2022 midterms

All eyes are on the flyover state of Ohio as the fight for the future of Trumpism unfolds. In January, Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman announced he was bowing out of politics for good. His vacancy has set up a rare primary between two candidates offering two different versions of Donald Trump's amorphous ideology. One believes the former president's rhetoric should assimilate with bygone Tea Party-era politics and contemporary culture war talking points. The other is running on the populist rollercoaster that slung Trump into the White House. Rust Belt boy wonder Josh Mandel, who served in the statehouse and was state treasurer for almost a decade, touts a pro-Trump campaign 'to protect the Judeo-Christian bedrock of America.

The smart money says that Donald Trump will not run in 2024. The smarter money says that he might, but that he shouldn’t because he’s too old and too divisive. I have no accounts at either of those depositories, so am not going to participate in that panel discussion. Instead, I propose to make a few obvious points. If they’re obvious, why make them? Because the obvious is not always so obvious. René Descartes is widely detested by all the clever people, for whom ‘Cartesian’ is term of snobbish contempt. I think Descartes was a great genius but one who was wrong about a couple of important things. No, I do not mean what he says about ‘extended substance’, the ‘Cogito’ or any of his other epistemological and metaphysical flights.

In victory or defeat, the progressives are consistently hurting the Democratic party. Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri, who lay on the stairs of the US Capitol in a sleeping bag to protest the end of the eviction moratorium, is a perfect case study. Both she and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hammed it up for the cameras this week. Ocasio-Cortez was even cynical enough to throw her mask back on when she realized press photos of their heroic protest were being taken. She wouldn’t want the Twitter trolls to turn on her for going maskless outdoors — the horror! Luckily for Bush and AOC, the protest worked! President Biden, true to form, caved to their demands. The miserable whiners outside the Capitol managed to crack a smile for a few minutes.

Campaign season for the 2022 midterms has just crowned — and with it comes the return of glossy over-the-top candidate videos. Teddy Daniels, a large Pennsylvanian, is running for a congressional seat in Scranton, Joe Biden’s backyard. He’s following in the footsteps of House candidates like Madison Cawthorn (who won), Kim Klacik and Alek Skarlatos (who didn’t) in getting the Arsenal Media Group treatment.

The revolution may or may not be televised. But it will be turned into branded merch to be sold through an easy-to-use website. Because Change Takes Courage (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez™️, 2018), the war against the system will be systematically transformed into cuddly swag for internet consumers because, well, capitalism is literally killing us. Reuters reports that AOC is ‘investing heavily in her online store’ in order to fundraise and build ‘the second-term lawmaker's profile nationally.’ See folks, she ain’t grifting — she’s elevating her profile, because clearly not enough people have heard of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, even if she is the most famous congresswoman in the world.

The Twinkin Project scrambled together enough donor cash to hire Democratic strategist Joe Trippi as a senior adviser, the group announced Tuesday. 'Whether you are a Democrat, Republican, or Independent political strategist, you know and have studied the work of Joe Trippi,' said Lincoln Project co-founder Reed Galen in a statement. 'Joe's legendary status in the political space and unparalleled experience innovating — indeed changing the face of modern politics — makes him an invaluable resource for our work here at the Lincoln Project.' Oh yes, Trippi's 'legendary' résumé includes managing the failed presidential campaign for former Vermont governor Howard Dean and the 2017 campaign for the now-ousted Democratic senator Doug Jones of Alabama.

The progressive left has a bullseye on J.D. Vance. Ever since he announced his run for the US Senate in Middletown, Ohio last week to replace retiring Republican Rob Portman, the media has been bashing him. The Daily Beast claims he’s 'an avatar of GOP corruption’ and is upset that he mentioned Jeffrey Epstein and John Weaver as sex predators (the author says that’s a QAnon conspiracy!), while New York magazine says Vance’s campaign 'feels doomed’ less than 24 hours after he made his announcement speech in front of a pumped-up crowd of around 500. The liberal press is joined in its opposition to Vance by the anti-Trump ex-Republicans at the Lincoln Project, which spent close to $100 million against Trump last year.

J.D. Vance is the man Republicans have been praying for since the day Donald Trump stormed to the party’s presidential nomination five years ago. He has a lot of the traits conservatives liked about Trump: Vance, too, is a political outsider with proven appeal to an audience beyond politics, thanks to his bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy. Like Trump, Vance offers himself as an avatar for the people who have been discarded by globalization and demonized by a left-wing media and education establishment. And he is as radical as Trump — maybe more so — in his willingness to reject the merely liberal side of American conservatism. Trump defied elite orthodoxy on trade and immigration. Vance adds proposals to curb the tech companies and tax Ivy League endowments. But if J.D.

Oh joy! A fake scientist under indictment for hacking wants to oust alleged snow-sniffer and congressman Matt Gaetz, who is under investigation for soliciting sex from an underage girl. Could matters get any more Florida than this? In an Instagram post worthy of any up-and-coming representative, Rebekah Jones declared her intention to challenge Gaetz for Florida's first congressional district. 'I had hoped that someone in the Republican party would step up and primary him, and I've yet to see that happen,' Jones, who is a resident of Maryland, said in her Instagram post. 'And so, if it takes me going home to Florida to run against Matt Gaetz, then I will do it. If it means getting one child sex trafficker out of office, you're damn right I'll do it.

Liz Cheney is bad for the Republican party, which is why the pro-Democratic media is so obsessed with her. What the pundits won’t openly admit is that the Wyoming representative is their last hope at distracting Americans from the Biden administration’s mushrooming disasters. Meanwhile, Speaker Pelosi is heaping praise on ‘Lynne’ Cheney — a pretty solid sign that the Democrats are trying to exploit the House Republican Conference Chair. David Axelrod, the former Obama adviser, insists that Cheney is ‘as conservative as they come’, which should arouse the suspicions of any real conservative. A headline in the New York Times reads, ‘House Republicans Have Had Enough of Liz Cheney’s Truth-Telling’. Rep.

They’ve finally found a way to make Joe Biden look young and vigorous: put him next to a Jimmy Carter doll. It’s elder abuse, though I’m not sure who’s being abused here. I had thought that the most alarming image of this year would be the one of the QAnon shaman at the Speaker’s desk in the Capitol Building. But the photo of Joe and Dr Jill with Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter really is a riot. The Bidens look like ventriloquists, dropping by a seniors’ center to cheer up the inmates. The Carters look like dolls, awaiting the insertion of their owners’ hands so that they can jump into jerky life. This is the official photo, selected by the Carter Center. We have to wonder what obscenities are contained in the outtakes.