My wife, Gracie, recently heard Dana Perino on “The Five” discussing how poorly Republican candidates explain their accomplishments. “Why won’t the Republicans listen to her?” she asked. Tyrus often makes a related observation: Republicans don’t know how to play with a lead. I told Gracie that much of what’s wrong with this country belongs squarely at the feet of the GOP.

Democrats announce their intentions. Republicans raise money promising to stop them. Washington gets bigger, Americans get the bill, and another Republican email requests $25. Before midnight, naturally. Apparently, losing requires a subscription.

Republicans want our votes; our opinions apparently weren’t part of the purchase.

In “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” Aragorn commands the defenders of Helm’s Deep: “Show them no mercy, for you shall receive none!” The mercy rule belongs in T-ball for 5-year-olds, not politics, where a nation’s survival is at stake. Yet Republicans have spent decades playing as though their first obligation were to avoid upsetting the opposition.

We watched Bush absorb political beatings, McCain court people who never returned the favor, and Candy Crowley intervene during Romney’s confrontation with Obama. McCain reached so far across the aisle that he was practically horizontal. We sent Republicans to oppose the Democrats. They seemed determined to impress them.

Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh labored daily, exposing the left and teaching millions what fighting it looked like. “I don’t want to stand with them. I want to stand over them,” declared the booming voice of the Doctor of Democracy. “What do they offer that we want? What do they stand for that’s good for the country?” His exasperation carried through the golden EIB microphone and across the fruited plain.

Rush understood the glass jaw beneath the left’s self-appointed moral superiority. Its champions claimed the virtue, assigned themselves the intelligence, and expected everyone else to accept the verdict. Rush laughed at that verdict. He challenged the falsehoods beneath their claims and mocked the people accustomed to doing the mocking. As he put it, “Mock them, and they become unhinged.”

The Tea Party had put Washington on notice, and Romney’s defeat deepened the frustration. Voters who followed the experts’ advice about electability were tired of lectures from people who kept losing. Then Trump came down the escalator.

I told my son in 2015, “Trump’s going to win.” He asked how I knew. “Because the establishment doesn’t understand how pissed off the American people are.” Voters were furious about government fraud, grift, and overreach. Republicans campaigned against Washington, then unpacked as though they had checked into a resort. People wanted someone willing to take a political swing and make it hurt.

Trump did.

RELATED:JD Vance says he is 'DISGUSTED' with Republicans after controversial Ramaswamy ad

Daniel Heuer-Pool/Getty Images

Suddenly, people who had spent decades sneering at conservatives discovered an urgent national need for civility. Their media scribes encountered a Republican who questioned the interrogator, and their disapproval failed to produce the customary apology. Rush had shown us the glass jaw. Trump kept pounding it. I’ve never seen political derangement displayed so relentlessly or applauded so enthusiastically.

They warned Trump’s voters that he was combative. Yes. That was in the job description. His victories exposed Republican excuses, and his willingness to confront the press exposed their deference.

How much of the GOP’s helplessness had been habit? Some Republicans learned. Others still regard Trump’s voters as an unpleasant condition the party might recover from. They want our votes; our opinions apparently weren’t part of the purchase.

Now Republican candidates need coaching to defend their own record. How many seminars does this require? Dana, too many Republicans spent years selling us the fight. Trump made their customers start asking about delivery.

Start with the border. Maintaining control there would be enough for me. Customs and Border Protection reports that fiscal year 2026 was the first full fiscal year with zero Border Patrol releases into the country’s interior. Apparently, enforcement was possible!

Under the trade agreement with Japan, GlobalFoundries plans two new American chip factories, financed by up to $21 billion in Japanese investment. Trump’s Justice Department announced charges against 324 defendants in 2025 in alleged health care fraud schemes involving more than $14.6 billion in intended losses.

RELATED: Conservatives demand competition — except in their own primaries

Eric Lee/Getty Images

Trump’s administration also moved to speed permitting for AI infrastructure and canceled thousands of USAID awards. Innovation deserves room. Taxpayer spending deserves scrutiny. There is a record to campaign on, so defend it. Make opponents defend theirs. When reporters put words in your mouth, spit them out.

Here’s a freebie: Biden signed a law providing nearly $80 billion in additional IRS funding. Meanwhile, it took a young man with a camera to put Minnesota’s day care spending under national scrutiny. Why did elected Republicans need a YouTuber to make people ask where the money went?

Trump cannot supply every Republican’s backbone. If Democrats take Congress, candidates who failed to make their case should answer for it. If Trump carries them across the finish line, a thank-you should precede complaints about his manners.

They should also remember one of Rush’s favorite sayings: “They don’t make statues of great moderates in history.” I miss Rush. He spent decades teaching us how to fight, and millions of listeners learned. Too many Republicans learned only how to fundraise. They have less than two weeks to prove that winning wouldn’t ruin their business model.