Author Archive: Ed Driscoll

November 6, 2024

JIM GERAGHTY: Democrats Get a Wake-Up Call about How Unpopular Their Agenda Really Is.

Trump is either going to win the national popular vote or come pretty darn close to winning it, and I suspect that is a scenario that a lot of Democrats are just not psychologically or emotionally prepared to confront. Break out the Legos, cookies, and coloring books.

Don’t underestimate the emotional value of Hillary Clinton winning the popular vote back in 2016. It allowed Democrats to convince themselves, and others, that Trump’s 2016 was a quirk of the Electoral College, a fluke, a reflection of Clinton never visiting Wisconsin and Russians buying ads on Facebook and FBI director James Comey’s late announcement and a million other excuses. Think about how many times you were reminded that Clinton won the popular vote by 2.9 million votes.

Democrats believed that progressivism was still popular — and the traditional midterm backlash of 2018 convinced them that Trump had proven to be so unpopular, they could move as far to the left as they wanted, and the electorate would still always pick them over Trump and his MAGA candidates.

They thought wrong.

Progressivism, liberalism, woke-ism — they will never be the same. They won’t wither away completely. But the Democrats just learned the hardest of hard lessons: The electorate — not just straight white males — doesn’t want their brand of deeply divisive identity politics, deliberate conflation of legal immigration and illegal immigration, policies that reflexively recommend and enact permanent bodily changes for teenagers questioning their gender identity, and basically the entire agenda of the 2019 Kamala Harris presidential campaign.

At the Bradley Impact Fund conference last month, I told the joke about the advertising genius who’s brought in to revitalize the sales of a brand of dog food. He redesigns the packaging, runs a whole bunch of appealing commercials, and gets a bright, vibrant display for the brand right in the front of the supermarket. But as he’s shopping for groceries, he watches a customer walking a dog reach down to buy the other leading brand. Exasperated, the advertising genius goes up to the man and asks why, despite the new packaging, commercials, and display, he bought the other leading brand and not the ad man’s client’s brand of dog food. The customer shrugs and points to his dog, saying “He won’t eat it.”

Democrats, the electorate is just not going to eat your dog food. It doesn’t matter if you raise more money and spend more on ads and have more campaign offices and have more doorknockers and volunteers. The sales pitch isn’t really the problem; the product is.

The zombie version of Henry Luce’s Time magazine is taking it well:

So I guess Trump isn’t getting photoshopped onto the cover as FDR declaring the “New New Deal,” or (as Newsweek did in November of 2012) in a Napoleonic admiral’s jacket and sword huh?

Flashback: Time buries Trump assassination attempt. While their article’s lede from July 27th is “Trump’s ear wound from an assassination attempt at a rally on July 13 quickly became a symbol of solidarity for many of his supporters, and a grim reminder of political violence in the U.S.,” the story’s headline is a dull-as-dishwater, “What We Do and Don’t Know About Trump’s Ear Wound.”

Evergreen:

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll on Nov 6th, 2024

JOHN PODHORETZ: Trump the ‘colossus’ is the comeback king of American politics.

Think of it. This is a man who was impeached (for a second time) two weeks before leaving office in 2021. In the years that followed that second impeachment, he was pursued by a state attorney general, two local prosecutors and a federal special prosecutor.

He was indicted 91 times in three different criminal courts and found liable in two civil courts. He has been convicted (ludicrously, in my view) of 34 (ludicrous, again) felonies.

He has had his home raided by federal agents. He has seen his eponymous business effectively shut down by a Manhattan judge.

He has been the subject of relentless and limitless hostile press coverage that dwarfs any negative characterizations of any other human being of our time.

And yet here he is, on the cusp of becoming president of the United States for a second go-round.

His utter refusal to be bent or broken by his enemies and his critics and his determination to redeem himself by recapturing the office he lost has no parallel that I can think of — not in American history, anyway.

And he did it fair and square. He declared again in a Republican primary contest, bested his rivals, secured his party’s nomination and then just went about doing whatever the thing is that he does.

He let the GOP choose and on Election Day he let the American people choose.

Exit quote:

Posted at 1:40 am by Ed Driscoll on Nov 6th, 2024

FOX REPORTING THAT TRUMP HAS WON PENNSYLVANIA:

Decision Desk HQ declaring Trump the winner in 2024:

America’s Newspaper of Record weighs in:

Brett Baier calls the election for Trump:

Posted at 1:23 am by Ed Driscoll on Nov 6th, 2024

OLD AND BUSTED: Joy and Vibes!

The New Hotness (at least for the moment):

Update (11:28 PM): More joy and vibes spotted here:

UPDATE (12:50 AM):

Posted at 12:50 am by Ed Driscoll on Nov 6th, 2024

NATHAN HOCHMAN SURGES TO LEAD OVER LOS ANGELES COUNTY D.A. GEORGE GASCÓN:

A tumultuous first term in office for Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón seems likely to end in a failed reelection bid, as he trails challenger Nathan Hochman by more than 20 percentage points in early returns.

Gascón swept into office in 2020 on a promise of reform and restorative justice, but Hochman — a former federal prosecutor and defense attorney — has spent months painting the incumbent as responsible for increases in crime and homelessness around L.A.

Gascón’s supporters and criminologists dispute that link, but Hochman’s message resonated with voters, with polls consistently forecasting his victory ahead of election day.

Earlier: Stick It to Soros: Los Angeles, stop street chaos and vote out woke DA George Gascón.

UPDATE:

Posted at 12:17 am by Ed Driscoll on Nov 6th, 2024

November 5, 2024

WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY:

Posted at 10:33 pm by Ed Driscoll on Nov 5th, 2024

DAVID HARSANYI: If one election can destroy the republic, it’s already dead.

I’ve hated nearly everything about the 2024 race: The incoherence of the candidates. The arms race in economic pandering. The violence. The nutjobs who’ve wormed their way into positions of influence. The lawfare. The unprecedented corruption and mendacity of the mass media. But there will be another election in two years that will matter very much to millions of people. And another one two years after that. Most of the same people, on experts, will be out there campaigning, raising money, and warning you that the end is near.

Modern elections do not put us out of our misery — they merely degrade our rights and decency in incremental two-year chunks.

And though I have no idea who will win the presidency in 2024, I’m quite comfortable predicting that Democrats won’t be carted off to concentration camps if Harris loses the election. Not one journalist, not even Joe Scarborough, is going to face a firing squad for saying critical things about the president. Indeed, there probably hasn’t been a public figure in America’s history who has faced as much scorn and scrutiny (some of it earned, much of it slander). Never has anyone been censored.

The unhinged, hysterical meltdown of the Left over former President Donald Trump’s candidacy is unparalleled in modern history. Women who walk around cosplaying The Handmaid’s Tale are living in the wealthiest and freest place women have ever known. They will continue to do so, even if Trump finds his way back into the White House for four years. The very notion that “democracy” hinges on the unfettered availability of third-trimester abortions is a kind of corrosive delusion only partisanship can whip up in otherwise rational people. Then again, we already know if Trump wins, every innocuous tax cut will be treated like the Reichstag fire.

And: One Last Whiff of the ‘If Trump Wins’ Psychosis: He Will Ban the Writing of History Books.

More from Harsanyi:

Last night, Oprah Winfrey told women assembled at a rally for Vice President Kamala Harris that if they “don’t show up tomorrow, it is entirely possible that we will not have the opportunity to ever cast a ballot again.” On the same day, Trump booster Elon Musk told Joe Rogan that if “Trump doesn’t win, this is the last election.”

Still though, you can never be too sure…

Posted at 7:45 pm by Ed Driscoll on Nov 5th, 2024

WELL, MARXIST-ADJACENT: Is Kamala Harris truly a Marxist? Understanding Marxism With Ben Shapiro and Paul Kengor.

Shapiro asked Kengor if he agrees with identifying Harris as a Marxist, and Kengor expressed caution about simply labeling all leftists as Marxists. (READ MORE: Kamala Harris Borrows From Karl Marx)

“I want to call a Marxist a Marxist only if we’re dealing with a legitimate Marxist,” Kengor responded. Kengor proceeded to explain the different classifications of Marxism that have developed throughout history — from proletariat against bourgeoisie and oppressed against oppressor to pitting the sexes against each other.

“I’d stay away from saying in a national debate [that] she’s a Marxist unless you can really defend it and explain it,” Kengor said. Shapiro agreed with Kengor’s sentiment, elaborating that baseless name-calling “waters down what Marxism is and makes it more palatable for the masses.”

Kengor, who is a political science professor and teaches about Marxism at Grove City College, told Shapiro that the best definition of Marxism was already given by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in their Communist Manifesto.

“I would argue — others have too — that the primary virtue in Marxism is envy,” Kengor added.

Related: Her Father’s Daughter: Donald Harris’ Hidden Influence on Kamala.

Posted at 6:49 pm by Ed Driscoll on Nov 5th, 2024