Duh

So virtually anything to the right of center got a serious spanking in the elections.  Probably the biggest protest election since 1994.  I'm not shocked.  There are many reasons. But a few stand out.

First, the press has finally figured out Trump.  Don't make Trump the headline.  You can mention things he does - especially if they make him look bad.  But don't dwell on him.  No matter how bad the story, he feeds off it like some science fiction alien.  For eight years they kept Trump as front page, round the clock headline news.  And he grew stronger, not weaker, for it.  So simply go blackout.  Mention him, focus on some stupid thing like renaming the Atlantic Ocean, and then move on.

That includes not mentioning anything Trump has accomplished.  As far as I know from the media, Trump has accomplished 0% since taking office. A few weeks ago I saw a story about a Greenland deal.  What Greenland deal?  Unless you wake up and say you're going to set aside a few hours each day to researching what the Trump Administration has accomplished, you'll never know anything positive. 

But even if a negative story is mentioned, the negative won't be belabored. After eight years of not learning their lesson, they finally learned.  As long as you're making Trump the headline news, round the clock, 24/7, Trump thrives.   Just turn away.  And it worked.

It worked for other things.  The riots in Europe are mentioned, but not dwelt upon.  The ongoing massacre of Nigerian Christians?  Lied about then dropped.  Transgender activism?  Really.  When was the last time the MSM led with some major media blitz about Transgenderism?  They were all in on Transgenderism going into 2024 here in the Buckeye State.  Trans activists were given the bullhorn and allowed to spew anything they wanted.  That included defending changing minors' bodies around and pushing for laws to keep parents out of the loop.  By their own gleeful admission.  

That put the Dems in a bad spot.  They couldn't oppose it, while they seemed to know it was a bad look.  But in our post-George Floyd era, to fail to speak out is to endorse.  So the GOP was able to hang the radical transgender activism around the neck of the Democrats, and it worked.  But since then?  Like Trump, the press has learned just ignore entire stories if they don't help.  So this time, the GOP trying to hammer the warnings about Transgenderism fell on deaf ears, since we hadn't heard about it much for the last couple years. 

At the end of the day it's time to admit that the media exists, but it ain't journalism. 

And next, there is the fact that things are getting worse, not better, for more and more Americans.  The Iran War?  That's been a hot mess, as described by Trump himself.  How many months have we been assured it's almost in the bag?  And as I said before, the economy was improving last year, but now has tanked.  It's not easy to blame Biden when it's gotten worse after it got better.  And there is no end in sight.  

Then you had Conservative devotion to the eternal profit margin.  As I said, things are getting worse, not better, for a growing number of Americans.  Young people are especially jaded.  The cost of living has soared, and what you get for the cost is less than it used to be.

Heck, look at the Halloween candy this year.  As much, if not more, than it ever has been, with bags being 2/3 of, or even half, the size that they used to be.  Remember my fun candy post here?  Those bags of Cheapy McCheapface cost more than they have, but couldn't have been much more than half the size that they were even last year.  Housing costs.  Gas prices.  Food.  Utilities.  All as bad or worse than they've been, and often for less quality and quantity than ever.  Those who think the economy isn't so bad, please tell me how I can join your country club.  

And worse than that, what do Conservatives do across social media when it comes to concerns about the economy?  They lament the suffering?  They rail against the administration for putting it to so many fellow Americans?  They morn the struggles and the hardships that are besetting the average Joe and Jane America?  No.  That was conservatives going in to 2024. 

This year, as often as not, the strategy appeared to be to mock the people who are concerned.  Mock Gen-Z types.  Make fun of them.  Dismiss them.  Tell them to more or less suck on it.  Suggest people who are complaining are a bunch of stupid, lazy loafers. Yeah, that will do it.  Just ridicule people who are worried.  

Or worse, laugh at them as they're losing their jobs to AI or other corporate chicanery.  That's actually a thing.  My wife's employer has just announced  impending sweeping layoffs, owing almost entirely to AI.  Other corporations have already been doing so.  I've written for years how December is now when many in the workplace hunker down because is it no longer the month of Christmas parties and bonuses, but the month of job cuts and layoffs.  

And what do conservative outlets and satire sites do?  Laugh.  Post memes about cavemen worried that the new wheel will cost jobs.  Or that the employee went another week not losing his job to AI so he'll have to work another week.  Bwa ha ha ha!  Hey, it's happening and we're laughing at them!  Sort of like memes mocking those Jews in Germany who think there is a problem with the new government in the 1930s. 

I just don't get this. I've said the Right's dogged devotion to corporate interests beyond any other conceivable priority has long been its Achille's heel.  It's willingness to make war on the slightest government agency designed to help people while genuflecting before the marketplace, even if the marketplace is stuffing its pockets by throwing everything else that conservatives are supposed to value under the bus, is one of the great mysteries of the ages.  By throwing under the bus, that includes the USA, democracy and freedom, Christianity, the Western Tradition.  But I suppose if it's helping billion dollar corporations increase their billions, it's a price worth paying?

Finally you just have conservative dumb.  Ramaswamy's ad using Amy Acton's estranged mother who helped her husband try to beat the rap for raping Amy Action stands as one of the worst political anything in the history of politics.  And as if the ad wasn't bad enough, Trump, Ramaswamy, and JD Vance stood by it.  Hey!  So what if Acton was raped by her dad and her mom helped him?  If her mom helps us win, we're good with that.  

That's the worst, but I saw a lot of it across the Republican party.  Since Trump it's as if we don't know what to do or how to do it.  And there is no real consensus or unity to the right of center.  Perhaps the biggest problem among this post-Trump conservatism is that we are having a hard time admitting how far things have fallen.

Nonetheless, those are a few thoughts.  I said, and this time was right, that the GOP was in for a major beating.  And beating it was.  The Dems would be smart not to gloat, for that's what they did in 2020.  Far more than conservatives gloated in 2016.  There is an anti-status quo sentiment today, as more and more feel the institutions of society no longer have their back.  They will turn to anything or anyone who isn't establishment, as we saw in recent elections.  And unless there is a major turnaround, in 2028 it will be the same.  Again, no matter who stands for what, it will be if they represent the establishment status quo or not.  Which isn't a good thing, but it's a fact.