JD Vance: Let's Face It, the Real Takeaway From the Election Is That Trump Is a Warmonger and We Have to Embrace the Anti-Israel Policies of My Good Friend Tucker Carlson

JD Vance has repudiated Trump's prosecution of the war with Iran.

We should be being nice to 9th century savages who are building nuclear weapons. Look at Europe -- just being nice to them works every time!

Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday called for a major pivot in the Trump administration's priorities after the Republicans lost control of the House and Senate in the Tuesday evening midterm contests.

Democrats took Senate seats not just in battleground states, but in typically Republican bastions like Texas, Kansas, and South Carolina. Vance, for his part, acknowledged that the administration had lost large portions of reliable voters.

"The reason we lost is the war," he posted on X. "The president himself said so last night. If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest," Vance went on. "But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there."

There's no doubt the Iran War was a major issue:

Byron York @ByronYork

From exit polls, the percentage of voters who ranked a particular issue a "crucial or major factor" in deciding their vote, followed by the percentage of them who voted Democrat:
90% Government corruption (56%)
89% Cost of living (58%)
74% Iran (63%)
73% Immigration enforcement policies (46%)
56% AI/Data centers (64%)

But "get out of Iran, leave those poor savages alone" is a big position on the left, and among the Ron Paul/Nick Fuentes Complete Isolation and Appeasement pseudoright -- who tend to vote for Democrats to show us all how much they hate us (and Israel).

Turning Israel into an enemy will make the Muslims like us.

Trust them!

JD Vance
@JDVance

One of the things the data analysts on our side obsessed over was "composition"--whether the electorate looked close enough to 2024 for Republicans to win. And despite polls that showed a Democrat blowout, the data kept on telling us the same story: in some states turnout was merely OK, in other states it was downright amazing, and in no state was it catastrophic. There was a genuine sense of optimism on our team: our people were showing up.

So, I asked the smartest data guy I know, does that mean we're going to shock the world? "No," he told me. "We might do better than the polls suggest. But the data is telling us that a lot of Trump/Vance 2024 voters are pissed and planning to vote for the other guys. Our voters are turning out, but they may not vote for us."

Well, that looks prophetic now. Our voters did show up. In Florida, for example, the electorate was 9 points more Republican than Democrat, just a couple points worse than 2024. Undoubtedly there were places we could have done better on turnout. But the main problem is not turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026.

There will be a lot of infighting and arguing over what happened and why that is. One of the pollsters I really respect told me that our economic messaging wasn't sharp enough down the stretch. I'm sure that's true.

But the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone.

Another pollster--one of the smartest people I know in politics, told me yesterday we'd lose the generic ballot by 13 points. I felt negative going into Tuesday, but even I was shocked by this. In his polling, he saw that a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats. He asked those voters who had abandoned us what would cause them to come back on our team. The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses were:

1) End the war
2) Focus on cost of living/inflation
3) Put America First
4) Change our relationship to Israel

Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats. This is according to a pollster who nailed the results. While many spent Monday attacking Rachel Campos Duffy for calling for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, it turns out her political advice was sound. (She's also a great person.)

In the next few months, there's going to be a lot of gaslighting. Expect to hear any number of establishment politicians say the solution to our woes is amnesty. I'm open to the idea that we should change enforcement--by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance. But anyone pushing amnesty is lying to you.

The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night.

If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest.

But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.

I remain hopeful about our country. To the people who are pissed off and want to say, "I told you so": you're right, you did tell us so. Take that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview. To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be. Let's take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country.

JD Vance pointedly refused to endorse Beyamin Netanyahu, too. That's his choice, of course, but let's drop the pretense that he isn't just aping the politics of his close friend Tucker Carlson.

Vance has a lot of reason to want these to be the causes.

If the future of the GOP isn't through Michigan and the white working class but instead trying to win over Hispanics, there's no reason to run him.

Posted by: Red Turban Someguy

By the way, does JD Vance's Stronk America First Agenda include reducing the huge flow of Indians into this country to take American jobs and crash 18-wheelers into American citizens, or nah?

Nah, right?

I bet it's very important we retain a friendly relationship with India, right? And continue allowing huge transfers of population from India to the US?

Hey buddy, if you want to play this kind of politics, I'm game. Deal me in.

If you believe that Trump's divisiveness was a contributing factor to our loss (and our loss in 2022, and our "loss" in 2020), then you probably will have reservations about JD Vance's Big Smart Harvard-Educated Plan to replace Trump's divisiveness with the much more divisive divisiveness of Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes.

That's gonna be a no from me, dog. Hard pass.

Yup, it's just going to take declaring Israel an enemy.

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:30 PM

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