One thing can be clear about Senator Tim Scott’s response to Joe Biden’s address to Congress: It was a success. In fact, the decision to have him give the response has to rank as one of the smartest tactical and strategic decisions the Republican Party has made in a long time.

Scott’s speech itself was a solid one and a big improvement over past responses that fell flat — or worse. Scott also has shown that, like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, he has many of the right enemies. There is one big difference, though: Scott has triggered them into acting in a vicious and ugly manner that was clearly tinged with actual racism.

This is not a frivolous play of the race card. Grassroots Patriots have all too often been on the receiving end of that card, including at the hands of the current president. Many of Scott’s critics seem to believe, based on their attacks, that a certain skin tone requires one to think a certain way. That’s a form of racism, plain and simple.

Make no mistake: For all the good President Donald Trump did for the Republican Party, including providing a necessary dose of chemotherapy, his pugnaciousness led him into situations that often hurt him among people who would otherwise have backed the issues he championed. The resulting defections over the distaste for Trump’s way of delivering the message aided in the success of the bulk-mail ballot strategy the Left used in 2020.

And it should be noted that Tim Scott has fought back — not in Trump’s bellicose manner, but in a way best described as giving his enemies enough rope with which to hang themselves. After giving corporate America a chance to do the right thing, he went after them. He’s deftly skewered the Left with its own rules, and the issue is lingering.

The next step, if the GOP wants to utilize it, is to now show the Left’s racist pattern — one that goes back decades. It includes the time when Pete Stark attacked then-Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan, the many attacks on Clarence Thomas, and the treatment given to Trump allies like Herman Cain and Ben Carson. The Left and mainstream media may invoke Colin Powell, Condi Rice, and Michael Steele to attack Trump now, but back during the days when George W. Bush was president, they too were subjected to the same racism from the Left that Scott faces today for the same reason.

This type of follow-up is what could accelerate the black community’s trending toward the Republicans — a trend that worries more than one Democrat consultant. Blacks are not alone in being the target of vicious attacks for daring to be conservative, either. Just ask a certain former reality star and Olympic athlete who isn’t toeing the Left’s line on women’s sports.

While the 2022 midterm elections are essential to putting a halt to the Biden-Harris regime’s assault on our liberties, the real big tasks come in 2024. The general election, to ensure our country is back under the leadership of someone dedicated to our constitutional republic, will be difficult — but the level of difficulty will be determined by who is selected as the messenger for that election by virtue of being nominated for president. The right choice for messenger could make all the difference.