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1. New Jersey isn’t as much of a lost cause as New York. It’s just borderline enough that Republicans throw their passion and energy into it only to end up with races that seem close, but ultimately aren’t. Virginia, packed full of bedroom community government employees, is occasionally winnable, but mostly not. New Yorkers tend to vote for whoever is on the Dem party line and the Mamdani machine rammed up social media hype that got younger voters to turn out.
All of those elections were long shots for the good guys and the not so good guys like Cuomo.
Republicans ran a terrible campaign in Virginia based on moral scolding. Republicans should by now know better than anyone that moral scolding doesn’t work. But Democrats ran a terrible campaign too. But in a blueish state with a working political machine like VA or NJ, Dems just to have show up. And they showed up.
Cuomo ran a terrible campaign in New York, but the election was lost once Cuomo failed to turn out enough voters for the primary. And the rest was an unfocused mess in which the squabbling between Cuomo and Sliwa made the outcome 100% inevitable.
2. The average voter cast ballots based on his or her perception of the state of things and a big part of that is the economy. Trump and Republicans had that going for them in 2024. They don’t in 2025 and they won’t in 2026.
This is an urgent reality check.
Yes, Republicans and conservatives will agonize that Virginia voters didn’t make their decision based on the Jay Jones death threats. It’s 2025. Moral qualifications for candidates are deader than Gary Hart (correction Gary is still alive) which is why Graham Platner is doing better than ever after the SS tattoo and the Communist declaration. There may be nothing too awful that a politician can do to be morally disqualified. People vote down party lines, they vote based on which party they think is screwing them harder, based on identity politics and just sheer ‘cussedness’.
3. Conservatives have been living in an echo chamber, gushing over Trump’s accomplishments. There’s plenty to gush over, but only so much that ordinary American voters care about.
The gushing feels good, but unless people come out of the echo chamber and actually deal with the everyday state of the country instead of the social media trends, 2025 will be a warm-up act for 2026 with Dems taking the House.
And then 2028.
If you think that can’t happen, it can. And then the executive orders will be wiped out with the stroke of a pen and we’ll see a dystopia that will be far worse than the Obama and Biden years.
Conservatives become complacent. It takes a shock to the system: a ‘Butler’ moment to wake people up and make them fight.
Tonight’s elections should be a dash of cold water. President Trump has done a lot of great things, but much of the country is still agonizing over prices, over the economy at ground level, and is not feeling good about the state of the nation. Unless that changes, not just Dems, but Islamists and the far Left will exploit the opportunity to take more positions, climb the political ladder and eventually take over the country.
A downer? Yes. That’s why the wake up call is needed. We’re not safe. We’re in the middle of a war. The echo chambers have become too cozy and we’re seeing too many memes while losing sight of the battle.
There’s still time before 2026 and 2028. But only so much time..
Time to get back to the Basics of why America was founded in the First Place Close the Borders and pull out of the United Nations Totally No more Global Entanglements
Pretty courageous. If you want 20 or so downvotes, next time just go without prefacing any praise of Trump before making an honest discussion of our potential future.
I constantly feel guilty about hogging so many votes. I don’t mean to humble brag but I would like to share my votes with others.
Outstanding article Daniel! Your take on conservatives falls in line with mine. I stopped calling myself a conservative some time ago after I came to the realization that to someone like myself, conservatives are too timid and affable. Moreover, when the going gets tough, they have a penchant for kowtowing to democrats which I find particularly off-putting to say the least.
It’s why I’ve come to think that when all is said and done, the democrats will be back in control after 2028 and everything that Trump has done will be undone with a vengeance.
And other than a few anonymous shouts from the peanut gallery, they’ll have nothing to fear from republicans or conservatives.
Bleak? Perhaps. If past is prologue, then there is reason to have a bleak outlook on whats to come in a future where the democrats are in control of the country.
Republicans are cowards and most voters are stupid. We are doomed.
I agree. Still waiting for the useless republican party to go berserk about an issue, any issue, like the dem’s do as standard operating procedure. As for stupid voters, well stupidity and ignorance are now a national epidemic. There is no hope. The Republic dies in a whimper, not a bang.
James:
I agree with you on the first part but only partly on the second part of your comment. Most voters are not stupid. They’re just weak, timid and afraid and unwilling to stand alone and fight for what they believe in.
Collectively, republicans are feckless cowards who lack the gonads to go mano a mano with the democrats. It’s why I’m an independent today.
I left the republican party not long after GW Bush kowtowed to the Bin Laden family by quietly rushing them out of the country shortly after 9-11.. And that picture of him walking and holding hands with a Saudi prince really pushed me over the edge! I was completely done with the republican party after that.
Truth be told, I didn’t leave the republican party, the republican party left me.
Doomed, and quaking in their Manolo Blahnik boots, James. God help New York!
Need to stop listening to rich oligarchs in the pockets of oil rich sheikhs.
The people want everything for free and the end of America as we know it. There’s no where else to go. Luckily, I’m not young.
The tariffs are going to work Increasing taxes, which is exactly what tariffs are, works great. Just give them more time. Inflation will plummet and the economy will skyrocket. Admittedly, I can’t explain President Trump justifying increasing beef imports from Argentina on the basis that’ll lower prices. He’s smarter than everyone else so not for me to question the seeming contradiction,.
I hope President Trump increases the income tax rate by 10% for anyone who criticizes the tariffs. Those tariffs are beautiful.
“Luckily, I’m not young.”
Just make sure, though, you secure your future beyond.
1 Corinthians 15:1-4.
I’m not young either but my children are, and their children are even younger. Maybe it’s time for them to leave the U.S. and find another country to live in,
I watched about 5 seconds last night (all I could manage) of Zohran’s “thank you” speech to his acolytes. The spoiled brat pampered son of wealthy parents was literally shrieking in a high-pitched voice about going after the “oligarchs” and, of course, Donald Trump, The piece of muzzloid crap openly threatened the president of the United States on TV. Geez! The pu$$y hasn’t even been sworn in yet, and he’s already at it.
The battlelines are being drawn and a breakup of our Republic into smaller nation states is not a stretch of the imagination. There are way too many Normal Amercan’s and we are not going to be able to live with commies, the immoral, idiots and leeches.
“…. a breakup of our Republic into smaller nation states…”
That’s already happening as we speak. Thanks to Obama, Biden, Soros, Pelosi, Schumer, et al, America is being methodically Balkanized right before our eyes and most people either can’t see it or refuse to acknowledge it. Balkanization is one of the objectives of the democrats long term goals.
Furthermore, there are currently 2 Trojan horses in play here in America: the Muslim Trojan horse and the Mexican Trojan horse. The Muslims intend to conquer America by overwhelm our country with numbers while the Mexicans quietly intend to use numbers to retake the southwestern half of the US (anyone remembers La Raza?) Thus far the Mexicans have been more successful but the Muslims are quietly gaining ground.
If only Americans would look at the big picture, they would see this happening in real time. The clock is ticking down to the day when America will have little choice but to break up into dozens of small countries which would suit the democrats just fine. They honestly believe that discord and disunity will empower them to reign over chaos. Of course, that’s delusional but thinking that democrats are “sane” is an accusation that is not based on any observable objective facts.
I pray that none of these scenarios ever comes to fruition.
I learned about Republicans in Broward County, Florida. They do nothing and do not support the candidates. They sabatoged the TEA party and the leadership is deplorable. The Dems work for you.
The coalition of independents, libertarians, and disaffected that elected Trump are shocked and discouraged that Trump’s priorities were a laundry list of foreign interventions, mega deals with mega corporations, and chumming it up with Gates, Zuckerberg and Bourla. Cost of living issues are given short shrift and dismissed with eggs and gas prices heading down, clot shots and baby jabbers are still being promoted, and agents of Arctic Frost are still being promoted. Meanwhile the Republican congress passes nothing and advances nothing while putting up the same kind of candidates who lose over and over again. Trump has accomplished many amazing things: restructuring the entire system of global trade to favor Americans rather than harm them, abolish DEI, dept of ED, USAID, etc. The long-term effects should be fantastic but right now people only feel the disruption and the whipsawing of trade negotiations and on, again off again diplomacy. People want change but also a sense of security. The messaging coming from the White House sucks. Nobody gives a shit how many drug boats get blown up or frankly about anything that happens if it’s not happening in America. You can still do those things but focus your action and messaging on internal American issues.
Occupy the Big Democrat Cities like New York and deport the illegals there.
The rural illegals don’t matter so much. Deporting a bunch of rural workers doesn’t do much.
Woke-Islam has not really won. They are threatening our homes. They can take a flying leap. Fatalism and defeatism is wrong. Lefto-Islam is not inevitable. They are bullies. Ultimately they are weak.
Ayn Rand was and is RIGHT.
The only thing that can save America and the West is her philosophy of Objectivism taught at the universities.
If you want Americans to vote for Free Market Capitalism, for personal freedom, liberty, and the responsibility of self-reliance, of paying your own way out of your own pocket, then you have to teach them WHY this is necessary and moral. Only Objectivism offers an irrefutable and complete, philosophical argument, as to why Capitalism is the MORAL system.
As much as I support much of what Rand advocated for, it is unrealistic to proceed as if the government was always as non-intrusive as Rand supports. Does the government just stop paying Social Security and Medicare?
As for teaching Objectivism at the universities, does anyone seriously think the people who push DEI are going to teach Objectivism? “The next time some academics tell you how important diversity is, ask how many Republicans there are in their sociology department.” Thomas Sowell
Rand never argued that complete Laissez-Faire Capitalism has ever existed, even in the USA. There are NO shortcuts for achieving a free, peaceful, and prosperous society. Nor are there any shortcuts to maintaining a republic — if you can keep it. It took 2,500 years of prodigious philosophical struggle to finally achieve the founding of the USA.
“All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.”- Spinoza
“The nineteenth century was the ultimate product and expression of the intellectual trend of the Renaissance and the Age of Reason, which means: of a predominantly Aristotelian philosophy. And, for the first time in history, it created a new economic system, the necessary corollary of political freedom, a system of free trade on a free market: capitalism.
No, it was not a full, perfect, unregulated, totally laissez-faire capitalism—as it should have been. Various degrees of government interference and control still remained, even in America—and this is what led to the eventual destruction of capitalism. But the extent to which certain countries were free was the exact extent of their economic progress. America, the freest, achieved the most.” – Ayn Rand
Universities can’t teach objectivism because objectivism is contrary to subjectivism which is one of the core principles of Marxist ideology. Marxists believe that their are no truths outside of what they personally think and believe.
One simply cannot be a Marxist and objective at the same time. By the way, that doesn’t just apply to Marxists. It also applies to religious zealots, et al, who in my opinion aren’t that different from hardcore Marxists.
SPOT ON, Daniel….your quote, “the country is still agonizing over prices, over the economy at ground level,” FED/Economists say inflation 3%…,blah, blah, blah. Anything in tissues, for nose or butt have more than doubled in $, and sheets are thinner, and less of. Look @ fresh meat and chicken prices, more than doubled in past 5 years. Coke/Pepsi products have doubled in past 4 years…on sale Kroger or Publix, 4 years ago, $2.50 per 12-pack cans, NOW $4.50 to $5.00 per 12-pack cans, as these stores use them as a “loss leader” to get people in stores. WHAT? 100% increase??? NO WONDER VOTE WENT DEMO, their constituents still getting welfare/SNAP/food stamps/Medicaid and CRIME in Big and Medium cities…out the roof!
same people who flagged this stuff under Biden no longer want to talk about it, as if that will make it go away
it won’t
True but “they” have the media on their side. They can’t make it go away but they can choose to not talk about it. That has the net effect of making it go away via silence and neglect.
I’m certain though, that you’re aware that that’s nothing new. The media does in all the time.
Voting for a party that let our southern border be under siege for four years .
It’s almost too hard to believe .
“…. let our southern border be under siege…”
Let? No. They encouraged it and facilitated it and we the American tax payers paid for it. No more timid half truths about what the democrats have done and are doing!
An excellent political assessment using realism to highlight the inertia of conservatives’ hopium addiction. Conservatives can’t stop pretending the Cavalry is just around the bend so they can sit back, gloat and return to ignoring reality while ranting on the internet about crazy leftists (I also love to vent-rant but I’m not a conservative — I’m an anti-Totalitarian and anti-Utopian realist). The Mandami election is the turning point for America. Just as Sidaq Khan’s election as mayor of London was the turning point for the UK. It’s all downhill from here.
Hamas did not return the bodies, has killed more IDF soldiers, is restocking weapons and is not leaving Gaza because they know Trump’s “threats” were all empty media sound bite hopium theatre for his armchair aging base — the bark has no bite and islam and the left are howling in delight — Mandami even declared war on Trump.
Beyond disappointment. Those of us living not in the US looked to America as our final hope that someone somehow might arise to end this leftist islamic conquest. And now we see that this is not going to happen. It’s so depressing. I’m so glad I’m old and had such a great life for so long in the old world — my world — the world I see dying and there’s nothing anyone can seem to do to stop it. History is a juggernaut. It’s Gen Z’s world now and they’re getting what they want: leftism, islam and revenge.
True but wait until the consequences are visited upon them. Their wants will be shoved in their faces and down their throats while kicking them in there arses.
“Conservatives become complacent”
Because it is human nature for normal peace loving people get tired of constant war. Unfortunately survival requires vigilance and awareness of the danger ahead. Republicans need to stop fighting each other and realize the existential threat of their enemies.
Excellent article.
Yes, conservatives need to come up with a winning plan, but can they, will they? TPUSA is a good movement, but not the sole answer to the movement’s woes.
I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that to happen. We’ve seen that scenario play out many times in the past and where has it gotten them?
I know I’m being pessimistic but I’m a realist and have been around the block more than a few times. Hope, good intentions and lofty rhetoric is good for a few back slaps and amens but is not a winning strategy.
Republicans need to focus on the bread and butter economic issues faced by lower and middle class voters.