Suburban voters don’t want to embrace MS-13, Hamas, drug traffickers, and sanctuary cities while banning drinking straws. Suburban voters didn’t suddenly become rabid socialists and anarchists who join with the Antifa hordes defecating on police cars. Yet the party supporting these things won the House because of backlash against Trump’s persona and the lack of a counter-narrative from Republicans in Congress to define themselves and define Democrats. Voters wanted change and therefore voted for the only change on the ballot, which is the party out of power. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Imagine if we had a Republican party that actually ran on a unified platform of combatting identity theft by illegal aliens, sanctuary cities, drug cartels, and drug traffickers. Imagine a party that relentlessly hung the rising crime and drug crisis around the necks of its Democrat opponents who support releasing drug traffickers from prison and open-border policies that bring the poison into our country? Suburban voters still want safety and security, yet few Republicans ran on that agenda.

Unfortunately, these same Republicans are now going to push the open-borders agenda and weak-on-crime laws rather than fighting Democrats on those issues. Because Republicans are failing to fight them on these issues and force a moment of contention in the public eye, most voters will never know how destructive these ideas are to their communities. Consensus is the worst thing in politics, especially when it endangers the public safety.

As part of CNN’s exit polling, it asked voters whether Trump’s position on immigration was “too tough” or “about right/not tough enough.” Here is a rundown of the results for selected states where Republicans lost ground in the suburbs:

Arizona: 35% “too tough;” 58% “about right/not tough enough”

Texas: 43%-52%

Georgia: 35%-60%

Florida: 41%-54%

Look at those numbers from Arizona. The Grand Canyon State has been beleaguered by open borders, yet Republicans have never fully exposed what Democrats are doing and how they are responsible for the security problems in the state. And remember, the question is loaded because it pegs the issue to Trump, who is unpopular with many suburban voters, not because of the issue but because of his persona. If voters were asked individual questions on the policies divorced from any personality, their responses would be overwhelmingly pro-sovereignty.

Even in states where Republicans performed badly, the majority of voters sided with Trump on the issue of immigration. The question polled at 46% “too tough"-51% “about right/not tough enough” in Nevada. In red states where Republicans failed to fully hit their opponents on immigration, the numbers were even more pronounced. West Virginians polled at 31% “too tough”-63% “about right/not tough enough,” and Montana was at 40%-51%.

As I’ve noted before, Americans in every state want cuts to mass migration, and almost all of them want stepped-up enforcement and an end to sanctuary cities. We could have had an entire legislative and budget fight over this issue headed into the election, but we were sabotaged by McConnell and McCarthy. Sadly, Trump agreed to sign the bill.

Accordingly, at a time of the worst Central American migration crisis and drug crisis, Republicans are incapable of communicating with suburban “security moms” about the basic role of the federal government. Just imagine if they had championed my 25 no-brainer ideas on illegal immigration to protect the security and pocketbooks of American citizens from stolen sovereignty.

Then there is the issue of jailbreak. Republicans are now pushing legislation to let out gun felons and drug traffickers from prison during the worst drug crisis ever and during a time when Democrats are planning an assault on law-abiding gun owners. What an agenda! Flood the country with dangerous criminal aliens and drugs, go soft on crime, and then strip peaceful Americans of their right to self-defense. The polling on this issue is clear. In September, the Foundation for Safeguarding Justice published a very comprehensive survey with straightforward questions eliciting feedback on the current jailbreak proposals pending in Congress. Here is a smattering of the questions and results:

Question: “When thinking about how the federal government deals with convicted defendants, would you support or oppose a proposal to reduce penalties for traffickers in heroin, fentanyl, and similar drugs?”

Results: 74% oppose reductions, including 73% of Independents, 70% of Democrats, 71% of African-Americans, and even 63% of Millennials.

Question: In general, do you think that the federal government is too tough, not tough enough, or about right in its handling of drug trafficking?

Results: 51% said not tough enough, 25% said just right, and just 14% said too tough. Just 15% of African Americans believe we are too tough on drug traffickers, and women voters were more likely to think we are not tough enough than men.

Clearly, the political elites in both parties are living in a different planet. Even in my liberal home of Baltimore County, all of the Democrats who door-knock in the neighborhood pledged to be tough on crime. They are obviously lying, but they clearly understand where voters are on the issue of public safety. Republicans not only betray the principles of their party’s platform, but their political barometer is completely defective.

It’s quite evident that with the prosperous quality of life this generation, the affluent suburbs aren’t as motivated by tax cuts as by safety and security, which also ties into “values.” At a time when they could be drawing a sharp contrast for voters on the most important issues, Republicans are moving in the opposite direction while giving all these newly elected phony moderates in swing districts cover to betray their campaign promises.