FASTER, PLEASE: Trump has ‘momentum’ in Virginia, gaining on Harris.
Author Archive: Glenn Reynolds
November 4, 2024
MY LATEST SUBSTACK ESSAY: Thoughts on the Post-Election.
GIVEN KEIR STARMER’S PERFORMANCE, I DON’T THINK THEY SHOULD BE MAKING RECOMMENDATIONS TO ANYONE: Don Surber: Oh no, the Brits hate The Donald.
SCHEDULED FOR 9:29 EST: Watch Live: NASA SpaceX 31st Resupply Launch to International Space Station. Routine, but not boring.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Harris Gives Up on Men, Courts Angsty Resistance Women Who Scream at Children.
DANA LOESCH: Peanut the Squirrel Was About Government Overreach: Also, RIP to his buddy, Fred the Racoon.
Fred the Racoon, like Fred Noonan, Amelia Earhart’s navigator, hasn’t gotten as much attention as Peanut. Seems unfair.
RUY TEIXEIRA: Democrats Undermined By Radical Agenda.
It wasn’t so long ago that progressives were riding high in the United States. Their radical views set the agenda and tone for the Democratic Party and, especially in cultural areas, dominated discourse. Building in the 2010s and cresting at the start of this decade with the Black Lives Matter protests and the heady early days of the Biden administration, few of their ideas seemed off the table.
Defund the police and empty the jails? Sure! Abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and decriminalise the border? Absolutely! Get rid of fossil fuels and have a Green New Deal? Definitely! Demand trillions of dollars for a “transformational” Build Back Better bill? We’re just getting started! Promote DEI and the struggle for “equity” (not equal opportunity) everywhere? It’s the only way to fight privilege! Insist that a new ideology around race and gender should be accepted by everyone? Only a bigot would resist!
In reality, a lot of these ideas were terrible and most voters outside the precincts of the progressive left itself were never interested in them. That was true from the get-go but now the backlash against these ideas is strong enough that it cannot be ignored. As a result, politics is adjusting and the progressive moment is well and truly over.
Astute observers on the left acknowledge this, albeit with an undertone of sadness. So how did the progressive moment fall apart? It is not hard to think of some reasons.
Loosening restrictions on illegal immigration was a terrible idea and voters hate it. When Joe Biden came into office, he immediately issued a series of executive orders loosening the rules for handling illegal immigrants, a move that was applauded by progressives.
The predictable result was a surge in illegal immigration and the diffusion of these immigrants into overburdened cities, which caused a spike in negative sentiment towards Democrats for letting the situation get out of control. This has resulted in huge advantages for Donald Trump and the Republicans that have continued even as the Biden administration moved in mid-2024 to tighten the border and Kamala Harris runs commercials promising to be tough on border security.
The Democrats should have seen this coming. Polling over the years has consistently shown overwhelming majorities in favour of more emphasis on border security. And now voters are increasingly open to draconian restriction measures. An astonishing 62 per cent of voters in a June CBS News survey supported starting a “new national programme to deport all undocumented immigrants currently living in the US illegally”. Progressives’ failure to understand this reality is a big reason why the progressive moment is over.
Promoting lax law enforcement and tolerance of social disorder was another terrible idea and voters hate it too. In the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, the climate for police and criminal justice reform was highly favourable. But Democrats blew the opportunity by allowing the party to be associated with unpopular slogans like “defund the police” that did not appear to take public safety concerns seriously. Democratic non-white and working-class voters tend to live in areas that have more crime and are therefore unlikely to look kindly on any approach that threatens public safety.
Yeah, that stuff mostly sells with woke white people.
Flashback: Working-class people of color hate the riots the lefty elite keeps cheering.
Also: Dems are losing the multiracial working class on basic lifestyle issues.
Plus: The rich and powerful thrived as the rest of us suffered in the year of lockdowns.
I ALREADY VOTED FOR HIM, YOU DON’T HAVE TO SELL ME: Bloomberg’s ‘The Trace’ Warns a New Trump Administration Would Dismantle the White House Ministry of Gun Control.
ICYMI, MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Harris would be as much a figurehead as Biden — and we’d be ruled by the swamp.
AGENDA: Restoring the Warrior Ethos to the Trump Military.
The election isn’t over yet, but it’s not a bad idea to be thinking about these things.
November 3, 2024
UM:
84-year-old Nancy Pelosi stumbles over her words to declare that Donald Trump’s “brain is deteriorating” & that he is experiencing “cognitive degeneration.” 🤣 pic.twitter.com/ZuqXtVnArJ
— Tiffany Fong (@TiffanyFong_) November 3, 2024
OPEN THREAD: Ring out the weekend.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Chinese launch startup Cosmoleap secures funding for rocket featuring chopstick recovery system. “The company also plans a 126-meter-long rocket, capable of carrying 100 tons to the same orbit when expended, or 36 tons when reused. The first launch is targeted for around 2030.”
FEEL THE JOY:
It's the people that Make America Great 🇺🇸 Unity 2024 pic.twitter.com/26YxgpBbFA
— Nicole Shanahan (@NicoleShanahan) November 3, 2024
FREUDIAN SLIP OF THE DAY:
“Kamala did what Kamala always does. She put her head down and went to work.” – Doug Emhoff
One of the greatest unintentional admissions of all time 🤣 pic.twitter.com/au7Smr1FaG
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 3, 2024
IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T THOUGHT ABOUT THE ROMAN EMPIRE TODAY: We Finally Know Why Ancient Roman Concrete Was Able to Last Thousands of Years.
TRUMP’S CLOSING AD:
Awesome ☺️🇺🇸
pic.twitter.com/GPasat8wEh— Tammy Bruce (@HeyTammyBruce) November 2, 2024
THE SCIENCE WAS SETTLED: UCLA Chemists Shatter 100-Year-Old Chemistry Rule – Textbooks Need a Rewrite.
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO TURNOUT: Young Men Could Boost Trump to Victory—if They Show Up. “Young men vote at far lower rates than many other demographic groups. They are more likely than older generations and their female peers to be disconnected from politics, and they are increasingly disillusioned with the country’s institutions, according to researchers and election analysts.”
Well, not without reason. Plus:
In interviews with dozens of young men around the country in recent months, some said they don’t see a place for themselves in today’s Democratic Party. Others said they are drawn to Trump’s politically incorrect approach. Many said they were focused foremost on their finances—with several arguing that Trump would do more to benefit their stock portfolios. Others said they appreciated the former president’s pledge to crack down on illegal immigration.
Luke Meihack, 25, a high school physical education teacher in the Milwaukee suburbs, said he didn’t used to be a Trump supporter, but changed his mind during Joe Biden’s presidency, and said many men his age are moving in the same direction.
“It’s mostly guys. Guys are more big into Trump,” he said. “He’s a guy that speaks in a way that demands respect, and that appeals to a lot of guys.”
Not all of his peers are planning to vote, he said. “I’m still in a group chat with a bunch of my guys from high school. There’s maybe like eight or nine of them, and like two or three of them have said they’re not voting,” he said. “Some of them say, ‘I don’t care either way.’ ”
Meihack, who listened to Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s interview with Rogan while driving to the Trump rally on Friday, said he follows political news through social-media platforms including X and podcasts aired by the Daily Wire, a media company co-founded by the political commentator Ben Shapiro.
Anecdotally, I hear a lot of stories of women who used to be anti-Trump saying they’re voting for him this time. We’ll see if that amounts to anything.
HUMANS WEREN’T BUILT FOR THIS: Prolonged sitting can sabotage health, even if you’re young and exercise. “Young adults tend to think they are impervious to the impacts of aging. They figure, ‘My metabolism is great, I don’t have to worry until I’m in my 50s or 60s.'”
HEH:
Three reasons to go vote:
Harambe
Fred
Peanut pic.twitter.com/0OuiBQzTSM— Jim Arkham (@JimArkham) November 3, 2024
It does seem like everything went south starting when they shot Harambe. . . .