All Over But the Shouting

You Win Some, You Lose Some

After 2024’s electoral shellacking, one might hope that Democrats would take some time to ponder what went wrong. When your team loses this badly, the first thing you need to do is determine what mistakes you made and how you can avoid making them again. So how is that working out?

If a quick gander at social media is any indication, not very well at all. But who expects intelligent political discourse on X or Facebook anyway? For a more nuanced vision of the climate, perhaps we should take a look at Left-Wing Substack. Let’s start with Walter Rhein, who believes “We Have to Teach People the Importance of Spreading a Message of Kindness.”

We Have to Teach People the Importance of Spreading a Message of Kindness

Walter Rhein’s artwork, wherein he shows his Message of Kindness

I find myself having a hard time reading the assessments about why Harris didn't get enough of the vote. People are saying, “Well, that's democracy.” But it's not democracy really if the voting public has been so thoroughly brainwashed that they select the dangerous choice.

It's frustrating that Biden never received credit for building the greatest economy the world has ever seen. I brought this up to a friend of mine who is a financial advisor. He agreed, and then I saw a flash of surprise on his face as if he hadn't realized how good a job Biden was doing. “This is as good as an economy can be,” I said, “if you try to overheat it at this point, it will collapse.” (Emphases added).

Putting aside the fact that we’re a republic, not a democracy: one of the pillars of any electoral system is that we will accept the results of an election even if our side loses. We also have a system of checks and balances and a Constitution that limits the powers of our Executive office. Walter Rhein distrusts that system and has broken the electoral contract. He’s only prepared to accept the results of an election if the “safe” choice wins. Which, of course, means the side that he supports.

Dictators seize power by convincing their constituents that their country is in great danger, that we can no longer afford those checks and balances that hold our leaders back from Doing What Must Be Done. Rhein is the kind of useful idiot that cheers as his political party seizes power and arrests the opposition.

Since 2021 working and middle-class Americans have complained about rising prices for food, rent, housing, and other essentials. In response, the Democratic Party has shown them carefully massaged statistics and insisted that the economy is better than ever. Those who persisted in their stubborn delusions were dismissed as brainwashed Trumptards buying into Russian propaganda.

Rhein not only believes those massaged numbers, he believes (or claims to believe) that Biden has presided over “the greatest economy the world has ever seen.” To those Americans who are struggling with inflation, this sounds like still more gaslighting from the Left. When you ignore people’s life problems and claim they are lying or misinformed about their situation, they generally don’t feel like voting for you.

Moving on to somebody with a larger subscriber count and a higher IQ, here’s Ben Cohen at the Banter, from his piece entitled “The Bad Guy Won.”

The Bad Guy Won

You could blame the Democrats for not being strong enough on immigration, or Joe Biden for not stepping down soon enough, or Kamala Harris not connecting with white rural voters and Hispanic men. You could blame the “woke”, or you could blame their use of gender pronouns and their obsession with identity politics. Or you could blame Democrats for not holding a primary, for rushing Kamala Harris through without the public getting a say.

There are a million things the Democrats could have done differently, or better, and in time these things must be examined.

But right now I want to focus on the real culprits for this heartbreaking election that has returned Donald Trump to the White House. And those culprits are the malevolent billionaires who funded Donald Trump’s campaign, the media outlets that sane-washed his candidacy, Elon Musk’s brutally effective disinformation platform, and finally the people who voted for him. (Emphasis added)

To Cohen’s credit, he starts out by listing many of the very real problems with the 2024 Harris/Walz campaign. But after acknowledging these problems, Ben puts them aside and concentrates on the real culprits — billionaires, Trump-sympathetic media outlets, X, and the racist misogynist fascists who voted for Trump. As the Tumblr kiddies like to say, let’s unpack this.

Cohen seems to have little concern about Reid Hoffman, Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates, or those benevolent billionaires who gave large sums of money to his preferred candidates. As has become standard practice for the American Left, he’s willing to call out wealthy Trump supporters but unwilling to discuss the outsized role corporate donors have in shaping American politics.

Efforts to fight “disinformation” have only left mainstream media less trusted than ever. Cohen also misses the fact that for every right-wing outlet “sane-washing” Trump there were dozens of legacy media pieces declaring him Literally Hitler. And as a journalist Cohen should at least think about this question: if we censor pro-Trump outlets in the name of saving the nation from dictatorship, how many more prospective “dictators” will need censoring?

Overall Cohen’s work follows the common Leftist view from 2016 onwards: those who don’t share his political views are either misinformed or actively evil. If they will not be browbeaten into accepting the whole Leftist package, they are irredeemable threats to American society. Surprisingly, most people are not interested in winning the favor of people who hold them in utter contempt.

Which brings us to Sam Kriss.

There are two factions in American politics, and they’re not evenly matched. As everyone knows, one of them contains all the smart people, the academics, the professionals, the people who’ve read the studies, learned the science, educated themselves, who eat well and own nice things made of wood, the good little boys and girls who know what’s best for everyone. It’s not polite to say this about the other side, but everyone is secretly aware that they are—let’s be honest here—morons…

Because this faction is so stupid and offputting, its political party is deeply unpopular. In fact, it’s only won the popular vote in a Presidential election two times since 1988. The first time was in 2004, when the entire country was in the middle of a psychotic war fever, ravenous for blood, crazy in a way that’s difficult to imagine now. The Disney channel used to broadcast little idents of teen celebs, gushing about how much they loved the American flag. The other time they won was the other day. It wasn’t even close. Somehow, the imbeciles outsmarted the smartest people in the world. And I said this would happen.

Sam Kriss is a great stylist. No, I mean a great stylist. If Tom Wolfe were born in the Substack era he might have been Sam Kriss. (Kriss has a broader literary palette while Wolfe had a sharper sense of humor). He’s so good that when I skimmed through “I Told You So” while recording our latest podcast I thought he was serious.

I told you so

His opening hits that Poe’s Law sweet spot beautifully. It’s easy to read it as a straight take because it’s such a perfect summation of Leftist hubris. The Woke are the Elect wandering patiently amidst the Damned. They shout the right slogans, hold the right opinions, buy the right groceries, and never tire of offering visible signs that they are Better Educated Than You. Dutch Calvinists bought expensive tulips to flaunt their God-given prosperity: at least the flowers were more attractive than endless IN THIS HOUSE WE BELIEVE signs. America may have turned its back on God, but we still haven’t freed ourselves of our Puritan heritage.

To the American Woke the White working classes are poor because they have not been blessed with the grace of intelligence and a good work ethic. Since Providence (or evolution) has not seen fit to pity them, there’s no reason for us to shed any tears on their behalf. But though they are — let’s be honest here — morons, they can be dangerous if the Devil decides to use them for his own purposes.

On June 16, 2015 the Devil rode down an escalator and announced his candidacy for President. (He should have ridden up, but we all know the Devil masquerades as an angel of light). Donald Trump was most assuredly not Elect. He failed to show proper deference to the Experts. He refused to own his privilege. And he committed the great sin that could never be forgiven: he was a lowbrow who had more money than his better-behaved critics.

Instead of a genteel George Bush or charismatic Jack Kennedy, the Woke Elect found an orange Rodney Dangerfield farting loudly in their country club. (Sure, JFK grabbed a few pussies in his day, but he had the common decency to be discreet about his sins. And he was Catholic after all, so allowances must be made). And on Election Day 2016, Donald Trump unceremoniously defeated the One who was anointed to follow the First Black President as the First Female President.

The Woke Elect signaled their status by cutting off friends and family members who failed to show sufficient hatred for this obvious evildoer who does evil. And after four years of suffering under his tyranny — a tyranny which, like the Emperor’s new clothes, was only seen by the Elect — they were finally able to fortify the election and turn out the bronze idol who had made his way into the White House. But as the 2024 election shaped up, the rough beast slouched toward Washington once again.

From the early days of the election we heard rumors of Joe Biden’s declining mental state. But they were only repeated in the dark corridors where the bad people hung out. White House officials insisted that everything was fine and wrote off all claims to the contrary as Russian propaganda. The Woke Elect were happy to believe the official reports because they were, after all, the official reports and only the Unwashed believed the Disinformation you find on Far-Right Nazi websites.

Then, in their June 27 debate, Joe Biden suffered a devastating loss against Donald Trump — one so bad that even the most Woke and Elect could no longer deny his senility. A few weeks later Biden announced his withdrawal from the race in a manner that was as confusing and embarrassing as his debate. After some brief talk about an accelerated primary, Kamala Harris was appointed the Democratic Presidential nominee on August 5.

Kamala Harris is not a skilled public speaker, nor does she interview well. She has a nervous laugh that makes her sound like a witch cackling over a sacrificed baby. More worrisome, I was never able to figure out exactly what Kamala stood for. Like him or hate him, every voter knew exactly how Trump felt on any number of issues. But as Kriss describes Harris:

She wants power, but not for any particular reason. It’s just that life is a game, and the point is to reach the highest level. Sidle your way into a series of darker and smokier rooms. When she ran for Attorney General in 2010 she secured endorsements from Diane Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi, but in the end she beat her Republican opponent by less than one percentage point—in California, which hasn’t elected a Republican AG in thirty years. When she dropped out of the 2020 Democratic primary, it was still 2019. She was polling as close to 0% as makes no difference, and had not actually contested a single state. But why bother? For politicians like Harris, the electorate are just another annoying hurdle on the road to success.

Despite her shortcomings Harris was Black and female, two qualities which made her especially popular with the Woke Elect. Her campaign managers worked to create a Brat Coconut Joy image of good times and good vibes, which the Woke Elect happily parroted. Kamala rarely appeared in public, and was generally embarrassing when she did. But she had one thing left to offer American voters: she was not Donald Trump.

This seemed like an ace in the hole to the WEs and PMCs. Surely everybody would recognize that whatever Harris’ shortcomings, she was a better choice than the abomination. Nobody stopped to think that this strategy had already failed once. After all, Trump was now a convicted felon and certified rapist. Surely the American people would recognize those demerits and choose a candidate with better qualifications and a clean permanent record.

Unfortunately for Kamala, credentialism is only fashionable among bureaucrats and longhouse ladies. And while Kamala gave occasional slow pitch interviews, Trump was hitting 3 to 4 campaign stops a day and surviving multiple assassination attempts. And ultimately, Brat summer gave way to cold November rain. As Kriss puts it in his closing:

Once, when the kings of Israel sinned, God sent terrible empires to sack the holy city of Jerusalem, carry away its temple goods, massacre its people, and sell the survivors into slavery. Things have changed, but not that much. Now, he sends the king of the morons. You have sinned, and Trump is your punishment: whatever happens next, you will deserve it.

So what can we learn from this shitshow?

The issues Ben Cohen raised certainly deserve careful scrutiny. Immigration has become a hot button issue, and the “racist!” accusation no longer carries the sting it once did. Telling people that everything is fine when their lived experience tells them that it isn’t is not going to win you any supporters. And trying to guilt trip people into voting for you generally about as successful as trying to guilt trip beautiful women into sleeping with you.

For several years the Democratic Party has been campaigning to its Twitter audience. Playing to the fringe and ignoring the middle may give you the warm glow of Being On The Right Side of History, but it rarely wins elections. At the end of the day people are more concerned about the price of groceries than about the latest gender identity.

This election has shown us that a majority of Americans distrust the mainstream media. When Cronkite broadcast an editorial criticizing the Vietnam war, LBJ famously complained “If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America.” Today not even The View, the New York Times, MSNBC, Oprah and Beyoncé could take down Donald Trump. Dismissing inconvenient facts as “disinformation” is no longer as effective as it once was and celebrity endorsements carry far less weight.

If the Nixon/Kennedy debate showed us the importance of television, Trump’s 2024 victory marks the ascendancy of podcasts and alternative media. Going forward candidates will need to establish their online presence. And while social media consultants will certainly play a role in creating their identities, they will need to learn how to engage extemporaneously with audiences.

It will also mark the end of the Wokescold Era. Hectoring and shrieking will continue for the foreseeable future. But now that it can be safely ignored, I expect that most people will do just that. The Arc of History may or may not bend toward justice, but the Arc of the Wokescold will certainly bend toward irrelevance. Fringe movements, like fads, have a short shelf life.

Given that Trump didn’t cross the Rubicon in 2020, I don’t expect he will declare himself God Emperor in 2024. If Democratic leaders double down on their current strategy, we’re likely to see President Vance take the Oval Office in 2028. I expect a hard economic downturn between now and then, but if Trump succeeds in revitalizing our industrial and manufacturing bases we may be better prepared for it.

I expected very little from Trump in 2016: all I asked is that he keep us out of any new wars and that he be entertaining. He succeeded on both counts. I am not so certain he will keep us out of war this time. If we find ourselves in one or more conflicts, I can only hope that the Left returns to its antiwar roots. And should that downturn hit hard, I expect Cultural Marxism swept aside by the old-school Marxism practiced by our friends at the American Communist Party.

I pray that our divided America may find healing and reconciliation, that we may learn to see each other as fellow human beings rather than Libtards and MAGAts. I suspect that reconciliation will start as we realize that Donald Trump isn’t putting people in concentration camps. But I also fear that our hunger for a Strongman who will revive a dying American Empire and raise it back to glory will soon enough be answered by a man who will teach us all what a dictatorship really looks like.