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Good Friday Morning! Except for those liberals fleeing the country and hopping on a four-year cruise to hide from the Trump years in America. Villa Vie Residences offers “Skip Forward” cruises, where passengers can spend four years transiting the globe and seeing all seven continents, including excursions to Antarctica.
If four years is too long, they also offer a “midterm special,” where you’ll be out for a couple of years until the midterms arrive. Tickets start at $40,000 a year per passenger. For those wanting more luxury, all-inclusive tickets start at $255,999 for a single-occupancy room. For a couple, that price goes up to $320,000.
If the Trump years are too much for you, that’s definitely one way to burn your money. Speaking of burning money, I’ve got a quick hit on one of Kamala Harris’ ways of doing that this cycle. Also, I’m going to cover how the GOP is being forced to become a big tent party because the Democratic Party has lost its mind – links to follow.
Quick Hits:
- There have been plenty of double standards in this election, but one was revealed after Kamala Harris released her campaign finance disclosures after the race. This week, we learned that Kamala Harris paid Al Sharpton’s National Action Network $500,000 (in the form of two payments) ahead of a glowing interview the MSNBC host gave Harris on the network. For reference, in 2010, MSNBC suspended Joe Scarborough for donating campaign funds to various races, primarily to family members and friends running for office (funny note: Scarborough and his ex-wife donated $1,000 to a young Florida state legislative candidate named Matt Gaetz, they also donated to Gaetz’s father, Don Gaetz). MSNBC made the suspension because it violated journalistic ethics. Al Sharpton has his own show on MSNBC, and apparently, the network is fine with him taking $500,000 from Harris, not disclosing that to viewers, and moving right along. No one has any misgivings about who Sharpton supported in the race, but it is an interesting look for MSNBC. Speaking of, Comcast is in early talks of spinning off MSNBC and other channels and selling them off. Liberals laughed at Alex Jones’ Info Wars getting bought by the satirical website The Onion. It would be equally funny if a wealthy conservative bought MSNBC.
Where you can find me this week
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Horse Race Ep. 017: Matt Gaetz RESIGNS | Trump Appointments Shrink Majority | Special Elections
The Liberals Are Not Okay – Conservative Institute
Pete Hegseth Has One Thing To Do For Success In The Defense Department – Conservative Institute
Trump’s Team Must Fire Anti-American Threats In The U.S. Government – Conservative Institute
Do Republicans Have A New Base Or Is This Temporary?
Every part of the Harris campaign was some bizarre choreographed routine that was obvious in the moment. It was a practice in inauthentic gibberish. One of the prime examples was when the press made a big deal out of Harris sayingshe’d appoint a Republican to her cabinet if elected. Talking heads practically exploded over her making such a grand gesture.
Somewhat ignored in that conversation is that Donald Trump didn’t even have to say that because everyone knew he had Democrats on board. Case in point: Trump has nominated RFK Jr. to his cabinet for the HHS position. Whatever you may think of that, consider this: In 2009, Barack Obama was considering nominating Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head up the Environmental Protection Agency.
If you’ve glanced at the news, you know the coverage the press is giving for Kennedy now. Here’s how Politico covered the potential selection of RFK Jr. in an Obama administration on November 5, 2008:
President-elect Barack Obama is strongly considering Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Environmental Protection Agency, a Cabinet post, Democratic officials told Politico.
Kennedy’s cousin, Caroline Kennedy, who helped Obama lead his vice presidential search, is being considered for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, although some Obama officials doubt she would take the post. Obama is indebted to the Kennedy family for a hearty endorsement at a crucial point in the Democratic primaries.
The selection of Kennedy would be a shrewd early move for the new presidential team. Obama advisers said the nomination would please both Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).
It also would raise the profile of the EPA, which would help endear Obama to liberals who may be disappointed on other issues important to the Democratic left because of budget restrictions.
The EPA enforces clean air and clear water laws. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and son of the late senator and attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, has long championed a cleaner water supply for New York City.
As an officer and attorney for the environmental watch group Riverkeeper, Kennedy has taken on governments and companies for polluting the Hudson River and Long Island Sound.
Kennedy, a falconer and white-water rafter, also worked as an assistant district attorney in New York City.
Kennedy gained Washington experience by fighting anti-environmental legislation in Congress in 1995 and 1996, when Newt Gingrich took over as House speaker.
A hat tip to Drew Holden for pointing this article out on X. I’m going to let you in on a secret: every Democrat at that echelon in 2008 knew RFK Jr. was a nutcase then. They were happy to have him along for the ride when he was just a Kennedy supporting Democrats. But now that Kennedy has, at least momentarily, switched parties, it’s open season.
Ironically, you can describe Trump’s selection of Kennedy in much the same manner. Kennedy’s endorsement helped unlock a new set of low-propensity voters for the Trump campaign. The combination of Kennedy and Musk landed Trump an interview on Joe Rogan’s show, which was, outside the debates, the most important interview of the entire campaign cycle.
Kennedy, Tulsi Gabbard, Joe Rogan, Elon Musk, and even Trump himself are all former Democrats now in the Republican Party. I was really thinking about that this week, watching more data roll in showing the shift of working-class voters towards Trump. In reality, the entire country, with the exception of a few places, shifted towards Trump.
The Financial Times published a piece examining the growing gender gap in politics. In the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom, the radicalization of women is driving the gap. The ideology score for men has remained roughly the same for the last 30 years, whereas starting in about 2010, the ideology score for women skyrocketed into far-left beliefs.
The Financial Times observed, “In the U.S., U.K. and Germany, young women now take far more liberal positions on immigration and racial justice than young men, while older age groups remain evenly matched. The trend in most countries has been one of women shifting left while men stand still, but there are signs that young men are actively moving to the right in Germany, where today’s under-30s are more opposed to immigration than their elders, and have shifted towards the far-right AfD in recent years.”
If you’ll notice, this is contrary to the popular narrative in the media. In the press, we’re told the country is dealing with the radicalization of men on YouTube and other places. I’m not saying you don’t find radical men, but the overall shift we’re experiencing is one where women have pivoted left, and that’s opened up a gap between them and men. It’s more pronounced among younger generations.
The Democratic Party plunged head-first into these divisions, siding with women. That’s where we’ve gotten tone policing, pronoun wars, and all the other absurdities. It’s a Tumblr-esque nightmare that comes to fruition in the Democratic party, and it’s alienating everyone.
On the flip side, because Democrats are kicking everyone out who doesn’t adhere to this new, ever-changing ideology, it’s forcing the Republican Party to become a truly big-tent coalition. The GOP is taking in more political castoffs per year than any party in history. Donald Trump built a coalition of former Democrats. Kamala Harris ran around blasting Donald Trump as an extremist, but polls consistently say Trump is viewed (correctly) as a moderate.
The number one ad run by the Trump campaign was the one where his team had Harris on video supporting taxpayer money to federal prisoners and illegal alliances to change genders. The press is trying to call these ads anti-trans, but that misses the point. The point of those ads was simple: Kamala Harris cares about sending tax dollars to fringe social issues and Ukraine, but not to you, the American citizen.
That’s a brutally effective message.
So we sit here, with one of Barack Obama’s former choices for the EPA now in the Trump administration. We’ve got a former Democratic House member and 2020 Presidential primary candidate in the Trump administration. And all the people they represent, the castoffs of the Democratic Party, are voting for Republicans.
I have friends and colleagues who are a part of the “Republicans Against Trump” movement. And I get it. I’ve had a long list of issues with Trump. But the trade Democrats made was to try and win a vanishingly small part of the electorate – mostly white, college-educated, wealthy suburbanites who voted for Bush/McCain/Romney – and gave up the entire working class across all racial demographics.
Before the election, I had liberal friends arguing with me that they weren’t losing the working class or union members. All election data shows that the polls were correct: Democrats were losing those people. Many of those people are fleeing for alternative social media sites because they can’t handle being this wrong.
The Republican Party’s question long term is whether or not they’re keeping these new voters or just renting them for a season (aka while Trump is on the ballot). Trump’s bringing in people like RFK Jr., Tulsi, etc., is an attempt to make the low-propensity voters stick long term. Will that work? I have no idea. Trump’s pick of J.D. Vance is another attempt to build a bridge to the next wave of his movement.
But I do know this: until the gender gap radicalization gets fixed, Republicans will have an advantage moving forward. That’s not to say Democrats won’t win—American politics swings back and forth regularly. However, we could hit an inflection point where Republicans start carrying a more significant advantage down the road. That would make Trump a sign of harder times ahead for the Democratic Party.
I’ll leave you with this: For an early look at how the Democratic Party is taking the lessons from this loss, take a look at Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez’s account on X/Twitter. She removed the “she/her” pronouns from her profile this week.
Links of the week
Farewell to the “Rising American Electorate” – The Obama coalition is not coming back. – Ruy Teixeira, The Liberal Patriot
How the Democrats Bud Lighted their brand: You can’t be openly hostile to men for two decades and expect to retain the male vote – Bridget Phetasy, The Spectator
Harris Lost the Working Class: While Biden made modest progress with working-class voters, Harris failed to hold these gains in 2024. – The Liberal Patriot
Trump Might Have Won the First Postracial Election: Black and Hispanic voters defect from Democrats, who have long relied on identity-politics appeals. – Jason Riley, WSJ
Once again, it was the economy, stupid – Mohamed A. El-Erian, The Project Syndicate
Cross-Pressured Voters are Unrepresented in the Democratic Party: There are no institutions dedicated to representing economically populist and socially conservative voters. – The Liberal Patriot
Obama Isn’t Going Anywhere: The former president lost big on Nov. 5. But he doesn’t seem interested in leaving D.C., or American politics. – Lee Smith, Tablet Magazine
Who Won the Jewish Vote? The answer depends in part on what you mean by ‘Jewish’ – Armin Rosen, Tablet Magazine
She won in a red district. Her blunt message to fellow Dems – CNN
‘This Is Extremely Dangerous’: Inside the Biden Administration’s Push To Swap Science for ‘Indigenous Knowledge’- – The White House urges federal agencies to consider tribal religion alongside scientific studies – Washington Free Beacon
X/Twitter Thread(s) of the week
The NYT attacks on Pete Hesgeth’s faith are wrong and dumb
Satire of the week
Trump Boys Have Slap Fight Over Who Gets To Run Foreign Policy Meetings – Onion
The Babylon Bee Is Graciously Offering To Hire Any Laid-Off Employee From Fake News Rival CNN – Babylon Bee
Insult To Injury: African Kids Receive Overstock Harris-Walz Hats To Wear With Their Yankees World Championship Shirts – Babylon Bee
I LIVED IT: I Made Fun of Myself and My Friend Added to the Bit Instead of Correcting Me – Reductress
Dave Grohl Forced to Tell Second Family About Even Secreter Third Family – The Hard Times
“Backyard Baseball ’97” Lets Gamers Live Out the Fantasy of One Day Owning a Backyard – The Hard Drive
Government Efficiency Win: Trump Hires Two People To Do The One Job – Waterford Whispers News
Thanks for reading!