Insights from the Left that Dissident Right can appreciate
- Thread starter Petr
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Petr
Administrator
Yes sir, this was a teachable moment for all the aspiring amateur populists out there - do not get insolent and flaunting prematurely.
MAGA people need to learn some tight self-discipline and develop professional skills.
edition.cnn.com
Opinion by Jon Gabriel
Published 6:51 PM EST, Tue November 15, 2022
02:58 - Source: CNN
Editor’s Note: Jon Gabriel is Editor-in-Chief of Ricochet.com and an opinion contributor to the Arizona Republic.
Sen. John McCain may have died four years ago, but his spirit still looms over Arizona politics. That maverick attitude was still strong enough to defeat the state’s “America First” candidates.
Arizona conservatives long viewed McCain with suspicion, but there were enough centrist Republicans, Democrats and independents to keep him in office for more than three decades.
This time, GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake foolishly cursed his name four days before the election.
“We don’t have any McCain Republicans in here, do we?” Lake asked from a campaign stage. “Alright, get the hell out,” she said, before adding, “Boy, Arizona has delivered some losers, haven’t they?”
Anyone who’s read classical literature knows that hubris invites Nemesis. And Nemesis showed up Tuesday night as media organizations called the race for Democrat Katie Hobbs.
Yes, Arizona has delivered some losers.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Most polls showed Lake leading Hobbs and Republican US Senate candidate Blake Masters within the margin of error against incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly. Add to that a truly atrocious campaign by the Democrats’ would-be governor, and most insiders expected a Lake victory at least.
She would have won, too, if only she welcomed those McCain Republicans still scattered across the voter rolls.
McCain Republicans overlap with those who crossed party lines to support President Joe Biden, turning the state blue in 2020. They tend to be centrist, business-friendly, middle- to upper-middle-class folks who live in the nicer neighborhoods of Phoenix and its close-in suburbs. They want lower taxes, efficient government and absolutely no drama.
They don’t make up the majority of the party – not by a long shot – but they exceed that single percentage point Lake needed to best Hobbs.
They heard Lake’s call to “get the hell out,” and did as they were told.
The numbers bear this out. Arizona State Treasurer Kimberly Yee easily won re-election by double digits despite a quality opponent. A traditional Republican, Yee focused on fiscal responsibility instead of Trump-era grievances.
As the count stands now, Yee outperformed Lake by about 118,000 votes. In other words, voters intentionally split their ticket to shun the MAGA candidate.
A similar dynamic played out with Arizona’s Congressional candidates. The GOP flipped two seats and will now send a Republican majority to Capitol Hill. In the State Legislature, the GOP is expected to hold onto their one-seat majority in both chambers.
Overall, the midterms turned out quite well for Arizona Republicans, as long as the candidates focused on traditional issues.
Senate candidate Blake Masters was less strident on McCain but didn’t prove compelling enough to beat the incumbent (and former astronaut) Sen. Mark Kelly. It didn’t help that Kelly held a 7-to-1 spending advantage over the previously unknown Masters. Early ads successfully defined the newcomer in not-so-flattering – and not so accurate – ways. Politics ain’t beanbag.
With the Lake and Masters defeats, recriminations are flying across the Grand Canyon State. Some blame Trump and the “stop the steal” conspiracies that have lingered for the past two years. Others insist establishment Republicans should have invested millions more into the ill-fated campaigns.
The infighting is nothing new for the Arizona GOP, which has endured bruising battles for years. During the Obama years, it was Tea Party activists vs. the “McCain machine,” with the latter winning every big contest. The Tea Partiers later morphed into MAGA voters, still bristling at the veteran senator holding sway over the party.
Following McCain’s death from a brain tumor in 2018, the grassroots seized party leadership and began to punish their old rivals. Fealty to Trump was demanded of all GOP candidates, high or low. And when the 2020 conspiracy theories kicked in, the devotion had to be expressed even more fervently — or else.
The result? Mainstream Republican candidates lost their primaries or simply decided not to run. This ultimately led to a Democratic governor and the re-election of a Democratic Senator.
Right-of-center Arizonans wonder how the party will move forward. Allegations of stolen elections are already being floated, but they will be hard to sell considering the many GOP victories in Congressional and down-ballot races. Also, most Republicans now understand that such paranoia leads to embarrassment at the ballot box.
As the party looks toward ousting Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Biden in two years, the state party better mend fences with the ghost of McCain.
Perhaps 2024 candidates can start their speeches with, “Do we have some McCain Republicans in here? Alright, come on in.”
MAGA people need to learn some tight self-discipline and develop professional skills.
Opinion: Kari Lake told Arizona's McCain Republicans to 'get the hell out.' They did | CNN
"Sen. John McCain may have died four years ago, but his spirit still looms over Arizona politics. That maverick attitude was still strong enough to defeat the state's 'America First' candidates," writes political columnist Jon Gabriel.
Opinion: Kari Lake told Arizona’s McCain Republicans to ‘get the hell out.’ They did
Opinion by Jon Gabriel
Published 6:51 PM EST, Tue November 15, 2022
02:58 - Source: CNN
Editor’s Note: Jon Gabriel is Editor-in-Chief of Ricochet.com and an opinion contributor to the Arizona Republic.
Sen. John McCain may have died four years ago, but his spirit still looms over Arizona politics. That maverick attitude was still strong enough to defeat the state’s “America First” candidates.
Arizona conservatives long viewed McCain with suspicion, but there were enough centrist Republicans, Democrats and independents to keep him in office for more than three decades.
This time, GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake foolishly cursed his name four days before the election.
“We don’t have any McCain Republicans in here, do we?” Lake asked from a campaign stage. “Alright, get the hell out,” she said, before adding, “Boy, Arizona has delivered some losers, haven’t they?”
Anyone who’s read classical literature knows that hubris invites Nemesis. And Nemesis showed up Tuesday night as media organizations called the race for Democrat Katie Hobbs.
Yes, Arizona has delivered some losers.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Most polls showed Lake leading Hobbs and Republican US Senate candidate Blake Masters within the margin of error against incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly. Add to that a truly atrocious campaign by the Democrats’ would-be governor, and most insiders expected a Lake victory at least.
She would have won, too, if only she welcomed those McCain Republicans still scattered across the voter rolls.
McCain Republicans overlap with those who crossed party lines to support President Joe Biden, turning the state blue in 2020. They tend to be centrist, business-friendly, middle- to upper-middle-class folks who live in the nicer neighborhoods of Phoenix and its close-in suburbs. They want lower taxes, efficient government and absolutely no drama.
They don’t make up the majority of the party – not by a long shot – but they exceed that single percentage point Lake needed to best Hobbs.
They heard Lake’s call to “get the hell out,” and did as they were told.
The numbers bear this out. Arizona State Treasurer Kimberly Yee easily won re-election by double digits despite a quality opponent. A traditional Republican, Yee focused on fiscal responsibility instead of Trump-era grievances.
As the count stands now, Yee outperformed Lake by about 118,000 votes. In other words, voters intentionally split their ticket to shun the MAGA candidate.
A similar dynamic played out with Arizona’s Congressional candidates. The GOP flipped two seats and will now send a Republican majority to Capitol Hill. In the State Legislature, the GOP is expected to hold onto their one-seat majority in both chambers.
Overall, the midterms turned out quite well for Arizona Republicans, as long as the candidates focused on traditional issues.
Senate candidate Blake Masters was less strident on McCain but didn’t prove compelling enough to beat the incumbent (and former astronaut) Sen. Mark Kelly. It didn’t help that Kelly held a 7-to-1 spending advantage over the previously unknown Masters. Early ads successfully defined the newcomer in not-so-flattering – and not so accurate – ways. Politics ain’t beanbag.
With the Lake and Masters defeats, recriminations are flying across the Grand Canyon State. Some blame Trump and the “stop the steal” conspiracies that have lingered for the past two years. Others insist establishment Republicans should have invested millions more into the ill-fated campaigns.
The infighting is nothing new for the Arizona GOP, which has endured bruising battles for years. During the Obama years, it was Tea Party activists vs. the “McCain machine,” with the latter winning every big contest. The Tea Partiers later morphed into MAGA voters, still bristling at the veteran senator holding sway over the party.
Following McCain’s death from a brain tumor in 2018, the grassroots seized party leadership and began to punish their old rivals. Fealty to Trump was demanded of all GOP candidates, high or low. And when the 2020 conspiracy theories kicked in, the devotion had to be expressed even more fervently — or else.
The result? Mainstream Republican candidates lost their primaries or simply decided not to run. This ultimately led to a Democratic governor and the re-election of a Democratic Senator.
Right-of-center Arizonans wonder how the party will move forward. Allegations of stolen elections are already being floated, but they will be hard to sell considering the many GOP victories in Congressional and down-ballot races. Also, most Republicans now understand that such paranoia leads to embarrassment at the ballot box.
As the party looks toward ousting Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Biden in two years, the state party better mend fences with the ghost of McCain.
Perhaps 2024 candidates can start their speeches with, “Do we have some McCain Republicans in here? Alright, come on in.”
Petr
Administrator
And here is a similar take on Lauren Boebert - some might wish to call this writer a mealy-mouthed cuckservative, but still, "when he's right, he's right." Any serious and genuine representative of "Christian nationalism" must learn to avoid making dimwitted jokes like this, both for the sake of God's honor, and to refrain from alienating fence-sitting voters:
www.washingtonexaminer.com
I've long been a Boebert agnostic, neither a fan of her aggressive style nor a hater. Of course, I wish she relied less upon boorish stunts, such as having her entire family brandish AR-15s for a Christmas card. I wish our politics in general relied more upon the art of persuasion and less upon the panicky process of “riling up the base.” But I understand the power of performative posturing in the social media age and the pressure to play along.
So, I often gave Boebert the benefit of the doubt. She didn't invent this political environment, after all. And she herself has been the target of incredibly nasty attacks, including baseless accusations that she once worked as an escort and had multiple abortions.
Just last week, when it appeared she was on the verge of losing her race, a guest on MSNBC, which openly casts itself as a pro-woman news outlet, mused that she would go on to a career in pornography If defeated.
(For the record, I wish that Fox News would stop plastering unflattering still-shots of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) across its coverage. These sorts of attacks — the kind that fixate on appearance and sexuality — are mainly lobbed at women in politics. Good men on both sides should monitor their respective halls for this sort of thing).
But Boebert, who is a self-professed “Christian nationalist,” lost my support, and I suspect the support of many Christians, this past June when she made the following "joke" in front of a live audience: “How many AR-15s do you think Jesus would have had? Well, he didn’t have enough to keep his government from killing him.”
For devout Christians nationwide, the line landed like a cinder block on a sidewalk. It was meant to be cute, but it came off as disturbing.
Boebert has never publicly addressed the criticism her comment drew, which is yet another problem. Her refusal to own the consequences of her carelessness indicates that she either doesn’t care about the criticism or doesn’t understand it. I’m not sure which is worse.
Lauren Boebert’s double-barreled blasphemy - Washington Examiner
The jury is still out regarding Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), both at the polls and within the conservative commentariat.Some, such as columnist Gerard Baker of the Wall Street Journal, say that Boebert is an "Uber Trumpy conspiracy theorist." Others, like the Washington Examiner’s own Christopher...
www.washingtonexaminer.com
I've long been a Boebert agnostic, neither a fan of her aggressive style nor a hater. Of course, I wish she relied less upon boorish stunts, such as having her entire family brandish AR-15s for a Christmas card. I wish our politics in general relied more upon the art of persuasion and less upon the panicky process of “riling up the base.” But I understand the power of performative posturing in the social media age and the pressure to play along.
So, I often gave Boebert the benefit of the doubt. She didn't invent this political environment, after all. And she herself has been the target of incredibly nasty attacks, including baseless accusations that she once worked as an escort and had multiple abortions.
Just last week, when it appeared she was on the verge of losing her race, a guest on MSNBC, which openly casts itself as a pro-woman news outlet, mused that she would go on to a career in pornography If defeated.
(For the record, I wish that Fox News would stop plastering unflattering still-shots of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) across its coverage. These sorts of attacks — the kind that fixate on appearance and sexuality — are mainly lobbed at women in politics. Good men on both sides should monitor their respective halls for this sort of thing).
But Boebert, who is a self-professed “Christian nationalist,” lost my support, and I suspect the support of many Christians, this past June when she made the following "joke" in front of a live audience: “How many AR-15s do you think Jesus would have had? Well, he didn’t have enough to keep his government from killing him.”
For devout Christians nationwide, the line landed like a cinder block on a sidewalk. It was meant to be cute, but it came off as disturbing.
Boebert has never publicly addressed the criticism her comment drew, which is yet another problem. Her refusal to own the consequences of her carelessness indicates that she either doesn’t care about the criticism or doesn’t understand it. I’m not sure which is worse.
Petr
Administrator
This is cruel for us, and contains Ukrainian propaganda about Russian losses, but the main picture is still true, and we have to admit it - we have been indeed angered and humiliated this year by the lack of Russian success in Ukraine.
This might have been how the original Fascist sympathizers felt when they saw Mussolini's armies performing poorly in the field.
The lesson: your support for "authoritarian strongmen" must not be naive, childish fanboyism that can easily crash and burn into hopeless blackpilled doomerism when faced with reverses. It must be soberly determined, realistic calculation how to best oppose the forces of the Atlanticist shitlib empire and its huge resources.
This might have been how the original Fascist sympathizers felt when they saw Mussolini's armies performing poorly in the field.
The lesson: your support for "authoritarian strongmen" must not be naive, childish fanboyism that can easily crash and burn into hopeless blackpilled doomerism when faced with reverses. It must be soberly determined, realistic calculation how to best oppose the forces of the Atlanticist shitlib empire and its huge resources.
Petr
Administrator
The Antifa writer Cas Mudde, who has some amount of objective insight, observes correctly that right-wing populism is still, relatively speaking, a very "new" thing in most Western countries. Thus there have been many rookie mistakes and lack of professional skills and reliable routine. Trump, of course, is a prime example of this - an amateur who got lucky, or was in the right place at the right time:
www.vox.com
The far-right threat to liberal democracy in Europe, explained
Five countries to watch as the European right made new gains in 2022.
www.vox.com
Petr
Administrator
This thread is dedicated to observations coming from our opponents and rivals that we must admit have some point - some elements of truth, even if might be only a half-truth.
And here is another specimen, from a Black nationalist cartoonist - here the message is like "half false and half correct"; the Afrocentric pretence we can dismiss with ease, but not so the sadly obvious reality that decadent White upper classes have become anti-racist; perhaps not quite sincerely in their hearts, but certainly as a snobbish social pose.
For example, those members of British nobility whose ancestors became rich during the era of slavery and imperialistic exploitation now sneer and look down on lower-class Whites who take pride in their racial identity and heritage.
And Blacks can sense this disconnect between upper-class and lower-class Whites and use it to their advantage. Margaret Mitchell in her Gone with the Wind novel noted how the "House Negro" servants could get sassy towards less fortunate Whites:
And here is another specimen, from a Black nationalist cartoonist - here the message is like "half false and half correct"; the Afrocentric pretence we can dismiss with ease, but not so the sadly obvious reality that decadent White upper classes have become anti-racist; perhaps not quite sincerely in their hearts, but certainly as a snobbish social pose.
For example, those members of British nobility whose ancestors became rich during the era of slavery and imperialistic exploitation now sneer and look down on lower-class Whites who take pride in their racial identity and heritage.
And Blacks can sense this disconnect between upper-class and lower-class Whites and use it to their advantage. Margaret Mitchell in her Gone with the Wind novel noted how the "House Negro" servants could get sassy towards less fortunate Whites:
Lord Osmund de Ixabert
I X A B E R T.com
Well now, old chap, part of me thinks that's a frightfully good idea. But the other side of me sees it as a beastly counter-productive notion.