It is all very depressing that the Democrats took Texas, Michigan, and everywhere else. They are just better at elections. The one guy who could match their game was shot in the neck by one of their deranged vigilantes. Trump is gone in two years. MAGA is fractured and divided. So what now?
I always thought we were headed for a period that looked a lot like the JFK-to-Nixon-to-Carter-to-Reagan era. Obama was JFK. Trump was Nixon. Biden was Carter, and then, after Trump won again in 2024, maybe JD Vance would win, and Republicans would hold the presidency for eight more years, ultimately transforming America as Reagan had.
Well, things aren’t going exactly as planned. JD Vance, for instance, has cast himself as someone who might not even be able to unite the Right. The divide seems to be between the Tucker Carlson/Marjorie Taylor Greene wing of MAGA and the Dana Loesch/Dan Bongino wing. And of course, in the middle of all of it is our relationship with Israel.
To be a Reagan-like figure, however, would require a bigger vision than MAGA currently offers. It would have to be inspirational and unifying. True, on the Left, we hated Reagan back in the 1980s, but he was wildly popular and, more than that, he ushered in a period of strong defense and Conservative values.
I wasn’t a Conservative then. I came of age under Reagan. Culture, however, leaned left, and that would be my refuge. Now, culture has fused with the Democratic Party to the point that you can’t even tell the difference. It didn’t used to be that way.
Morality has taken a backseat to wokeness. Children are inundated with sexual content they aren’t ready for in schools and online. Young men are lost. Dating is becoming impossible, let alone marriage.
Everything is about Throuples and non-binary this or that. The Left is afflicted with puritanism, but when it comes to sex or drugs, there are no limits. And there have to be limits. We desperately need the pendulum to swing back to conservatism.
I recently heard Scott Jennings talking to Chicks on the Right (full video here), and his voice and his comments made me think he’d do well in politics, maybe even as a presidential candidate. I don’t know if he’d ever do it, but this strikes exactly the right tone for what I think could defeat the Left when almost nothing else will.
He is sincere, honest, and optimistic. That is what we’re missing because we’ve been engaged in a war with ourselves for so long we’ve forgotten what it feels like to be inspired. The entire establishment Left went to war on Trump starting in 2016, and despite the messaging of James Talarico, that hate has consumed them and, in my view, destroyed them.
There is no candidate on the Left who will run for president who will not come from a place of fascist-like mandates to conform or else. They’ll disguise it as “Joy,” or, as Obama said, to stop hating each other. But their message will never change. They want total control over this country, and they are motivated far more than the Right.
They are vulnerable in this regard because they went for Dark Woke. They’re stuck with putrid haters like Hasan Piker and Jennifer Welch. They’re out for revenge and for blood, and that will cost them. What we need is someone who is bigger than all of that and has a big enough wingspan to capture our attention and say, “Follow me. This is the better road.”
It would have to be someone who isn't corrupt and who believes in faith and family. It would be someone who could talk about how American culture has become poisonous to the young. Economic populism meets old-fashioned American values. I know that would sell to a majority of Americans.
JD Vance is attempting to separate himself from Trump, which is exactly the wrong move, in my opinion. Ron DeSantis spoke eloquently on this, and at times I thought he might have the right stuff.
Whoever defeats the Left in 2028 will need a plan to deal with inflation and the economy, but also to preserve Trump’s gains at the border and with crime. It can’t be only that.
It’s that thing Scott Jennings has, that Jimmy Stewart optimism that I think the right candidate needs to stand apart from the rest. Now that the Democrats have their dirtbags and their podcast bros, that isn’t going to be a strong selling point. Inspiration, optimism, hope. That’s the ticket.
I remember Reagan’s America, and even if it set the stage for the Left to come roaring back eventually with Bill Clinton, we didn’t get any spiritual or moral guidance until Barack Obama, and that led to the Left’s religion of identity and wokeness. And that, in turn, has led to a hatred of America and the West.
What we need is someone to take Trump’s Make America Great Again and turn it inward, bringing back standards of behavior and decency. We need to fall in love with our country again. Our kids need it. Our schools need it. Hollywood needs it. Our country needs it.
Goodland, Kansas, 7pm
The biggest problem is the teachers unions.
They have become indoctrination centers fueled by excessive real estate taxes.
We’re funding our own demise through teachers union dues that are fed directly to candidates that don’t like our country.
Sasha, thank you for the clear-eyed perspective. Quite the vision. You’ve had plenty of time to think about this on the road.