Bye Bye Miss American Pie

A few thoughts on the midterm wipeout

The beating heart of MAGA died when Tyler Robinson crawled onto a roof at UVU and shot Charlie Kirk in the neck. He was expressing cancel culture in the extreme—woke fascism—to silence someone who “spread too much hate.”

Without Charlie, MAGA has no unifying vision, since it was mostly his. He mended broken bridges. He believed in a big tent. He gave young voters an alternative to the populist Left’s “free stuff” promise. He was charismatic, and his videos were everywhere.

Without Charlie, MAGA splintered and left Trump to fend off members of his own party on Epstein, on Israel, on Iran, on immigration. He chose big moves, like the ballroom, like ending the war with Iran, like closing the border, like ending “gender affirming care” for minors and protecting women in sports. He wants the legacy, and who could blame him?

But without Charlie, there was very little point to any of it except politics as usual, and that would ultimately mean trying to please a thousand different needs at once. It was impossible. The Democrats have just one want: power, and for them, you’re in, or you’re out. They’re the fascists, ironically.

It wasn’t only Charlie that died that day. A part of America died, too, and the side that not only felt the need to ensure Charlie was remembered as a “racist,” but also celebrated his murder has now become the ultimate beneficiaries of his death. They were rewarded for their inhumanity, for their violence, for their fascist need to control thought and speech.

So, bye bye Miss American Pie

An old song for a new era of whatever this new America will be. It’s one I’ve feared for a long time now. I knew where it was headed a year ago, even if I didn’t know Charlie’s death would send the whole thing crashing down.

MAGA had to be unified and willing to hold the line to stop the Democrats. Many of them tried, but trying to scare people with “communism” and “socialism” was never going to work in Indoctrination Nation.

We don’t know how many MAGA voters flipped and followed Nick Fuentes to vote blue no matter who, but we do know why many necessary voters rejected MAGA and fell into the arms of the totalitarians.

Here’s why I think they did:

Healthcare

The Big Beautiful Bill was designed to please Trump’s loudest online base. They kept pushing him to make more cuts, and if he failed, they never stopped complaining. The problem was that millions in red states were thrown off healthcare, even children.

My own premium went up, though I’m told it’s only to undo a COVID-era cut. Even so, if you take things away from people, you can expect them to vote against you. At the same time, Trump is bragging about building a ballroom.

As I drove across this country, I saw one unified message from the Democrats—a purple billboard with the words “will protect benefits.” The optics of purple sold the message that these were “moderate” Democrats.

The focus is Social Security, but the message is loud and clear—benefits. The government will take care of you, and in a climate like this one, that resonated. When you can’t even see a doctor or go to the ER, your needs become very simple.

The idea that AI would cost jobs and that drove this is misplaced. They don’t want jobs. They want healthcare without having to fret about the bill.

ICE Overreach - Hispanic voters

On the Right, everyone knows that the legacy media lies. They tell a story that isn’t the whole story. The story about ICE and those who protested against them became another George Floyd-like movement, but for Hispanic voters—a voting bloc the Republicans needed.

Just as with healthcare, Trump’s loudest MAGA base demanded faster deportations and more arrests; not enough of the millions who crossed over during Biden were being sent back. With the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, they had martyrs to justify everything they would do to regain power.

Now, they’ll work toward their permanent majority and a one-party state. This won’t be hard for them. Amnesty for those here, looser restrictions on the border, and if they aren’t having babies, they’ll bring in immigrants who are, and on and on it will go.

Trump leaned toward being more lenient, but many on his own side pressured him to keep pushing. That cost him. But the future is moving much faster toward Hispanics being the most powerful voting bloc, if they aren’t already. They turned on Trump because of immigration and the economy.

Gas prices and inflation - black men

If Biden was punished for high gas prices, Trump would be too. Americans feel this every time they fill up. If there was one thing Americans hoped Trump would do, it was bring down gas prices as he’d done in the past. But they’re still high across the country. I know—I just drove across it. Can Democrats bring down prices? Of course not.

Inflation was bad enough, but tariffs also drove up costs, no matter the “big moves” Trump had in mind and the promises of $5,000 if Republicans took Congress. His focus should have been on bringing down prices if he didn’t want this to cripple the last two years of his presidency. How would he do that? I do not know.

The war in Iran - young men

I don’t see the war as a mistake. When a fascist regime kills 30,000 protesters, I will always support the country that bombs them. But to state the obvious, that wasn't true of many of his supporters—especially the high-profile ones, like Joe Rogan, Megyn Kelly, Theo Von, and Tucker Carlson.

The war ignited hatred toward Israel and the Jews, and that helped Abdul El-Sayed win in Michigan, even if it should have had the opposite effect. That tells you everything you need to know about the Democrats.

Having lived through a few of these cycles, I can now see that when times are good, voters have the luxury of voting for the Conservatives. When times are bad, voters almost always choose the Democrats because they fear financial instability more than anything else.

The Democrats are still crazy

They might have done incredibly well, flipping Texas and all, but make no mistake. They have changed nothing. Their objective is to force all of America to go along with their Woketopian worldview, which I imagine will become even more authoritarian.

If they come in with persecutions and prosecutions, they will burn through their own political capital. All Trump will have to do is be the less crazy side to help the GOP take 2028. If they focus only on Trump and not on the people, they’ll lose them.

The pessimist in me says it’s game over. The Democrats won the war. The Fourth Turning will be, as Neil Howe foretold in his follow-up book, The Fourth Turning Is Here, which envisioned a progressive, Gen Z-friendly America with a revamped New Deal and much bigger government.

But the optimist in me has to believe a vibrant counterculture movement is afoot, and with the AI revolution and many in America not quite ready to give up on this experiment, perhaps all is not lost. Even if they take government control, we still have our free speech for now, and it’s time to use it.

As a result, this oppressive regime about to take power will inadvertently produce great works of art and storytelling, as long as enough brave people are still willing to tell the truth. That, I can live with.