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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 2, 2026

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I do think it will be interesting which of Trump's positions get left in place. He's always been a bit of a bull in a china shop on policies, but "he's willing to gore just about anyone's sacred ox" is something I have occasionally seen cited as a strength. I think which changes get immediately reverted and which get left as-is will be revealing of the insider thinking in leadership.

I expect simple renaming things to be reverted, for example, but do I expect a reconstruction of USAID? Will we still build new "battleships" at all, or just rename the class? Missile defense? Mosquito and tick xenocide? I think the next Blue administration is going to have to think a lot about their border control strategy: there is probably room to be "kinder", but the issue probably sank the Biden campaign and I can't expect a return to those policies. I could even see "Department of War" sticking around: that used to be a pet issue for both progressives and Ron Paul types.

there is probably room to be "kinder", but the issue probably sank the Biden campaign and I can't expect a return to those policies

I have yet to see that the Democrats (or Republicans for that matter) actually learn from stuff like this.

The republicans have learned that shutting the texas border down against federal orders will win them the hispanic vote.