Vance's Explanation for the GOP's Midterm Disaster Is a Little Too Neat and Tidy

Vance's Explanation for the GOP's Midterm Disaster Is a Little Too Neat and Tidy

Jennifer Van LaarFollow @jenvanlaar

Kenny Holston/The New York Times via AP, Pool

Vice President JD Vance has weighed in on Tuesday night's bruising election results, claiming in a lengthy X post that the reason behind the Republican Party's devastation is that people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in the midterm, and that they did so because they were dissatisfied with the war with Iran, the United States' relationship with Israel, and felt there was a lack of focus on the cost of living/inflation.

Vance said the data analysts on the GOP side believed the Trump/Vance 2024 electorate was going to turn out to vote in the midterm, so the White House was optimistic. But Vance asked "the smartest data guy" he knows if that meant the GOP would "shock the world," meaning, buck the trend that the party holding the White House loses seats in the midterm election. Vance said that, according to that person, "the data is telling us that a lot of Trump/Vance 2024 voters are pissed and planning to vote for the other guys."

He then said that "another pollster - one of the smartest people I know in politics - told me yesterday we’d lose the generic ballot by 13 points." And wouldn't ya know it, that unnamed pollster also found that Trump/Vance 2024 voters were dissatisfied and were going to vote for Democrats, but this pollster gave Vance a convenient list of things poll respondents said would make them vote for the GOP again. That list:

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

Vance concluded that, "The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night." Yes, in a late-night call to Fox News' election desk, President Trump did say that the Iran war contributed to last night's losses, but he also placed a lot of blame on candidates who didn't do enough to help themselves or didn't know how to tell a compelling story about why people should vote for them.

That's not to say that the war in Iran wasn't a major factor, or that cost of living (especially at the pump) wasn't a major factor. According to exit polls, those were the issues most cited by voters as the reason for their vote. But it's not that they were totally against the war with Iran; they were against the length and the sustained high gas prices (emphasis mine):

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For all of the things that will be written about this election, the bottom line is that Trump waged the kind of war he said he wouldn't get into — one that is dragging on, raising gas prices and piling on people who were already feeling the pinch — and now he is paying the price.

In Vance's estimation, the GOP has lost the Senate for six years as a result of this election — which could end up being true, but is a very bold prediction to make today — and blames that on people who supported taking out the mullahs, many of whom are not neocons. There's a solid core of Gen X conservatives who have wanted the mullahs handled for a very long time, in large part because of how many members of our generation were killed, maimed, or suffer from debilitating PTSD because of Iran's support of terrorism for the last 47 years.

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.

Trump seems to think it was worth it.

Even assuming that the data and polling showed these numbers and results (we have no way to check his assertions), to believe that the takeaway is that we shouldn't have bombed Iran or taken action to prevent them from having a nuclear weapon is absurd. The problem is that Trump told us in February that the war would only last for four to six weeks, and here we are in November still paying astronomical prices for gas and seemingly without a plan or an end date.

If the Vice President wants to blame the electoral losses on the war, then he should take some responsibility for the messaging, and for the failed ceasefire, which had the effect of just dragging things out.

Likewise, it seems that Vance is blaming the concerns about cost of living and inflation on the war, which is simplistic. Yes, gas prices soared this year because of it, but there's a heck of a lot more to that story, and the Republicans in charge — including Vance — did a piss-poor job of telling it, and have done a bad job with it since the administration took office, starting with tariffs. As Spencer Pratt said today, in an insightful thread on X:

It is 100% true that everything's too damn expensive, and we all know that inflated prices are always sticky. Does anyone know that it's entirely the result of shutting down the global economy over the flu and (both naive republicans and democrats) printing infinity dollars for several years? Nope...because nobody has effectively told that story, and it's an unsexy story to tell. 

With projected growth of 5%, the economy right now is stronger than it's been in generations. Is that the story you hear? Nope. Is that the vibe you feel? Absolutely not, especially when every time you fill up your gas tank, it feels like a diesel enema.

At the end of his post, Vance said that he remained hopeful about our country and urged people who are angry about the election results to channel that anger into the work of saving our country. On that, we can all agree.

https://redstate.com/jenvanlaar/2026/11/04/jd-vance-midterm-explanation-n2209025

New Study Finds Modern SAT Is Practically for Illiterates. That Was the Commies’ Plan.

New Study Finds Modern SAT Is Practically for Illiterates. That Was the Commies’ Plan.

Catherine SalgadoFollow @CatSalgado32

AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File

A new study has found that the vocabulary and reading standards to take and achieve a decent score on the SAT have dropped astronomically in the last few decades. As someone who personally took two different versions of the test and saw this happening in real time, this does not surprise me. But in the long run, this is exactly what the Marxists who took over American education wanted.

We all know that American education has been losing quality over at least the last 50 years, if not even before that. The education my grandmother received in high school was better than most college education today, and in all honesty, I have seen grade school tests from American frontier days that I would barely pass (and I had a much better than average modern education). 

Nathan Hale and Alexander Hamilton came out of college able to hold debates in Latin, and now many people with master’s degrees don’t have a grasp of basic English grammar. There are math professors who use AI because they can’t solve their own equations, and English teachers who haven’t read a book in years. There are science teachers in public school who claim that it is possible to change one’s biological sex, and there are history teachers who assert that the 1619 Project isn’t bunk. Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research stated this year that American test scores are in a generation-long decline, and last year, math and reading scores hit record lows. Even Ivy League schools have to offer an increasing number of students remedial courses, and now we have this report from Thomas Aquinas College.

TAC compared SAT tests from 1980, 1987, and 2026. The reading section in particular has changed drastically in that time. Instead of challenging students in order to identify the best academics, the standardized test is now aimed at making it as easy as possible for as many students as possible to eke out a decent grade, even if they didn’t put in much effort.

    •    Shorter passages, less than a third of their former length

    •    A sharp drop in the number of vocabulary questions requiring independent word knowledge, from 60 per test to 10

    •    The near elimination of argumentative and persuasive readings from the test, replaced by expository texts

    •    Replacing reading passages that assumed prior knowledge and understanding on the part of the reader with texts that reveal their meanings through contextual clues

This was all on purpose. Of course, it is true that many teachers and professors now are much less qualified and much more ignorant than teachers and professors of the past, so that means that standards for college students automatically drop. It is also true that colleges have decided to become woke propaganda mills and trade schools. Instead of studying geometry, astronomy, and the classics of Western civilization, students can choose from hundreds of majors that include such nonsense as LGBTQ Studies, Victim Studies, Social Media Communication, Puppetry, Feminist and Queer Theory, Floral Management, and Pop Culture. 

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Thomas Sowell has written many times on the subject of how socialists turned universities into essentially a woke certification program for numerous jobs that should never have required a degree. Furthermore, the idea of sending as many people to college as possible is to ensure that all these young people come out with the same political and cultural views, ones which are poisonous to America. 

This is why a record number of young people (62%) favor socialism over capitalism, not because they have any idea what either means, but because they have all been told in school and at college that socialism is marvelous. Only about four in 10 young Americans are proud to be American, as of 2025. Also in 2025, 60% of Gen Z Americans said they supported Hamas, a literal terrorist group, over Israel. These are the voters who will determine the future of America, and universities have turned them into Jew-hating, America-loathing, socialist activist morons.

At least as of the 1930s, but really beginning the decade before with the Frankfurt School, Communists were beginning to have a significant impact on and presence in American education. Power Mentor states:

Throughout the 20th century, Marxist revolutionaries recognized that a direct violent uprising was unlikely to succeed in the United States. Instead, they developed a strategy based on infiltrating and subverting key cultural institutions—particularly the education system, the media, and civic organizations. By gradually influencing thought leaders, teachers, journalists, and policymakers, they intended to reshape American society from the inside out, replacing its capitalist foundations with collectivist ideology.

This strategy, often referred to as the "Long March Through the Institutions," originated from European Marxist thinkers but found fertile ground in post-war America. 

Communist countries often have higher literacy rates than other Third World countries, but only so that the citizens can imbibe packaged propaganda. Similarly, our socialists and elitists want an American population that is ignorant, entitled, emotional, unskilled, and therefore easily manipulated.

https://pjmedia.com/catherinesalgado/2026/10/31/new-study-finds-modern-sat-is-practically-for-illiterates-that-was-the-commies-plan-n4958889?utm_source=pjmediavip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm

It's Been Quite the Embarrassing Week for Obama As He Makes Another Foolish Move

It's Been Quite the Embarrassing Week for Obama As He Makes Another Foolish Move

Nick AramaFollow @nickaramaOG

AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki

Barack Obama has been making appearances as we come down the stretch in the elections.

But for someone who has such a high opinion of himself, it's turned out to be an embarrassing turn on a few different levels. 

As we reported, he came out to support Democrat candidates like Abdul El-Sayed for the Senate race in Michigan, saying how important his healthcare message was. But then that just reminded everyone how much Obama had screwed up healthcare. Why would we want to go down that road again with the even worse version that El-Sayed wanted to foist on us? 

Then, too, Obama blundered with his Cheesecake Factory joke, reinforcing to everyone what a snotty elitist he was while trying to slam President Donald Trump's renovations at the White House. It also reminded people of the monstrosity that he himself was responsible for — his presidential center in Chicago that, in the words of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, "looked like Darth Vader's tomb."

While he was poking his head out of his elitist bubble on the other matters, Obama also managed to stick his nose into the big news of the multiple investigations going on into Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-05). There appear to be a variety of different things the feds are looking into, and they even raided her D.C. home on Oct. 12. Reports indicate they are looking into immigration and financial disclosure questions. So you would think prudence would dictate to Obama that he wait before inserting himself into the matter. 

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But Obama leapt right in, terming the investigation of Omar "appalling."

“Federal agents have raided her home, confiscated personal records, and seized her phone — all to try and uncover a nonexistent smoking gun from 20 years ago that will somehow make their case,” the 44th president posted on X.

“Think about that. The full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticize the president.” [....]

“The fact that any president, or any administration, is willing to engage in such transparent efforts to intimidate someone should outrage all Americans, regardless of how they feel about Congresswoman Omar’s political views,” Obama went on.

“Because if this becomes the new normal, there’s no reason to believe it will stop with her — or that future presidents, in either party, won’t do the same.”

Imagine Barack Obama, of all people, having the temerity to make any comment about going after an opponent. 

But what's truly funny here is there was another small problem with this whole effort on Obama's part to take umbrage at a president's administration investigating Omar. 

Guess who first started looking into the questions around Omar? As we reported, it was federal agents during Barack Obama's administration when Omar was running for the state legislature in Minnesota in 2016 who looked into the questions surrounding the allegations that one of her prior husbands, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, was also her brother and that there might be immigration issues. 

As The New York Times reported (interestingly committing some more journalism): 

The F.B.I. and Department of Homeland Security investigated the marriage in summer 2016, during the Obama administration, and found some evidence that it was fraudulent, current and former officials said. [....]

They found evidence suggesting that Mr. Elmi and Ms. Omar were siblings, according to the six former and current officials familiar with the case. But, because prosecutors did not pursue the matter, the agents had limited investigative tools, the officials said.

Was that an "effort to intimidate" Omar under you then, Barack Obama? Of course not. Just like the investigations aren't that now. But it's interesting the federal investigators didn't go further then, or were stopped from going into all the other questions we see being raised now. It sounds like there was a lot to find — if one just looked a little beyond the prior husband. 

How embarrassing that Obama has taken the position that he has now, given how federal agents under him allegedly found evidence regarding the allegations about her prior husband. He went out on a limb for Omar, only to have his own administration's investigation cut that limb out from under him. He just made himself look foolish now defending her. 

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2026/10/30/its-been-quite-the-embarrassing-week-for-obama-as-he-makes-another-foolish-move-n2208837?utm_source=rsmorningbriefingvip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

About Last Night: The Silver Lining, and the Path Forward

About Last Night: The Silver Lining, and the Path Forward

A.J. Christopher

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Well, looks like we lost the midterms. This isn’t the first time this has happened, and it won’t be the last. But now comes the wailing, the gnashing of teeth, the rendering of garments, and the Game of Thrones-length winter that will settle over the Republican mood.

Here I will offer two assessments.

First, don’t worry about a Democratic Congress. Why? Because they’ll blow it. They don’t have a veto-proof majority, so the smart thing to do would be to try and compromise with Republicans to get some common-sense legislation passed.

But they won’t do that. They’ll ram through bills to defund ICE, to stop the wall construction, to promote abortion, to protect failing schools, to glorify criminality and lawlessness, to sell out American workers to illegals, to pander to their Jihadi Caucus, and to protect creepy men who cheat in women’s sports and hang out in women’s bathrooms. And President Trump will veto every piece of articulated lunacy they place on his desk.

They’ll also waste their political capital pretty quickly by running endless investigations, and probably another impeachment or two, against President Trump. They’re already doing this. Less than 24 hours after their victory, Democrat lawmakers are already warning Trump to “Lawyer up.” Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) had one word: "Subpoenas." This is not what most Americans, even many Democrats, want to see the next two years spent on.

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And the “moderate” voters will be reminded, yet again, that while Trump’s tweets may be mean, at the end of the day, his agenda is their agenda, and it makes more sense to vote based on policy, not hurt feelings. By November 2028, voters will be sick of Democrat fanaticism and obstructionism and will be primed to give newly-elected President Rubio or Vance a conservative legislature.

My second assessment is that we need to properly assess why we lost. I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that the Republican Party handles its midterm post-mortems very differently than the Democrat Party. When Republicans lose the midterms, the response of party leaders is to moderate our positions to be more likeable to moderates and centrist Democrats. It never works.

When Democrats lose the midterms, the response of party leaders is to triple down on crazy. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t. But the point is that they don’t budge an inch on anything. And when they eventually do win, they credit it to having tripled down on crazy.

We can blame low voter turnout, but the fact is that voters need a reason to turn out. There are two main arguments that always determine whether or not Republicans show up to vote. One argument is to hold your nose and vote for the RINOs and nancy boys, on the premise that their lukewarm-at-best support is still preferable to letting the Alphabet People run the show. The other argument is to make a stand on principle, to not vote the RINOs back in over and over again because losing an election is the only way to get rid of them for good, and that next election we’ll run candidates who possess courage and conviction.

I hear the arguments on both sides, and they are both valid. And this midterm election, the second argument won the day.

If I could offer a single piece of advice to the Trump administration, it would be this: Finish off the ayatollahs and the IRGC. What could and should have been a Venezuela 2.0 last spring has devolved into a No-Fly-Zone-Over-Iraq 2.0 with our naval blockade, tit-for-tat strikes, and no end in sight. Forget a “deal” and eradicate this cancer once and for all. This focus on trying to bargain with these sociopaths is, to me, inexplicable. And it probably kept enough Republicans away from the voting booth yesterday.

But let’s see the silver lining behind all this. Let’s use these two years as an opportunity. We’ve cleaned house of Tom Tillis, Bill Cassidy, Thomas Massie, Susan Collins, and John Fitzpatrick. They took the walk of shame after failing to learn the lessons of Ben Sasse, Lynne Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, and Justin Amash. For the moment, John Thune and Lisa Murkowski remain, but the message the Republican leaders should be hearing is clear: The path to victory lies not in moving to the center or colluding with Democrats; the path to victory lies in growing a spine and legislating with the same devotion to conservatism as you campaigned on.

President Trump instinctively knows this. His message this morning was one of defiance, with one White House official stating, "Trump's resolve to fight Democrats will only grow stronger. Buckle up." Good. A Bush or a Romney would have rolled over and played Good Infidel.

For now, the left is taking a brief respite from rioting and burning and shooting to celebrate. Let them. They’ve won a pyrrhic victory, nothing more. They’ll whoop and holler about the death of MAGA, about democracy and tolerance and accountability and everything they don’t actually believe in. They’ll veer hard to the left, they'll refuse to appoint Trump’s judicial and cabinet picks, and everything will be deadlocked for two years. But is that any different than what’s been happening for the last two years?

The left will show the country who they really are. There won't be much about health care or climate change. There will be a lot about illegals, the LGBTQ clown car, and the global intifada. Trump and the Republican minority will correctly be seen as the last line of defense holding back the leaking dam of lunacy. If we play the optics right, if we elect strong candidates for the next election, and if we don’t get in the way of the Democrats making fools of themselves, we’ll be in a good position for 2028.

The saying goes that things get worse before they get better. Well, things just got worse. But they will get better.

In the meantime, make the peace and tell the truth.

https://pjmedia.com/aj-christopher/2026/11/04/about-last-night-the-silver-lining-and-the-path-forward-n4959002?utm_source=twdailyamvip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl