrats this November.
