Cause otherwise midterms discussion will be scattered around a bunch of separate Culture War thread posts. And it's nice to have more off-the-cuff rapid reactions in a dedicated megathread.
The first thing I've noticed so far: if the exit polls are correct, Americans are very pessimistic about AI.
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Notes -
The Trump admin and the GOP may have managed to turn a once in a couple generation opportunity to fix major structural problems in the United States into the worst political loss since at least the 1974 election a month after Nixon's resignation over the Watergate Coup, but have you considered the worst scumbags around, Republican political consultants like Susie Wiles, Chris Lacivita, and James Blair, got generational wealth sucking MAGA dry?
Wiles, LaCivita, and Blair just spent >$1,000,000,000, the most expensive midterm in US history, in the worst loss in 50 years. They could have scaled up 10xvotes or some other GOTV operation over the last 2 years with that enormous warchest, but that wouldn't have gotten them generational wealth, and so they ran worthless dumb ads while claiming DJT doing a rally in a few states was going to get the job done and blacklisted and attacked anyone attempting to speak the truth or tell Trump the truth.
Let's hear it for these champions. In a just world, these people and the rest of the Florida Mafia would at least be blacklisted from controlling anything more than county dog catcher (not to mention sued into oblivion and investigated for where the money went and what it was spent on), but we can look forward to them joining the Rubio 2028 campaign because that's how GOP politics works.
It's hard to exaggerate just how much of a disaster if not malicious destruction the GOP leadership/consultant class has caused in this cycle, but here's hoping this will cause accountability instead of what is more likely which is to find some scapegoat to blame everything on. The burned MAGA to the ground and got rich in the process. They betrayed their voters and supporters but at least many of them have gotten fabulously wealthy.
And don't forget the paid-for pollsters manipulating access to lie in internals and to the President. I need to make a pollster review and post-mortem effort post about this, but not right now.
Sorry for the rants, I burned bridges and access and money over the last year+ trying to stop this from happening and as you can see I failed miserably. It's simultaneously cathartic but also this loss will just make everything worse.
I think the title for "worst scumbag Republican who caused the midterm losses" is hotly contested. Too bad there is not a Nobel for that.
Trump won two years ago not because he was a particularly strong candidate -- he was anything but -- but because the Dems messed up completely. While I do not deny that he is (was?) very popular with his base, he is very much not some golden boy. Sure, he won a majority of electoral college votes against Clinton, likely his greatest political achievement for the GOP. Then he lost against sleepy Joe, who is basically "what if Obama was white, a few decades older and less charismatic?" as the incumbent because he had spent his presidency on Twitter. His personally greatest political success was doubtlessly getting nominated by the GOP for a third time due to his cult. Winning the election was then mostly a matter of being more lucid than Biden, any Republican candidate of the last two decades could probably have pulled that off.
Trump is in politics to bolster his ego and his net worth, the worst swamp dweller DC has seen in decades. The ego thing sometimes works to the advantage of his base because he is aware that doing things popular with his base (like rounding up and deporting suspected illegals) will make him popular, and he likes to be popular. However, it is not very reliable in that regard, because often it comes with an inflated sense of his own capabilities. He will embark on plenty of foolish quests like his tariffs or his little war with Iran because he genuinely believes that his is much more capable than any president who came before him, and will not update when things will blow up in his face, because his ego can not bear admitting he was wrong.
As the grifter-in-chief, he obviously attracts other grifters. Can't expect a Boomer to build his shitcoin on his own, after all. And I don't think his ego can stand around being anyone who is not a terminal sycophant. "Mr president, I think your cognitive abilities are quite good considering your age and lack of educational attainment" is not the kind of feedback he would take well. It is obvious from his tweets that he has nobody who has the influence to tell him "don't write this, it makes you look delusional (e.g. thinking he might win a Nobel) or like a comic book villain (e.g. threatening to wipe out the Persian civilization)".
Complaining about the Wormtongue types who compete in ass-kissery to be able to manipulate him to their own advantage is like complaining that the stripper you fell in love with is only interested in your money. It is sad but not entirely unexpected.
I am not an Obama fanboy, I merely consider him an ok president. But my mental model of his administration is that there was a lot more room for honest disagreement with him. This allowed him to retain (perhaps even mildly autistic) policy wonks who are actually good at their job rather than a gaggle of sociopaths and fellow narcissists.
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