It would be mystifying if Republicans won more seats in the House, retained the Senate, and picked up state legislative seats, all while the same voters voted against Trump. //

At the state level, USA Today reports, Democrats also failed to flip seats they had targeted, again usually with more money than Republicans. The only gubernatorial flip went from Democrat to Republican, in Montana. In congressional and state House races in Texas, Republicans also retained their majorities despite massive outside funding and high-profile targeting from Democrats. //

Then look at some odd differences between this amazing night for Republicans in downballot races and the incongruent results for Trump in just a few key states — key states that happen to be the ones everyone knew would be crucial to Trump’s path to victory, and all of which began to have “voting irregularities” and pauses in vote counting as Trump appeared to command the lead while closing in on final vote totals. //

It would be mystifying if Republicans won more seats in the House, retained the Senate, and picked up state legislative seats, all while the same voters voted against Trump. Trump has solidified his support among Republican voters and enjoys a massive approval rating from them he didn’t have in 2016, and expanded his coalition to more working-class and minority voters this year. This is not a blue wave year. This is a year that the blue wave of 2018 appears to be receding.

Yet we are supposed to believe the same media-Democrat complex that fed us wildly erroneous polls all year, and runs false information operations on us about coronavirus, the Russia hoax, and everything else they can use to steal power, that this blue wave’s evaporation did not at all affect the top of the ticket?

The Lincoln Project convinced Democratic donors to part with $39,384,397 in Q3. It burned a staggering $13 million on operating expenditures, made $23.9M of IEs (mostly routed into its founders firms), and ended with $13.2M on hand.

As a congressman, Paul Ryan shamelessly ran cover for Trump. But in an interview with Politico’s Tim Alberta, the former House Speaker made it clear what he thought of the president.

BY ERIC LUTZ

JULY 11, 2019

Ryan makes clear in Alberta’s book that he knew Trump to be an unqualified jackass. In one anecdote, the House Speaker receives an early-morning phone call from then-chief of staff Reince Priebus asking him to read a tweet the president had just fired off.

“Terrible!” Trump wrote. “Just found out that [Barack Obama] had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”

The tweet, offered without proof or basis in reality, sent Ryan into “maniacal, punch-drunk laughter,” according to Alberta. This behind-the-scenes Ryan hardly squares with the public Ryan, who repeatedly came to the president’s defense and downplayed his maddening Twitter addiction. “I actually don't pay that much attention to it,” Ryan once said of the president’s incessant shitposting.

The White House appears to be fully prepared for the political bar fight that will erupt once the confirmation process for Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett begins on Oct. 12. An exclusive Fox News report revealed that the Trump administration has assembled a team of “knife fighters” to deploy when the brawl breaks out. ///

Be prepared to defend and protect your nominee, thank you

The conditionless optimism that the Republicans emanate is absent in the Democrats. They want you to know things are really bad and they’re only going to get worse if Trump is reelected. They seldom talk about the tenacity and relentlessness of the American people or the way they conquer one problem after another that creates a society of limitless possibilities.

Democrats seem to believe our society is in a state of arrested development and that it will continue to stay that way, or at least they want you to believe that.

There’s something dark and depressing about it. Even their attempts at humor seem sad.

The Daily Wire’s video perfectly highlights these differences.

Something is missing. Like a couple that stays together but no longer really likes each other, the Democrats don’t seem to like America but they do want to stay because they don’t have any other option.

Republicans, meanwhile, truly love this country and want the best for it. They think it truly is something great and could even be greater. They believe in it and want to support it under the knowledge that it’s not done achieving heights yet.

This attitude is important to understand. One party will take us nowhere, the other to the stars both figuratively and probably very literally.

“After the treatment of Justice Kavanaugh I now have a different view of the judicial-confirmation process,” Graham said. “Compare the treatment of Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh to that of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan, and it’s clear that there is already one set of rules for a Republican president and one set of rules for a Democrat president. I therefor think it is important that we proceed expeditiously to process any nomination made by President Trump to fill this vacancy. I am certain if the shoe was on the other foot, you would do the same.”

Finally, McConnell hit Democrats directly, quoting Chuck Schumer in 2018 proclaiming that election to be a referendum on the handling of the Supreme Court. Well, in 2018 the American people handed Republicans an even bigger majority. The Majority Leader then ended by saying that “we are going to keep our world” in regards to the promises made to voters over the Supreme Court.

Everybody should get a hearing and a vote, said Joe Biden, “even in an election year.”

Bottom line? The history is on the side of the President and McConnell.

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
.@GOP We were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices. We have this obligation, without delay!

welcome to night three of the RNC convention. Tonight's theme is "Land of Heroes". You can participate by using the hashtag #RSLiveBlog

Because of the media being so hysterically anti-Trump, this convention is the first time in about four years that non-leftist Americans have seen other Americans reflecting their positive views about President Trump.

A total beatdown.

Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, and others capped off a solid first night for the RNC. //

Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, though, gave what was far and away the best speech of the night. Emotional and biographical, Scott focused on the good of America, that ability to start anywhere and work your way up. In mentioning his grandfather, he gave the most powerful line of the night.

Mentioning that his grandfather had to drop out of school to work in cotton fields, Scott then noted that “he lived long enough to see his grandson become the first African-American to be elected to both the United States House, and the United States Senate, in the history of this country. Our family went from cotton, to Congress, in one lifetime.”

Amazing...

As polls show more Americans warming up to socialism, conservatives need to take a few lessons from The Great Communicator.

“Is it going to be Joe Biden or Donald Trump. I mean, think about the cancel culture mob [that] says that if you stand for the pledge now, you stand for the anthem, somehow you’re terrible,” Jordan said.

[…]

“The fundamental question, I think, for the American people is who do you think can stand up to the mob? Joe Biden or President Trump? That is really what this election now in my mind all boils down to,” Jordan said.

“Where does it end? Where does it stop? No one is safe with the mob and that’s why it is so important that we stand up now before this gets even more out of control. Stand up and say it is wrong, it should not happen, this politically correct cancel culture left-wing mob is exactly wrong for this country and this election is when we can stand up and say ‘we’re not going to tolerate it.'” //

Rep. Jim Jordan
@Jim_Jordan
America's choice is clear:

Mob Rule or Law & Order

I have a few theories about what made my article about being a Democrat who went to a Trump rally go massively viral. Perhaps it was the… //

But what was so refreshing was that there was very little talk about race or gender or orientation or anything that would indicate a collectivist mindset. People viewed each other as individuals and engaged in discussions of ideas.
In theory, I knew this would be the case, but experiencing it in practice was different. You must understand that right now in the land of the Democrats, EVERYTHING is about identity politics. Every. Single. Thing. And race is at the top of the list. If you’re white, no matter what you say or what you do, you are expected to be contrite in your inherent racism and continually re-affirm your shame in how you were born. It does not matter if you grew up poor, or how you’ve struggled, or any hardships you’ve had to overcome. All that matters is the color of your skin. Or your gender. Or your orientation. Or your ableness. It is exhausting to have to live in a constant state of self-deprecating purity and to perceive everything in your experience as a struggle between those who have power and those who are “oppressed.”
It wasn’t like that at CPAC. People didn’t see others as a race, or a gender, or an orientation, or a disability. They saw each other as people who were fully capable of stepping into their greatness without a handout. And some of the standouts at the whole event were those who the woke left would call “marginalized.” //

But perhaps one of the most striking things about my CPAC experience was the emphasis on individual liberties and privacy. This was a major theme that was consistent across the majority of the talks I attended. //

as I sat at CPAC and listened to all their talks about individual liberties and freedoms, it dawned on me that, although there are many things we differ on, I had been looking towards the wrong group of people to protect the things I care about the most.
Attacks on civil liberties are not coming from the right — they just want the government to get out of their business. The attacks are coming from the left. They’re coming from people who have convinced themselves that “words are violence.” They’re coming from people who are seeking to ban so-called “hate speech,” as if the speech that everyone agrees on ever needs to be protected. They’re coming from the social media giants who continue to ban conservatives for absurdly minor things while allowing progressives to harass and bully them with no repercussions. They’re coming from far-left groups like Antifa, who think that violence against your political opponents is always justified.
The conservatives I met at CPAC don’t care what the color of your skin is — they care about the content of your character. They don’t care who you love, or how you worshipped, or what you have between your legs. They believe in self-sufficiency and empowerment and about not paying taxes to support your lifestyle (but in return, they won’t ask you to pay taxes to support theirs). And they may not agree with everything you say, but they will defend your right to say it. //

Don’t worry, I’m not running right out to join the Republican party. I just escaped the grasp of the Democrats and am perfectly happy sitting in the land of the politically homeless for a while. But if I end up needing to choose between liberty and authoritarianism, I know exactly where to go.

Whatever shall we do without them //

This is all shocking and stunning to me. That the Vichy wing of the Republican party would vote for a Democrat is quite possibly the most shocking thing I’ve heard since some tried to convince me that Pope Francis was supposed to be Catholic.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I think it is clear that the populist impulse birthed in the Tea Party movement of 2010 that ultimately elected Trump in 2016 is a direct result of the actions of men like Powell, and both Bushes, and McCain, and Romney. These were people who never really cared about working men and women and who owed their primary allegiance to the moneyed and the powerful. I never expected any of these people, who, at least on the national political stage, epitomize the happy losers who’ve allowed the left to utterly corrupt this country; people who, to paraphrase someone famous, love the “salutations in the marketplace,” and care much, much more about the invitations to the right parties and the praise of the New York Times editorial page for being reasonable than they do for the direction of the nation, to vote for President Trump. They look at Trump’s personality and they look at his supporters, many of whom shop at ::gasp ::shudder WalMart, and can’t imagine making common cause.

There is a lot about Trump’s persona that I don’t like. I wouldn’t want my son to grow up to be like him, apart from being wealthy and marrying a supermodel who seems to be a class act as a person…though I’d want him to limit the whole marriage thing to once. But President Trump has done more to restore credibility to the GOP and to move conservatism forward in less than four years that George Bush, a man I generally admire, did in eight. Bush could’ve defunded Planned Parenthood. Bush could’ve controlled illegal immigration. Bush could’ve reined in the EPA. Bush could’ve acted to remove the regulatory burden from the US economy. Trump will never deliberately throw an election the way that John McCain and Mitt Romney did for fear of being called bad names. He may not always win but he doesn’t go away quietly and winning is important to him. //

I don’t care what Cindy McCain or George Bush or Colin Powell or Mitt Romney do because I don’t give a good damn for their advice or opinions because I know they don’t give a damn for me and my family and they really don’t care what America looks like so long as they get the accolades of the ‘right’ people. They don’t see me as a free-born citizen who votes for people to represent my values. They see me as some kind of a serf voting for someone better than me to lead and instruct me. That isn’t how it works. It isn’t how it has ever worked with Americans.

What we’re seeing under Trump, especially if he is reelected, is the last gasp of the old order. The end of the time when the powerful partied and vacationed together and their political battles were little more that choreographed WWE matches for the rubes in the backcountry. The fact that these people are refusing to vote for Trump says in the way that no Trump campaign video ever can that Trump has delivered on his promises and the powers of the status quo are terrified of what a second Trump administration will do to their cozy little deal.

In 1981, a Georgetown professor, Jeane Kirkpatrick, remaining a Democrat, became Ronald Reagan's Ambassador to the United Nations. Reagan brought Kirkpatrick, as he did with many Democratic hawks who were dismayed with the dovish position of mainstream Democrats.

Kirkpatrick had worked closely with Hubert Humphrey and Scoop Jackson. As an increasingly influential public intellectual in the 1970s, she criticized not only what she saw as President Jimmy Carter's soft and naive stance on communism, but also the Nixon-Ford-Kissinger "detente" policy of accommodating to the Soviet expansion.

And so for the first time since 1952, the 1984 Republican National Convention chose a keynote speaker who was not a Republican. Kirkpatrick delivered a blistering speech, dealing exclusively with foreign policy. She was appealing to large segment of Reagan Democrats who were terrified Progressive and Democratic Establishment did not understand the mortal danger of the Soviet threat.

Kirkpatrick ran through a litany of recent foreign policy controversies: Grenada, Lebanon, the Soviet walk-out from arms negotiations, and Central America. On every topic, said Kirkpatrick, the San Francisco Democrats "always blame America first." //

I heard Jeane Kirkpatrick give her famous speech. The UN Ambassador went on a tirade about the “blame America first” Democrats who had been meeting in San Francisco.

Kirkpatrick was a Democrat hawk who came into the Reagan Administration in reaction to a Democratic Party that had rapidly drifted left to the point Ted Kennedy would try to get the Soviet Leader Andropov to do an American media tour to defuse tensions in the run up to the 1984 election. Kennedy wanted to advise the Soviets on how to navigate the American media to show they meant peace as a way to undermine the strong “evil empire” stance Reagan had advanced.

In her speech, Kirkpatrick said of the Democrats who had convened to nominate Walter Mondale in San Francisco,

They said that saving Grenada from terror and totalitarianism was the wrong thing to do - they didn't blame Cuba or the communists for threatening American students and murdering Grenadians - they blamed the United States instead.

But then, somehow, they always blame America first.

When our Marines, sent to Lebanon on a multinational peacekeeping mission with the consent of the United States Congress, were murdered in their sleep, the "blame America first crowd" didn't blame the terrorists who murdered the Marines, they blamed the United States.

But then, they always blame America first.

When the Soviet Union walked out of arms control negotiations, and refused even to discuss the issues, the San Francisco Democrats didn't blame Soviet intransigence. They blamed the United States.

But then, they always blame America first.

When Marxist dictators shoot their way to power in Central America, the San Francisco Democrats don't blame the guerrillas and their Soviet allies, they blame United States policies of 100 years ago.

But then, they always blame America first.

What was different between then and now is that while the media leaned left, it was still mostly run by men who had fought on the battlefields of Germany and the islands of the Pacific. They may have leaned left, but they were not really haters of America even if they thought Reagan was too belligerent.

Now, however, the American media is too willing to spread Chinese communist propaganda to own the President. Because Trump is President, the media would rather believe a tyrannical regime that ruthlessly murders dissidents and runs concentration camps.

Student loan debt affects the life choices of young Americans. Tens of thousands of dollars in debt prevents or delays the average college graduate from getting married and starting a family, which is the institutional bedrock of American society and one of the primary indicators of membership in the Republican Party. Voters who are married, particularly those who also have children, are more likely to vote Republican than unmarried voters. Gallup concluded that “marital status remains one of the most reliable predictors of party identification.” //

The bipartisan Employer Participation in Repayment Act (S.460)—supported by Senator Mitch McConnell, as well as the entire Republican leadership, and 33 of the most conservative lawmakers in the Senate—would allow employers to contribute tax-free dollars towards paying down their employees’ student loans. They already can contribute—tax-free—up to $5,250 annually for workers who are still students; and this bill would expand the benefit to graduates. In total, the bill would save the federal government and taxpayers over $100 billion within this decade.

This is a free-market solution that does not expand the government’s power. Rather, it allows the private sector to help its employees. At the same time, it removes a serious financial barrier and would make it easier for Americans who graduated with student loan debt to start families. //

cosponsored the House’s version of the Senate bill, H.R.1043.