The GOP's Swag Deficit

Part One: The GOP has lost its Swagger

No swag. No mojo. No growth agenda. Republicans are forgetting how to connect with voters.

According to Google, a definition for swag is “Short for “swagger,” describing someone with a cool, confident, and fashionable demeanor. If someone says you “have swag,” it means your personal style and attitude are on point.”

Or you can go to Webster’s and their definition of swag is “bold or brash self-confidence.”

Whatever these definitions, the Republican party doesn’t have any right now. No swag. They’ve lost their mojo. We’re not draining the swamp by getting rid of all the fraudulent and corrupt spending left by President Biden’s big government socialism. 

And we’re not helping middle-class folks so they won’t have to pay taxes on Joe Biden’s inflation.

There’s no growth from the GOP. And no swamp draining.

Nowadays the young people talk about rizz and aura. Google’s definition of rizz, which is short for charisma, is “having a smooth, confident, and magnetic personality.”

And the definition for aura is “a person’s coolness, star power, or suave swagger.”

As usual the young people have it right, and whatever their total meaning, the Republican party doesn’t have that either.

While the President is fighting a war to end the nuclear threats to freedom and civilization from radical Islam, the Republicans and the House and Senate are doing him and the GOP midterm election outlook no favors. They are bungling budget policy.

They are bungling the affordability issue. They are bungling the growth issue. They are concocting weird inside the beltway word-salad reasons why they’re not getting anything done that will actually help make life easier for hardworking taxpayers.

Inflation indexing capital gains or raising the exemption for gains on the sale of homes should be easy.

Curbing hundreds and hundreds of billions of waste, fraud, and corruption should be easy. Then you put in the funding for voter ID, the Save America bill, and the military supplemental for Iran.

There’s nothing hard about this. But the GOP leadership is letting everyone down. Whether it’s swag, swagger, rizz, aura, or how about just plain messaging.

The GOP doesn’t have any of it.

Part two: Getting the Swagger Back

Winning the midterms requires more than votes in Congress. It requires a bold message on growth, tax relief, and draining the swamp.

There’s no question that the Congressional Democrats and their socialist/communist DSA allies want to block every single item that President Trump is trying to get through Congress. It’s Trump derangement syndrome. They’re opposed to military spending for peace through strength, and opposed to supplemental spending on the Iran war.

They’re completely blind to the fact that their Joe Biden-Barack Obama big government socialism has sprung millions of fraudulent and corrupt and criminal leaks in these bloated Medicaid, hospice, Obamacare, SNAP food stamps, and other programs.

So much so that RFK Jr. cut off $1 billion in California and Minnesota. Yet that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

And if they ever retake Congress, the Democrats will double up on their government takeover of the economy. Bet on it. 

They’ll raise taxes on wealth and income across the board, so that all of America looks like high-tax blue states such as California or New York.

They’re opposed to data centers and the AI revolution, thereby boosting Communist China in the AI race, and robbing working-class jobs like welders, electricians, carpenters, plumbers, and other trades people. Working folks. They’d rob those jobs. 

Democrats are gonna try to shut the government down on September 30. And if they ever retake Congress, they’ll jump to impeach Mr. Trump again. 

And they’re opposed to the voter ID SAVE America Act because all along they’re hoping that 15 million illegals who crossed the border under President Biden will figure out how to get drivers licenses in order to vote.

We already saw 6,600 noncitizens registered to vote in New Jersey. The governor said it was a software glitch. Sure it was. Blame the motor vehicle agency. Sure, that’s all there was, right?

So all that said, what might happen under Democrat-socialist-communist rule? The regrettable fact remains that the Republicans are not showing any swag or rizz, shorthand for swagger or charisma, when it comes to communicating a clear message and showing folks why it’s important to keep the GOP Congress, and what they are going do if re-elected.

Senator John Thune, the majority leader, said today the Senate lacks votes for the $95 billion House budget resolution. To quote him, “as I’ve said before you got to get to 50, and I can’t count to 50 right now on a budget resolution.”

Meanwhile, Karoline Leavitt said the president’s patience with Mr. Thune and Republicans is running low. In remarks to the press, she explained: “Look, the president spoke about this directly yesterday. His patience is running out. He wants to see as much of the Save America passed as possible by the August recess. He knows that’s what the American people want to see passed.”

This is what I was talking about last evening. And the night before that. Yet the kind of rizz and aura I’m talking about is a Big Bang leadership appeal to win. 

Let’s cut $500 billion out of waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption — that was the Government Services Administration’s number. That was Elon Musk’s number. And the public clamors for draining the D.C. swamp.

Free enterprise means smaller government. And then let’s give middle class taxpayers a break so they don’t pay tax on Mr. Biden’s vast inflation.

Now look, tax-free tips and overtime were great ideas from the one big beautiful bill along with 100 percent bonus depreciation, which has spurred such an enormous business investment boom.

All that was great, but now to help working folks this year, the GOP needs to inflation index capital gains, and raise the cap gains exemption on the sale of a home to perhaps up to $2 million. 

That will help those empty nester families that don’t need the big house they’ve owned for 30 years, while the inflation rate has gone up by some 108 percent.

Those are swag messages. Those are rizz messages. Instead of saying “I lack the votes,” let’s say “We’re going to win and here’s how, and we’re gonna strut this message in full public view between now and the midterm election.”

Lawrence Kudlow is a Fox News Media contributor and host of both “Kudlow” on weekdays and the nationally syndicated “Larry Kudlow Show” each Saturday. This column is adapted from his monologues on “Kudlow.”