Ever since the 2018 midterm elections, Republicans have done a very good job of not describing their vision for the country. Instead, they have kept their focus on the culture wars and which progressive ideas they’ll try to block.
That’s in part the legacy of former President Donald Trump’s personality-focused politics. But it’s also a habit that extends deep into the Republican establishment, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell saying in December that he had no plans to release a legislative agenda in advance of the midterms. McConnell is a shrewd thinker, but the fact that a group of people won’t tell you how they plan to govern doesn’t mean they have no plans — it just means they see public discussion of their plans as counterproductive.
Last week Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, let the cat out of the bag with the release of an 11-step “Plan to Rescue America.” It packs plenty of lib-owning and culture-war trolling into its 30-plus pages — and it also reveals a clear aspiration to immiserate the majority of the country in pursuit of a hard-right economic agenda.
