Right on schedule, just days before Christmas, this cheerless jaw-dropper emerged straight from the White House: “For the unvaccinated, you’re looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm.” Who writes this stuff?

At some point, the administration should listen to lifelong party loyalist James Carville, who slammed the party’s strategy after the catastrophic November losses in Virginia. The results were so dismal, it flipped the state back to red from solid blue. “Stupid wokeness” was to blame for the electoral fiasco, Carville said.

“Don’t just look at Virginia and New Jersey, look at Long Island, look at Buffalo, look at Minneapolis. Even look at Seattle, Washington. I mean, this ‘defund the police’ lunacy, this ’take Abraham Lincoln’s name off of schools,’ that, people see that,” Carville raged during a post-election PBS interview.

At a personal level, it’s been an unimaginable year. Last December, I wondered how it would be possible to continue living in a deep-blue state. Now, outside of perhaps a university campus, it’s exceedingly difficult to find an enthusiastic supporter of what the Biden administration has been up to.

In any other political environment, a reasonable person would say there’s still nearly a year before the 2022 midterm elections, so Democrats have plenty of time to recover. But there’s absolutely no sign the party’s leaders will consider a course correction. Beyond that, severe damage has been done as poll after poll reveals historic, across-the-board dissatisfaction on key issues.

Three polls released this month by NPR-PBS-Marist, Rasmussen and InsiderAdvantage show net disapproval ratings of 13, 16 and 17 percent, respectively, for President Joe Biden. The most favorable poll of the three—NPR’s—pegged his overall approval number among Latinos at just 33 percent (only 11 percent strongly approve).

Despite this discontent, which has the American people absolutely screaming for competent leadership and strong stands on major issues, the GOP is almost nowhere to be found. Sure, you’ll find House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on the Fox News Channel carrying water for the establishment wing, but that’s about it.

Where the average party supporter does see Republican leadership is at the top of the year-end fundraising emails clogging our inboxes. They’ll happily take our money, then scoff at the base while pandering to lobbyists and resuming their positions in the consensus that dominates Capitol Hill.

Yet the stakes have never been higher. It’s not just the populist GOP base that is mortified at the direction of the country, it’s independents, Hispanics and even some normally steadfast Democratic Party supporters. A Fox Business Channel survey released last week revealed that 84 percent of Americans are either “extremely” (55 percent) or “very” (29 percent) concerned about inflation and higher prices. It’s everywhere and impossible to miss!

Seventy-seven percent were extremely (41 percent) or very (36 percent) unhappy with “higher crime rates across the country,” while “the amount you pay in taxes” was causing distress for 71 percent of voters. The soaring federal deficit scored 69 percent disapproval and “being able to pay your bills” worries 63 percent.

All of these issues are tailor-made to be seized by Republicans, who should have clear answers about what can be done, and who is to blame. Instead, the party seems to cower in fear for reasons known only to themselves.

Is there something we should know? Are they genuinely afraid of Nancy Pelosi (sad, if true)? Even some of the scrappiest fighters in the GOP seem awfully quiet these days.

No doubt the party is abiding by the old adage that when your enemy is hurting itself, don’t get in the way. That may be wise to a point, but it is still necessary to loudly and firmly articulate your stances. In the historic Republican sweep of 1994, whether you supported the Contract With America or not, you always knew clearly where the party stood and could choose accordingly on election day.

Americans are deeply worried about the rapid deterioration of our country and want answers. Neither party on Capitol Hill seems to have a clue what’s going on outside of the Beltway, nor are they interested in finding out. Lobbyists and mega-corporations are the only “constituents” these days. The ultimate consequences of this inaction and lack of concern for taxpaying citizens will be extreme.

Brian Maloney is the co-founder of the Media Equality Project, a conservative watchdog group. Follow him on Twitter at @SScalpings.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.