I will probably never believe that Trump is finished until and unless I see it happen, but anecdotally I’ve seen significantly more backlash from actual GOP base voters I know for this midterm than I have any other time. I’m sorry this election outside of a few states was simply an unmitigated disaster for not only DJT (who btw doesn’t seem that interested in this debacle, but rather about his endorsement record) but most of the GOP.
Regardless of who and what you choose to blame (Dobbs affected some states more than others, but it was still a clear factor), it is clear that the party cannot continue on its current course. They need to remove McDaniel and make Lee Zeldin the head of the RNC and fire half of the congressional leadership at the bare minimum. And if we don’t do that by 2024, we are probably losing no matter if the nominee is Trump or DeSantis.
"clear that the party cannot continue on its current course.... they need to remove"
Would love to be proven wrong, but there is no indication this could come from anyone other than Trump. Why would DeSantis go to war with the GOP leaders and apparatchiks who are currently favoring him? Under what condition would he? I don't think he has ever done something remotely like that.
There's no disputing Trump's faults, and his ego, but this is the problem with turning on Trump and forgetting why we all liked/supported him in the first place. Not that he always does it, but at this point he's the only one who has proven capable of doing the hard work of going to war with GOP leaders and apparatchiks.
The GOP is as terrible as ever and the federal bureaucracy is as terrible as ever. Do you think DeSantis fairs any better at accomplishing a real America First agenda as President? I think the optimal option is a punished 2024 Trump scenario to clear house in the GOP/federal bureaucracy as much as possible to pave the way for DeSantis/future GOP administrations.
We’ll see. Whoever calls for the RNC to be completely reformed first will have my support, and I have a feeling neither Trump or DeSantis will do it (considering they haven’t said much about it so far).
2016 Trump proved he could fight against the party elites. 2022 Trump, less so although he has his moments.
DeSantis has stood up against the cucky legislature in his state, but he hasn’t said much of the cucky national GOP leadership.
DeSantis has obviously done well in Florida, but he had to get pushed over the line in 2018 and he's been pushed right politically by Trump. We don't know how he'd be now without Trump in the picture, especially at the federal level as President. People forget that he was a standard GOP congressman for years before Trump declared in 2015, he was on track to be a standard GOP nobody his entire career. There is nothing that proves he won't be Bush III, good as a Governor, completely owned as President. And with the types of neocon cretans circling his bandwagon that certainly looks like it could be the case.
He's also greatly benefited from Florida's rightward shift since 2012, Florida has long been trending right and DeSantis rightly leaned into that and marketed Florida as a refuge for stranded right wingers in deep blue states to move to since 2018. He should stay in Florida until his term as Governor is up to continue to advance States' rights and see what can be achieved on that front as the federal apparatus gets more blue and red state-blue state balkanization increases. In my opinion that is arguably more important, especially long-term.
Hey Scott long time listener first time question asker: what do you think about Kobach’s win in Kansas? While dorky GOP types like Derek Schmidt and Amanda Atkins got trounced, Kris Kobach, the most polarizing figure in the state, won! Do you think that disproves the narrative that Trump candidates are a drag on the party?
"Do you think that disproves the narrative that Trump candidates are a drag on the party?"
They aren't. Trump endorsements are like 200 wins to less than 20 losses in this election. It's completely being over blown how "bad" this election has been, especially if things continue to trend right in AZ & NV as those results come in. Don't fall for the Neocon/RNC psy-op, if there is blame to go around they are just as equally at fault for it.
While it is a good explanation for DeSantis‘ strong performance in FL, I don‘t think the „mass exodus from Blue states to Red states“ argument is that useful when applied to other regions. I‘m skeptical of it having real significance in the Rust Belt, and certainly, Gavin Newsom‘s relatively underwhelming victory in CA‘s gubernatorial election (Republican opponent got 42 per cent) doesn‘t quite fit this model - I would have thought the charismatic Libtard caudillo would be approaching 70 per cent after years of en masse departure of conservatives from his state and basically no significant, united Republican effort to topple him like in last year‘s Recall attempt
Registered to vote in King Country WA late this summer. Weird observations:
1. Only requirement to get voter registration here is to provide address, signature, check box that says I am US citizen. Got registered with an out of state ID. Address verification not required. All ballots are "mailed in" for election. Registration seemed too easy IMO (see "in-person" registration below).
2. While registered at county office, a stack of registrations from an Indian org (dot not feather) was dropped off (from where, temple? retirement home?). Seemingly, in-person voter registration not required, organized harvesting via targeted ethnic group ongoing? WTF?
Washington isn't battle ground state, but would be interested to know how much of these registration/harvesting practices are mimicked in elsewhere.
I think the most important part of this election is being a referendum on the status quo. Winning the House is arguably more important than the Senate, which the Democrats only have a tie breaker majority. I don't think anyone gives a shit about McConnell being back in charge, it's more about sending a message. Republicans also had more seats to defend, losing just one race by a point with three possible pickups left honestly ain't bad
I will probably never believe that Trump is finished until and unless I see it happen, but anecdotally I’ve seen significantly more backlash from actual GOP base voters I know for this midterm than I have any other time. I’m sorry this election outside of a few states was simply an unmitigated disaster for not only DJT (who btw doesn’t seem that interested in this debacle, but rather about his endorsement record) but most of the GOP.
Regardless of who and what you choose to blame (Dobbs affected some states more than others, but it was still a clear factor), it is clear that the party cannot continue on its current course. They need to remove McDaniel and make Lee Zeldin the head of the RNC and fire half of the congressional leadership at the bare minimum. And if we don’t do that by 2024, we are probably losing no matter if the nominee is Trump or DeSantis.
"clear that the party cannot continue on its current course.... they need to remove"
Would love to be proven wrong, but there is no indication this could come from anyone other than Trump. Why would DeSantis go to war with the GOP leaders and apparatchiks who are currently favoring him? Under what condition would he? I don't think he has ever done something remotely like that.
There's no disputing Trump's faults, and his ego, but this is the problem with turning on Trump and forgetting why we all liked/supported him in the first place. Not that he always does it, but at this point he's the only one who has proven capable of doing the hard work of going to war with GOP leaders and apparatchiks.
The GOP is as terrible as ever and the federal bureaucracy is as terrible as ever. Do you think DeSantis fairs any better at accomplishing a real America First agenda as President? I think the optimal option is a punished 2024 Trump scenario to clear house in the GOP/federal bureaucracy as much as possible to pave the way for DeSantis/future GOP administrations.
We’ll see. Whoever calls for the RNC to be completely reformed first will have my support, and I have a feeling neither Trump or DeSantis will do it (considering they haven’t said much about it so far).
2016 Trump proved he could fight against the party elites. 2022 Trump, less so although he has his moments.
DeSantis has stood up against the cucky legislature in his state, but he hasn’t said much of the cucky national GOP leadership.
DeSantis has obviously done well in Florida, but he had to get pushed over the line in 2018 and he's been pushed right politically by Trump. We don't know how he'd be now without Trump in the picture, especially at the federal level as President. People forget that he was a standard GOP congressman for years before Trump declared in 2015, he was on track to be a standard GOP nobody his entire career. There is nothing that proves he won't be Bush III, good as a Governor, completely owned as President. And with the types of neocon cretans circling his bandwagon that certainly looks like it could be the case.
He's also greatly benefited from Florida's rightward shift since 2012, Florida has long been trending right and DeSantis rightly leaned into that and marketed Florida as a refuge for stranded right wingers in deep blue states to move to since 2018. He should stay in Florida until his term as Governor is up to continue to advance States' rights and see what can be achieved on that front as the federal apparatus gets more blue and red state-blue state balkanization increases. In my opinion that is arguably more important, especially long-term.
Hey Scott long time listener first time question asker: what do you think about Kobach’s win in Kansas? While dorky GOP types like Derek Schmidt and Amanda Atkins got trounced, Kris Kobach, the most polarizing figure in the state, won! Do you think that disproves the narrative that Trump candidates are a drag on the party?
"Do you think that disproves the narrative that Trump candidates are a drag on the party?"
They aren't. Trump endorsements are like 200 wins to less than 20 losses in this election. It's completely being over blown how "bad" this election has been, especially if things continue to trend right in AZ & NV as those results come in. Don't fall for the Neocon/RNC psy-op, if there is blame to go around they are just as equally at fault for it.
While it is a good explanation for DeSantis‘ strong performance in FL, I don‘t think the „mass exodus from Blue states to Red states“ argument is that useful when applied to other regions. I‘m skeptical of it having real significance in the Rust Belt, and certainly, Gavin Newsom‘s relatively underwhelming victory in CA‘s gubernatorial election (Republican opponent got 42 per cent) doesn‘t quite fit this model - I would have thought the charismatic Libtard caudillo would be approaching 70 per cent after years of en masse departure of conservatives from his state and basically no significant, united Republican effort to topple him like in last year‘s Recall attempt
Still Whitepilled!
Hi Scott, thanks for the podcast! I don't remember you discussing election integrity in this podcast. Could you weigh in on this at some point?
Registered to vote in King Country WA late this summer. Weird observations:
1. Only requirement to get voter registration here is to provide address, signature, check box that says I am US citizen. Got registered with an out of state ID. Address verification not required. All ballots are "mailed in" for election. Registration seemed too easy IMO (see "in-person" registration below).
https://kingcounty.gov/depts/elections/how-to-vote/register-to-vote.aspx
2. While registered at county office, a stack of registrations from an Indian org (dot not feather) was dropped off (from where, temple? retirement home?). Seemingly, in-person voter registration not required, organized harvesting via targeted ethnic group ongoing? WTF?
Washington isn't battle ground state, but would be interested to know how much of these registration/harvesting practices are mimicked in elsewhere.
They're pretty common in states that loosened mail in ballot rules
I think the most important part of this election is being a referendum on the status quo. Winning the House is arguably more important than the Senate, which the Democrats only have a tie breaker majority. I don't think anyone gives a shit about McConnell being back in charge, it's more about sending a message. Republicans also had more seats to defend, losing just one race by a point with three possible pickups left honestly ain't bad