Trump closed the border on day one, and that was good, but expected. The problem for Republicans has been from day two foreward. Trump is, simply put, an ego maniac, who should be on a couch being treated, not gold plating the Oval Office. Most of us do not relate to the ballroom.
A reader accused me of TDS yesterday. Actually, everyone I vote for lost, but apparently the city, county and state has the condition, bigly.
Shown above is Bob Smith and his daughter Jackie Rivera handing out Halloween candy. Although the most qualified candidate on the school board ballot, he lost his attempt at both a two and four year term. Jackie lost her bid for commissioner, to someone arrested for drug dealing. I believe they lost because of the R after their names.
If Ryan Mackenzie wants to keep in seat in 2026, he better start standing up today. Those red hats didn't show up yesterday, and they won't show up next November either.
I'm not here to be polite or popular
It is true the Republicans have yet to understand the value of midterm elections, I believe many did not know there was election yesterday.
ReplyDeleteThe reality is that voters have been taught to vote their pocketbook. Yesterday, I suspect that government unions were out in full force because of the perceived threats to their pensions and incomes.
Virginia is made of mostly government workers , anyone who challenges expanding government will be in trouble.
New York, the winner promised much more than anyone else, so it is expected.
The reality is, Democratic socialism will keep expanding until it all collapses from the fiscal inability to sustain all this, which is the real threat to the country.
The operative phrase, “I believe many did not know there was an election”. Seriously? With all the mailers and news? Perhaps they chose not to vote because the candidate that espoused the hatred, craziness and ignorance that spoke to them was not on the ballot, OR they truly don’t like what is happening to our country .
DeleteRay@5:22: That excuses Virginia and NYC, but doesn't explain Lehigh Valley or the similar elections all across the country. Let's put "Democratic Socialism" beside, most voters are not that theoretical.
ReplyDeleteMAGA was a Trump cult that is over, Trump will not be on future ballots.
Independents swung Democratic
Latinos returned Democratic
whenever one party has a clear lead their adherents get lazy in the off season elections. it’s a wild political pendulum we’re on. meanwhile the no kings boomers were out in force.
DeleteIf you want to know how partisan and blue the Valley has become, look at the fact someone who is under indictment for participation in a major drug ring won handily. (And the facts of the indictment look pretty strong.) It is an embarrasment, not because the R's have failed, but because they have left. (We are an example of that.)
DeleteIn your article, you make the obvious point that "they (Bob Smith and Jackie Rivera) lost because of the R after their names", but your headline displays your TDS.
ReplyDeleteI hate to break it to you, but Bob Smith and other republican candidates have been losing elections in Allentown because they have R's after their names since when Trump was a democrat! As you know, there hasn't been a Republican mayor in Allentown since the turn of the century, and no republican City Council members have been elected in roughly two decades. Republicans have fared slightly better on the Allentown school board, and I believe holding two of the seven seats at one point a decade ago. But that's still not a track record for success.
The reality is that even if republicans could bring JFK, RFK and Abe Lincoln back to life and run them as a slate in Allentown, they would still lose. That's how partisan democrat voters are.
Your recent articles chastise republicans for being partisans. If you were truly concerned about partisanship, you might want to equally focus on the lockstep partisanship of democrats, and more importantly their continued lurch to the Left.
Trump is here for another 3+ years, whether you like it or not. It won't matter who the Republicans nominate in 2028 because they too will then be branded the next Hitler and smeared accordingly. You can already see that starting a bit with the attacks on Vance and other likely Republican presidential candidates.
That's right out of the socialist/communist playbook, and the democrats need those smears because they can't win the arguments on the issues themselves.
The democrat party being run by socialists is far more dangerous to the future of this country than anything else. While CNN is keeping you focused on Trump, you are missing the larger story right under your nose.
Not sure I agree. Local Republicans do have a disadvantage but many of them are not great candidates and none of them, even the stronger candidates among them, have not been great campaigners. A lot of voters have no idea who these people are so they get in there and the vote Democrat. Is it the voter’s fault they have no idea who some of these people are? Perhaps, but it is also the fault of the candidate.
DeleteMike, it would be helpful if you knew what you were talking about. Let me educate you so as you may be informed. Republicans lost across the board, with similar margins in statewide races and in swing and blue districts. They lost because the Democratic Party made a major investment in the retention races for supreme court justices. They spent millions on TV advertising, mailers, and brought in advocacy groups such as working families as paid poll greeters to hand out "Vote Yes? flyers to voters. They were at the polls I worked as well as a man from Boston who was one of many to voluntarily come to Allentown and other Democratic areas to support the effort to defeat, what he was told, was the Republican effort to make abortion illegal, suppress the right to vote, defund public schools,...none of which is true. Talking to the man from Boston who was an older white, well off off, well educated liberal confirmed in my mind everything I have found them to be, easily manipulated by their media and news sources. Talking causally and in friendly tones I was clearly able to open his eyes on a few things. At times he was genuinely surprised by what I knew and related to him. I know better than to think any of it will stick, faith in their beliefs is their default position and they cannot be shaken from it. Mike, if you took the time to investigate rather than, do as liberals do, you might be surprised by what you find and learn a few things.
ReplyDeleteTrump's MAGA supporters are the same way. To them, Trump is a cult figure and they will not disagree with anything Trump does. Supporting Russia, stabbing our friends with tariffs, telling NATO to go to hell, we don't need, or want allies or "foreign entanglements'
DeleteExtreminsts are the both the same way on opposite ends of the political spectrum.
Brent - You know so much that isn’t so.
DeleteTrump has not told NATO to go to hell. He has told them that the days of the US pulling everyone else’s weight are over and demanded that they increase their own defense spending (as a percentage of GDP) so that we all have an equal amount of skin in the game.
This has actually strengthened the alliance and Trump has been lauded by many members for doing what he did.
Trump is an albatross to any thinking candidate. No food for the poor so let’s have a Gatsby party. How tone deaf can he be? Very. Let’s cheese up the White House with gold ornaments that have nothing to do with American design but he saw it in Qatar and liked it. Gold doesn’t play well back in the counties of PA. If Mackenzie was smart he’d stop playing with photo ops and get back to Washington and at least appear like he was ready to negotiate no matter what Trump or speaker Johnson tells him. But he’s a Trump toady, so he’ll do what he’s told.
ReplyDeleteI draw the line on doing anything for illegals other than putting them in boxcars and shipping them back to Mexico where they came from. Biden let them flood in like a river and the Narco state of Mexico made billions by making their nation nothing but a place where they could willfully come as long as they were heading to the US.
DeleteNO health care NO food stamps NO education in our schools No NOTHING other than breathe the air and get out.
We have immigration laws. That is why ICE exists and the military can be used to enforce federal law to remove illegals,
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c36e41dx425o
DeletePretty sure Biden deported more people during his term than Trump did in his 1st term. The article I linked to above says Biden wanted to pause deportations, but after a surge in border crossings, increased them to record levels.
Looks like Trump 2 is deporting less people than Biden did when you time align his numbers so far to what Biden was doing in 2021-2024 as well.
Trump has, however, effectively sealed the border and new crossings are way down. what i would like to see is a removal of criminal and seditious elements, while providing a clear pathway to citizenship for those who have followed the rules other than their entry, then apply rigorous standards moving forward. enforcement of new standards when the old ones have become lax or untenable is extremely difficult.
DeleteBrent @ 9:38 You must realize the Democrats are holding up reopening the government because the Democrats WANT all those freebies to continue going to the illegals.
DeleteMike, now you are just wish casting.
ReplyDeleteMackenzie's fate is dependent on Trump's poll numbers next year
ReplyDeleteScott@7:53: Gee Scott, thanks for the education. May I humbly suggest that you read the other 7:53 comment, and pass the advise up the line to Mackenzie.
ReplyDeleteGood Lord Mike! Really? What 7:53 wrote is merely the recitation of every talking point liberals repeat like a prayer in their exercise of faith. The problem isn't Trump Mike, it is what I have just explained above. Let's imagine Trump suddenly passes, and Vance takes over. Do you think this will change anything? Do you think liberals will now say, maybe we can work with this man, after all he's not Trump. The answer is easy enough to answer with confidence. No they won't! In fact they will instantly switch to "He's worse than Trump". Do you think every rank and file liberal out their who believes Trump is a Fascist, NAZI, worse than Hitler ...won't instantly believe, as an article of faith the same about Vance, or any other Republican who becomes President? Think about it. Then wonder who's the real problem in America, one man, or the many millions who have allowed themselves to be lead to a cult like hatred of him?
DeleteI actually think dems (notably when Biden was president) went to unnecessary lengths to try to distinguish what he labeled as "MAGA extreme republicans" from the concept of the party as a whole. And there's probably a not insignificant swath of people (independents and former GOP voters who don't much care for trump, even some conservative dems) that would probably still not care for Vance, but see him as a marked improvement over Trump's more erratic/unpredictable governing style (i.e. his unilateral tariffs).
DeleteScott@9:36: You always seem to have more expertise about why Republicans lost, than how they can win. Perhaps some of those ballroom donations should have been diverted to the retention races.
ReplyDeleteOf course Trump was a cult. The good news is that he had coattails, the bad news is that it is apparently over. I don't know Vance's future. With just a few exceptions, Trump's appointments have been the worse in.history. Kennedy is putting our health and that of our children in danger. I hate to tell you this, but more people will come to dislike Trump more bigly.
Please send message to Mackenzie to assert himself, starting today.
Seems to me like Trump 2024 presidential campaign did a good job of capturing low propensity voters, but an off off-year election when GOP have control of congress and presidency, hard to turn out that same pool of people for very local elections that are hard to nationalize.
ReplyDeleteThey'll have to address cost of living (healthcare now a big concern with spiking premiums set to arrive in January) big between now and next year to not see these same headwinds in the midterms, as Trump won't be directly on the ballot then either.
Yes, of course Mike you are correct, Trump is a cult, and as a cult every Republican, Republican think tank, and opinion outlet blindly follows his every word. Oh..what a minute, that doesn't happen does it. Funny how some things are true and others aren't isn't it. I can give you a long list of example of actual free thinking and respected disagreement within the party/MAGA now one and the same according to Democrats. One will suffice, in the fight over the continuing resolution, our senator John Fetterman broke from the pack and voted with Republicans to keep the government funded and open. Immediately the long knives came out for him with press reports from the left, that he will be pressured to leave office as he is mentally incompetent due to the stroke several years ago and if that fails, he will be primaried. Rand Paul voted with the Democrats and not a single Republican or Republican thinker insulted him or demanded he be primaried. No that's just Rand being Rand, no big deal. Respect for disagreement doesn't happen in a cult does it ? Now, "Trump's appointment are the worst is history". You disgrace your credibility that Line. I won't even bother to refute with evidence as it's not necessary. It's just too preposterous a claim. Finally, please believe what you want about more people hating Trump bigly. That isn't borne out in polling. What is certain is that no matter what Trump achieves, people such as yourself will still hate him, heart and soul.
ReplyDeleteKennedy is debatable, however Hegseth is the worst. A Bear Sterns trader/weekend Fox News host/National Guard major does not a Secratary of Defense make. What he is, is a syncophant who is a 'yes' man for Trump and does not give any sort of pushback or modify whatever Trump wants the military to do.
DeleteWhere is the clear and present danger from Venesuela? We send a carrier task force to the South Carribean for what? Intercept drug cigarette boats by blowing them out of the water?
We do have an agency called the DEA which is responsible for drug enforcement. Mexico is much worse and is a narco-state right on our southern border that allows the importation od fentanol precursors from Red China so the drug cartel labs there can produce the Fentanol and then make billions sending it over the US border? Why aren't we targeting the cartels there with a carrier task force?
Oh by the way, Hegseth is the Secratary of Defense, not War. Trump's Executive Order cannot rename a Department specified by the Congress.
Agreed. The DEA is already doing fabulous work. There is no need for any more muscular tactics.
Deleteanon@10:26: "Low propensity voters" does sound nicer than a cult, I will borrow the term. Many of those low propensity voters will not be back in 2028.
ReplyDeleteScott@10:38: I don't love or hate any politician. The economy is being held up with AI data center buildouts, otherwise Trump's erratic tariffs would have tanked us bigly. I agree about Rand Paul, but the R's. need many more of him.
I know your compulsion for the last word, so please don't take my future silence as agreement, it's just weariness.
It seems to me you are the one that wants the last word. I also note you failed to answer the jist of Armstrongs message that the real problem isn't Trump it's the lefts hate machine. Don't deny it, they are proud of it. I think its scary, and something that should scare everyone. Trump can be a bit of a buffoon but he gets stuff done the Democrats silenced and intimidated us because of what we said online. That was scary.
DeleteGavin Newsom is the future and the future is now.
ReplyDeleteanon@12:31: most self-amusing comments, such as yours, are not printed.
Deleteanon@1:20: I find most of the partisans hateful, on both sides.