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Rank punditry and eggheadery dominate the docket today as Matt Continetti joins Jonah on a ...

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Rank punditry and eggheadery dominate the docket today as Matt Continetti joins Jonah on a mournfully swampy day in D.C. From Biden huddling in his basement to William F. Buckley Jr. naming his boat “Splendid Isolation,” the guys go backward from politics today to politics yesterday in a convention of nerd-dom, spiced up by mentions of Klingon weddings and Dungeons and Dragons.

Show Notes:

–Andy Kessler’s WSJ piece on June 1 being Trump’s official downfall date

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  1. Avatar photo
    Jim Tung

    Jonah/Toby, please publish the AEI quiz.

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  2. Sage Mitchell

    Great podcast! You were right; the eggheadery got a bit dense at times, but well worth taking a machete to. I'd like to offer something on the punditry. It seems that the Trump campaign (Trump wouldn't do it) should be considering a slice of the 2016 vote that bears watching. Trump got a high number of "hate both" voters; he had the advantage there of being the unknown quantity. What percentage of those voters could honestly be placed in a category called "pleasantly surprised"? I suspect that's a small number, which should be worrisome for the campaign.

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    Julia

    Just catching up on this. Grateful Continetti shouted out Bob Woodson, a true American hero.

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    Sad Trombone

    I think your sanguine view of the loss of the Senate represents what Churchill would call "the acme of gullibility." Even if the filibuster were maintained on paper, the elastic use of reconciliation and other avenues for creative gamesmanship would eviscerate everything good that's been accomplished under Trump. The number of judges in the lower courts would be doubled and packed within the first hundred days, card check and compulsory unions would be greenlighted, Blue State financial problems would be shifted to the federal taxpayer, "refugees" fleeing domestic violence would flood the country and immediately sponsor their supposed abusers as they were in the Obama era.
    Please use your influence to start a "No Blank Check" movement to save the Republican Senate.

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  5. Patrick Ortiz

    Loved the episode and the book recommendations. Always enjoy conservative eggheadery and I want to know more about what all these factions mean historically. The book recommendations at the end seem great!

    I would also love to know from Jonah or fellow commenters what the deal is with Rick Perlstein? My brother keeps recommending his books but I’ve gathered he’s not well liked in conservative circles, I’d love to hear more about that and other contemporary political historians.

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  6. Jim Heetderks

    I think the number of people interested in conservative eggheadery is now up to 21.

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    BrettH

    Of course I stuck around for the nerdy stuff; it’s why I’m here Jonah. A la Will Ferrell in Blades of Glory I thought to myself, “Go ahead, drink it in.”

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  8. Turtledove

    Well I hope you are right Jonah because I think Trump is going to lose ... bigly or big league. I am very worried that a Biden Administration will mean the return of the Ben Rhoades, Susan Rices (maybe as VP - shudder!). etc. from the Obama days and that so called foreign policy was even worse than Trump's. I have visions of Iran and China and Russia running even more amok while Biden sends them pallets of cash and begs them to sign worthless pieces of paper. Domestically I expect a return of Obama's wet blanket of regulations on the already Covid and riot wrecked economy. And lots of executive orders inflicting stringent controls like deciding whether or not you can buy seeds while wearing a mask at Walmart (pants will probably still be optional). I don't think Biden will be in favor of all this, but he is a completely spent force and will be happy to putter about while his VP and the moronic Democrats in Congress and Governor's mansions run what will look like East Germany. We will be able to have our First Amendment "rights" but not our jobs if we choose to say something the State doesn't like. And that will change from day to day. Almost enough to make me vote for Trump instead of leaving the top of my ballot blank.

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    CynthiaW

    That was very informative. Sometimes I forget how old I am, and then I realize that I was there, so to speak, for teapot-tempests such as the "First Things" post-democracy symposium.

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  10. Richard Fulmer

    Can Toby Stock’s test be made available?

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