Republicans panic over Trump tariffs: Last time "we lost the House and the Senate for 60 years"

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Salon

Published April 3, 2025 9:50AM (EDT)


On Tuesday, a liberal judge cleaned out her conservative rival in a pivotal court race in Wisconsin, while GOP House candidates in two Florida districts underperformed Donald Trump's 2024 result by more than 15 points, sending jolts of panic through a Republican Party wary of what those portend for the 2026 midterms. And that's before the president announced "reciprocal" tariffs Wednesday that some Republican lawmakers fear will wreak havoc on both the economy and their standing among voters.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., was a beneficiary of both the 2010 and 2014 midterm backlash against former President Barack Obama, which carried him to the speakership of the North Carolina House of Representatives and then to the Senate, respectively. On Wednesday, he warned in an interview with Politico that Republicans risk inviting the same fate in 2026, when he is up for re-election.

“What we don’t want to do is overreach,” Tillis said. “We’ve got to be careful not to do the same thing. And I think that these elections are going to be proxies, or almost like weather devices for figuring out what kind of storm we’re going to be up against next year.” Some of his colleagues see precedent even further back in time, worrying that voters, already restive over Trump's cuts to vital government services, will blame the GOP for any fallout from the tariffs and inflict on the party the kind of electoral devastation not seen since the Great Depression.

"When [President William McKinley], most famously, put tariffs on in 1890, they lost 50% of their seats in the next election,” Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told reporters. “When Smoot and Hawley put on their tariff in the early 1930s, we lost the House and the Senate for 60 years. So they’re not only bad economically, they’re bad politically.”

Read more: https://www.salon.com/2025/04/03/panic-over-tariffs-last-time-we-lost-the-and-the-senate-for-60-years/

---

“What we don’t want to do is overreach,” Tillis said.

Your "leaders" (Muskrat and 45) didn't just "overreach", they did a "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" on the federal government, the U.S. Constitution, and the people of the United States.

[Tadpole Raisin]

1. Yah, losing the House and Senate - THEIR F-ing jobs!!

That’s all they care about! It’s not about you assholes it is the needs of your constituents which maybe, finally, they will realize you don’t give a damn about!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. That would be the kind of layoff I could celebrate. . . . . . nt

[Bengus81]

2. Well Thommy boy...the DOW was down almost 1,600 this morning

Your concern about overreach is about eight years late. You clowns kiss Trumps ASS then worry about overreach? You could have stood up weeks ago and told Musk to STOP this shit he was doing. Now you have town halls filled with screaming Republicans.

You and other Republicans could have told Trump to not even try this massive tariff disaster. We have plenty of history to look back on showing it never works.

FUCK YOU TILLIS!!

[C_U_L8R]

3. Let's make it an even 100 years.

Or how about NEVER. Let's never see your weaselly lying cheating self-serving pocket-stuffing asses ever again.

[delisen]

4. This time the Republicans must lose Forever.

We need 2 strong national parties, and up to 3 minor parties. The major parties are the Democratic and the Progressive Democratic . These will attract 85 percent of the voters.

We will be able to start addressing all the.major issues before us, our freedoms, our health, education and safety nets, our environment and climate change challenges. We will rebuild our international alliances with our allies, build the foundation for justice and peace, contain the power mad.

The minor parties will divide the rest of the voters among them, and we will have to be vigilant

[Gore1FL]

7. 2 parties is going to be the natural fallout of an electoral-college-based system. nt

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. The Electoral College was set up to throw a sop to the slave owning states. Out-lived its usefulness. . .nt

[Gore1FL]

10. Yep. But here we are. nt

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. That's the Canadian system. Don't stop there. Keep going with your idea

Bring in a parliamentary system.

Liberal Party of Canada: Government
CONservatives: "Loyal" Opposition
New Democratic Party: usually third place, but once was Opposition
Bloc Quebecois (regional)
Green (a couple of seats)

The Liberal Party is the longest-serving and oldest active federal political party in the country, and has dominated federal politics of Canada for much of its history, holding power for almost 70 years of the 20th century.[21][12] As a result, it has sometimes been referred to as Canada's "natural governing party".[22][14][23]

Canada is in the middle of an election, called because we need an election now, a mandate now, not on some calendar schedule.

If the US had a parliament, Congress and tRump would be dissolved already by now. Congress by beginning a five week election campaign and tRump by the process seen in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Saves money too.

[Stonealone]

34. And we would need

Progressive Voting. With a winner declared once one of the candidates gets 50% +1 of the votes. not this "I have a mandate because I got 33% of the votes" bull shit!

And yes, we need to rebuild the Social Safety Net again. as well as limit the power of Corporations.

I still believe in "WE THE PEOPLE". not "We the top 1%"!!

but like my dad always said "Shit in one hand, and wish in the other. and see which one gets warm first."

[ScratchCat]

5. Every one of my conservative friends and family

Are pissed beyond belief. Its almost humorous. They know that "the people who stayed home" will go to the polls in 2026 and vote out all the Republicans.

[Aussie105]

22. And it will be a blood bath!

Currently there are three groups:

1. Dem voters - who say 'we told you so!'
2. Non voters - who now regret ignoring everything, because they now realize that was never a viable or smart option.
3. Repug voters - regretting what their votes brought them.

We are currently reaping the whirlwind, to coin a phrase, seeing Donnie in all his incompetence and insanity.

[cstanleytech]

11. The Republicans in Congress are to blame as they are to cowardly to stand up to Trump.

[ffr]

12. Not in this day and age, with the RW servants helping them and a fickle voter demographic

Just bring up some divisive thing, like the price of toothpicks and let that story run 24/7 for weeks until you win the next election. Then, you can go back to destroying American's democracy and economy brick by brick.

Besides, even when people are so pissed they do vote for democrats, after they restore repairing the economy and institutions about 80% of the way their, the next election will come up, the electorate will feel happy again, but that we "could do better," and they'll put fucking Putin's army of republicans back into office and the fuck everything up again.

[Skittles]

19. Dems have to waste so much of their time cleaning up repuke mess

repukes are able to hit the ground running and have plenty of time to fuck things up

[twodogsbarking]

13. Woe is me.

[Warpy]

14. E c onomists were writing artic les 2 years ago

about how the idiotic economic policies being proposed by TFG* in his speeches would crash our economy and not just for the duration of his misrule. It will take decades to rebuild trust with what will be former trading partners, even if a miracle occurs and we get a veto proof majority in Congress and manage to reduce the ability of a autocratic dimwit pulling stunts like these ever again.

Hang on, kiddies, the ride's going to get very bumpy and it won't get smoother for a long time.

*That Fat Grifter, of course
(Yes, I'm back, but only in a very limited fashion)

[Grim Chieftain]

15. I hope they are in total panic mode

Each and every Trump supporter and enabler needs to experience the fear and uncertainly they have bestowed on millions of Americans who have not only lost their jobs but fear they will find themselves unemployed and unable to provide for their families.

The backlash cometh and it could not be bestowed on more deserving idiots.

[Gum Logger]

16. Some voters would feel more of a connection to oval office if we had direct election for president

[SoFlaBro]

17. Fuck the whole lot of that motherfucking hill of shit that is MAGA and the fucking scumbags that support them.

[LudwigPastorius]

18. Where's your orange messiah nowww, nyeah?

[Joinfortmill]

25. Golfing

[Martin68]

20. "What we don't want is overreach." LOL. Well, that's what you've got. In spades.

[LuckyLib]

33. The OverReach ship has sailed, you nimrods.

You bought it, you own it!

🫵🏻

[KPN]

21. Nailed it singling that quote out!

Too late Thommy T!

Really, that was a burst out laughable line by Tillis, a yowser!

[Paladin]

23. Own it, Repubes.

Nobody to blame except your own ignorant, hateful selves.

[Joinfortmill]

24. Yup. And folks who weren't paying attention...

Lost a ton of money today.

[regnaD kciN]

26. Relax, GOP! That won't happen again...

Back then, they still had things called “elections.”

[blue-wave]

27. Here is what they are talking about:

The 73rd Congress began on March 4 1933. The Democrats held 58 out of 96 Senate seats and 311 out of 435 House seats.

January of 1935 was the beginning of the 74th Congress. Out of 96 senators at that time (Alaska and Hawaii were not yet states) the Democrats held 75 seats. In the House, the Democrats held 333 seats out of 435. Indeed, the Democratic Party song at the time was "Happy days are here again." The great depression nearly destroyed the Republican Party.

[BumRushDaShow]

30. I posted about that earlier today in another thread (with respect to the number in the Senate during FDR's 4 terms)

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=3432527

The below shows the number of Democrats (and doesn't even include the couple parties that caucused with them which amounted to 1 or 2 additional per Congressional session)

(snip)

If you look historically over FDR's 4 terms (his last term being abruptly impacted by his death), he had periods where the Senate had large supporting numbers of Democrats (and those who affiliated with them), and IIRC, the cloture number was actually 67 (vs the current 60). He was able to get SS through with those types of numbers.

(each of the below being the tally at the end of the particular Congressional session)

73rd (1933 - 1935) - 60/35
74th (1935 - 1937) - 72/22
75th (1937 - 1939) - 74/18 (and as high as 76)
76th (1939 - 1941) - 68/25
77th (19431- 1943) - 64/30
78th (1943 - 1945) - 56/39

[blue-wave]

32. I posted the numbers from the beginning of each session

I certainly don't want to witness a depression or recession, but those numbers look really good. If we could hold an election tomorrow, we might be able to save the country and world for that matter.

[BumRushDaShow]

35. The numbers were continually fluctuating during each 2-year "class"

But I know that is the level of (D) support that we would need to get stuff done.

[Polybius]

42. Different times though

In the early and mid 30's there just wasn't the deep divide that we have now. Some of the hot-button topics (I won't name them, but commercials dominated October) just weren't around back then. Even with civil rights, the deep divide didn't happen until the 50's.

Sure, the Parties disagreed on the economy and taxes, but that wasn't enough to hate your neighbor.

[BadgerMom]

28. "We lost the House and the Senate for 60 years"

Your lips to God’s ears, Thom.

[FloridaBlues]

29. Wish the election was this Tuesday and not 11/2 yrs.

Voters just couldn’t handle a steady strong economy with some prices coming down.
Wonder if feds will have emergency meeting to lower rates. A dollar short and a day late.

[Quanto Magnus]

31. Hopefully this time

it's much much longer

[FoxNewsSucks]

36. yes, but last time they didn't have

Today's level of gerrymandering and voters suppression. They didn't own the news media. Or the voting computer systems.

They do now.

[vapor2]

37. Repugs can go down with the rest of us. You are complicit, you refuse to speak for us

or represent us, you refuse to stand up to this monster. You now refuse to do town halls. You are all cowards period

[travelingthrulife]

38. Look at all these GOP cowards pretending they didn't want this.

[Old Testament Libera]

39. Hoping that this time they lose the House, Senate and Presidency

for 100 years. That might give time to repair the damage of the last 40.

Republicans own this entire disaster. Their fingerprints are all over it. They are chained to it, as it sinks like a concrete block down into the bay...

[Jack Valentino]

40. Wouldn't THAT be nice???!!!!

On top of wrecking the economy, throw in the fascism, racism, hatred of women....

Two or three generations in the wilderness would not be unjustified.

[Polybius]

41. Tillis really needs to go back and study history

The Republicans have never lost the House and Senate for 60 years. The longest they have ever gone without the House was 40 years (1954-1994), and the longest without the Senate is 28 years (1952-1980).