Forget the Polls. Let’s Talk About Vibes.

The Republican midterm comeback.

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The prospect of a red wave washing away Democrats’ congressional majorities this fall is complicated for the average Dispatch reader, I’d imagine. It’s complicated for me. After two years, it’d be nice to have a legislative brake on the left’s worst excesses, not that the left’s worst excesses are always amenable to legislative braking. 

But I don’t know that a new Republican House majority led by a wimp whose job security depends on placating an authoritarian cult is a net benefit to the United States. How do you feel, for instance, about Kevin McCarthy’s caucus destroying America’s creditworthiness just to prove that they’re ruthless and spiteful enough to do it?

If that’s too far-fetched, consider the probable fate of American military aid to Ukraine should a party beholden to Tucker Carlson’s fan base suddenly be granted a veto over it. Some MAGA populists are already considering it.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Joel B

    With Jonah and Nick both embracing the term, maybe the new website should coincide with a rebranding of The Dispatch as The Vibe.

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    O.M.G. calling from Vaudeville, AZ

    “What do women want?” Tis the age old question, I mean “What do middle of the road swinger voters want?” that pollsters and politicians seek for comparative advantage….The quandary of existence and democracy is stupid people can procreate, and still have the right of suffrage. Trumpism begot Biden. Dumb begot dumber. Liar begot liarer. To wit, no such pol exists to explain such people the voted for both awful excuses for human beings, and the lying liars like McCarthy and Pelosi that defend one’s dear leaders with a straight face. Thanks for taking my rant Dispatch. Gotta run on. Peace through superior mental firepower

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  3. Avatar photo
    Alec

    There’s a commenter on this thread who certainly “vibes” as a troll. I really hope that RWNJs aren’t paying the price of admission to come on here and attempt to disrupt what are almost universally reasoned and cordial debates on issues. I realize Steve, Jonah, and their investors have a goal to expand membership, but as we’ve seen Twitter and FB, the trolls can quickly sour the experience.

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    Dustin Anglin

    I think there is still a decent, if outside chance the Dems hold a 50/50 Senate for 2 more years, given the way Hershel Walker seems to be self destructing in real time courtesy of his years of familial abuse. That said, I also thought that about the whole "grab 'em" affair of 2016, and boy were GOP voters eager to disoblige me of the notion that it wasn't "win at any cost."

    I think America will be fine, though. 2 years of congressional gridlock (what's new). 2 years of pointless arguing about what the debt ceiling "is" (maybe the thing I dread the most). 2 years of Matt Gaetz licking all the House Judiciary committee mics and claiming they belong to him now, while MTG and Lauren Boebert hold hearings about the "Deeper State," the state that is "one more deep than the Deep State." It's not like any of us are mainlining CSPAN anyways.

    We'll get through it. It may not be pleasant, but when has that ever stopped us in the past? :)

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  5. Cooper

    AP, I only joined as a paying member of the Dispatch is because I’ve been reading your posts for years and you and I are very much aligned on ideology. I hated the nasty comments you got at HA. That said I hope they take the leash off and let you be you because it’s not yet. Your way of writing about serious things and injecting humor is what you’re incredibly good at. That’s what people need more than anything. Politics shouldn’t be entirely depressing. Tell your editor I said Pfffffft! LOL

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  6. Avatar photo
    Bill Nelson

    “Bad news for writers. Great news for bloggers!”
    I don’t see the difference between the two.

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    Johntadian

    Nice article, Nick. Looks the boys and girls went for the extra couple espresso shots this morning. "...spineless, MAGA lickspittle sycophant..." Wow, now that's some opinioning.

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  8. Avatar photo
    Mike Cotter

    Keep bloggin… good stuff!

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  9. Duane

    So I'm guessing the Dispatch is full of Never Trump commentors. It seems like the people here are still so personally opposed to Trump that they've decided they're basically okay with:

    1) There never being any sort of accountability for our government's horrendous COVID overreach;
    2) There never being any sort of accountability for the weaponization of the DoJ;;
    3) The Biden Admin's plans to essentially declare that sex and gender are meaningless concepts and remove from existence "women" as a category of people;
    4) The Biden Admin's ongoing refusal to even look at the border or consider that anything needs to be done there, for any reason
    5) There never being any sort of accountability for any of the ridiculous policies that led directly to the position where we find ourselves today
    6) Dems outright lying and making up alternate versions of reality by changing the definitions of words (such as "vaccine," "recession," "woman," "heartbeat," etc.) and stating things that didn't happen as if they did, and vice versa ("It was Trump and Republicans who kept schools closed, and Biden and Dems who wanted them to stay open!")
    7) The formation of such government agencies as "Disinformation Governance Boards" and the ongoing, relentless aggression against people who speak contrary to the party-approved propaganda

    All this, and much more. You are inviting a world in which "truth" has no meaning, except for what the political party in power at the moment decides. You are helping to create a world in which girls' volleyball teams are kicked out of their own locker rooms and then investigated for harassment after they complain that a boy on their team was staring at them while they changed and making comments about their bodies. And you're looking the other way about all this for the sole reason that you hate Donald Trump so much. Personally, I don't think he's worth it, but it's clear that the people here do.

    It's too bad for my nieces and nephews that they're going to have to live in the world that the Never-Trumpers are helping to build.

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    1. rc4797

      "The Biden Admin's plans to essentially declare that sex and gender are meaningless concepts and remove from existence "women" as a category of people." Mindless talking point alert! LOL "Women" are not "removed from existence" by virtue of the existence of a small number of transgender individuals. But thank you for sharing your ignorance.

      As far as the rest of your "truth" you can continue to live in La La Land with the rest of the fantasists and reality deniers who seek a return to 1950.

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  10. Avatar photo
    Bill Dyer (aka Beldar)

    Re this, with which I emphatically agree: "But I don’t know that a new Republican House majority led by a wimp whose job security depends on placating an authoritarian cult is a net benefit to the United States."

    I am sure that it is an ugly netting out. The current Speaker had the vital constitutional responsibility to build and present a credible case for the impeachment and conviction and lifetime ban from office of Donald J. Trump. Instead Nancy Pelosi delivered kabuki theater, twice, without ever making any serious attempt to persuade the persuadable GOP senators. She fecklessly, bizarrely gifted them with what they wanted most, which was the opportunity to embrace weasel-reasons to vote to acquit. I have a very hard time conceiving of a greater abdication of responsibility on the part of any Speaker of the House.

    Until I contemplate the possibility of a Speaker McCarthy. Then it's "hold my beer" time. I'm not sure how or when the fecal matter would hit the rotary gas impeller, but it would be soon, and ugly, and I'm pretty sure it would end up making the incumbent president in November 2024 someone named Harris, which is another one of those things that no sane person of any political persuasion is very enthusiastic about.

    I am left to trust in providence, and the hope that McCarthy's IQ and integrity might both rise by some marginal percentage level — 5% perhaps — if that merciful providence were to summon Trump to his just reward in the afterlife. McCarthy was an empty suit even before Trump, but in my fantasies, all the Trumpkins suddenly drop (politically, metaphorically) like unstrung puppets, the way the White Walkers' minions did on Game of Thrones, when their maker dies.

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About Nick Catoggio

Nick Catoggio is a staff writer for The Dispatch and writes the newsletter Boiling Frogs. He previously blogged as Allahpundit for Hot Air. ⁣  ⁣  Subscribe to Boiling Frogs here »
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