By Jeffrey A. Rendall
Restoring gas prices to the norm is everything for Repubs to focus on in the near term
I’ve used the reference before, but it’s particularly relevant for Republicans now:
“Whoa, whoa, guys! Power is everything! Power is everything [emphasis added].” – John Aaron in Apollo 13, when the NASA mission control team discussed how to rescue their crippled spacecraft near the moon in 1970.
Republicans should keep these words in mind and substitute “gas prices” for “power” in the quote, because these days, at the beginning of June in the oh-so-crucial midterm election year of 2026, gas prices are everything. What a petroleum provider charges per gallon weighs on everyone’s mind. Or at least the Americans who drive a lot and aren’t so wealthy that someone else pumps their gas and pilots their vehicle for them.
There’s probably no greater predictor of how political fortunes will turn out five months from now than gas prices. High prices affect everything, because one way or another, the food and goods citizens consume are hauled by big engines that require a lot of fuel.
Our modern economy is propelled – literally – by gas prices. How? Those trinkets you order from Amazon are brought to your home by cars and vans and sometimes trucks. The trip to the super market to pick up one item comes that much dearer in our current reality. Is it worth it?
Seems like a lot of us are posing the question before venturing out lately.
And bet on it – gas prices will be determinative of the parties’ fortunes at Election time. In an article titled, “Rising gas prices are causing voters to reconsider voting for GOP: Poll”, Mabinty Quarshie reported at the Washington Examiner last week:
“Results from a recent Overton Insights survey … showed 57% of respondents said that due to high gas prices, they were less likely to support the Republican Party. Just 12% said they were more likely to support the GOP, and 31% said high gas prices made no difference.
“More worrying for the GOP is that 64% of independent voters said higher gas prices made them less likely to support the Republican Party, while 36% said it made no difference.
“The poll found that high gas prices are even affecting support among registered Republicans. According to the survey, 23% of self-identified Republicans said they were less likely to support their party over higher gas prices, while 83% of Democrats said the same. Memorial Day gas prices reached a four-year high at $4.56, according to AAA. The holiday weekend is usually seen as the start of the summer travel season. As of [last] Tuesday, the national average is at $4.49, AAA reports.”
This is no embellishment.
I went to Costco last Tuesday, and the price for regular unleaded was $4.15 a gallon, which is around 20 cents cheaper per purchasable unit than your average local filling station. This was at mid-day, and the line at the discount outlet was about six cars deep. Clearly, people were devoting time in their schedule to saving a few bucks on gasoline.
Such pre-planning is a necessity for some, a natural instinct for others. I don’t know many people who believe they have too much money. And this fact alone accounts for the pessimistic attitudes expressed in the above survey. And how the voters “feel” in October and November will be expressed by their votes.
If Republicans were wise, they’d heed the trends. There isn’t a lot of evidence that the GOP’s politicians are doing so. There’s the “Save America Act”, which isn’t directly related to “affordability” and gas prices, yet moving and passing the no-brainer legislation would be a feather in the party’s symbolic cap and, at the very least, allow them to talk about something other than responding to media queries about how expensive gasoline has become since early March.
What’s left of Iran’s leadership understands the connection. Holding the Strait of Hormuz hostage is the last/best bargaining chip the mullahs (are they still in charge?) possess. The world’s leading terrorism sponsors have had very little incentive to give in on the issue, since they don’t care a lick about how much the Iranian/Persian people suffer due to their intransigence.
At the same time, President Trump’s repeated assurances regarding the Strait, the impending “deal” and the gradual bringing down of gas prices hasn’t resulted in a change of thinking by the American people. Preaching that “it will get better” isn’t something to hang your hat on, either, even if past history and common sense indicates that fluctuations are inevitable.
If it could be said elections are always about the future, voters view the coming months as the light at the end of the tunnel, but still see a heck of a lot of darkness obscuring the tracks before them.
Gasoline is a commodity, just like bread or gold. Paying more for a unit of bread or gold doesn’t buy you extra benefit from those products. It’s the same with gasoline.
To make matters even more bleak, the Republican-controlled Congress also moved two items on the Democrat wish list, the railroad safety act and the faster labor contracts act. According to the competitive enterprise institute, “The Faster Labor Contracts Act (FLCA) is a bipartisan bill that would amend the National Labor Relations Act to impose a strict 100-day deadline for unions and employers to reach a first contract after a workplace election. If negotiations fail within this period, an arbitration panel would step in to force a binding agreement, aiming to prevent prolonged ‘surface bargaining’ by management. The legislation has advanced via a discharge petition in the House, supported by a majority of Democrats and seven Republicans, with Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) sponsoring the Senate version.
Meanwhile, “The Railway Safety Act is a separate piece of legislation, recently adopted by the House Transportation Committee as an amendment to the BUILD America 250 Act, which mandates two-person crews for freight trains and enhances safety oversight for hazardous materials. This measure gained bipartisan support largely in response to the 2023 East Palestine derailment and has been applauded by unions such as the IAM and SMART. While the FLCA targets private sector labor law broadly, the Railway Safety Act specifically regulates freight rail operations and safety standards.”
Both proposals enjoyed widespread support… among Democrats. Will Republicans earn goodwill from Trump-hating Democrats for the “bipartisan” gestures? Will “Chucky” Schumer reconsider his stance on the Save America Act because Republicans tossed him a bone on these “wish list” issues?
Will Democrats now begin backing the effort in Iran because Republicans met them halfway in other areas?
Doubtful. The Iran War hasn’t had many defenders lately, but conservative columnist Cal Thomas (at The Washington Times) wrote that Americans should study the big picture and recognize that a nuclear armed Iran is a greater threat to the world than paying more at the gasoline pump – and temporarily, too.
“Today, we seem to be plagued by complainers who whine about almost everything. Too many appear oblivious to the threat posed by Iran, preferring cheaper gas. They seem unconcerned about a greater cost in more than gas should Iran acquire nukes,” Thomas argued.
This is certainly true, but we can’t change impressions simply by suggesting that people were “tougher” or more resilient in previous generations. The fact remains that complacent Americans don’t acknowledge the hypothetical threat from Iran, just as they didn’t see the 9/11/01 attack coming before the first airliner crashed into the World Trade Center nearly twenty-five years ago.
Gas prices are immediate. The future benefits from Iran being rendered toothless in the nuclear sense won’t be realized for… how long? Forever?
Here’s thinking President Trump, and Republican leaders, could help their cause simply by presenting the cold, hard, truth – and then trust Americans to figure out the political consequences apart from the international status quo. Why not just level with the public by saying, “We’re facing a couple months of higher prices regardless of when the Strait of Hormuz opens, but we’ll be blessed with a safer world that will last for a long time.”
“We didn’t anticipate that Iran would hold out this long. We also figured there would be greater international cooperation and help to open the Strait. We’re seeing the offshoots of a sound policy and unanticipated outcomes. We’ll win, but weeks and months may be called for. We’re working every moment to complete the mission.”
I can’t help but surmise this approach would result in more support than the current “Iran has already lost and they’re going to realize how badly they’ve been humbled” scenario. Ditto for the ongoing relentless positive messaging from the administration. “The Best border, the best stock market, the best military, the greatest [this] and the greatest [that] ever in history.”
The old saying, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time,” maintains its wisdom (attributed to Abraham Lincoln).
If anything, Americans want a Big Bubba Bill Clinton-like “I feel your pain” from their leadership, an acknowledgement that things could be better. Republicans must listen to the polls and the message the voters are sending them. Otherwise, they’ll discover the actuality in November after it’s too late.
Jeff Rendall is editor and publisher of GolfintheUSA.com and has written about golf and politics for over a quarter of a century. A non-practicing attorney from California, he moved to the east coast three decades ago to pursue and combine his interests in all things American history and culture. Jeff has worked as an intern on Capitol Hill and in various capacities in grassroots organizing and conservative organizations and publications, including a nearly two-decade stint at ConservativeHQ.com. Column republishing or other inquiries: Rendall@msn.com .