Monergistic Christian — Podcaster @EchoZoe — Stay-at-home Dad — Architect — Pilot — Average guy
Minneapolis, MN
Joined March 2007
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For Leftists, politics is their religion. The answer isn’t Conservative politics, it’s the Gospel.
I met Harry Niska about 12-15 years ago. He was not in government at the time, just an activist.
@JackTomczak was doing the evening radio show (The Late Debate) at KTLK at the time, before he & Ben got moved up to the morning show. They did an hour-long podcast-only "after-show" and Jack invited me on after a Twitter discussion about legislating morality. Jack had said, "you can't legislate mortality." I had responded that morality is the only thing that can be legislated. Harry was there too, and he debated the same side of the issue with me.
I don't necessarily agree with Niska on all of the political issues he debates at the Capitol, but I like him being there. Glad to hear he's going to be the GOP leader. If Minnesota isn't too far gone for the GOP to get another House Majority someday, I'd like to see him as Speaker.
Andy Olson retweeted
Believers, commit yourselves faithfully to a biblical local church.
Isolated sheep are easy targets for the enemy.
The takeaway from the election is that Trump had to choose between letting Iran have a nuke and letting Communists take over the USA. It's what @dbongino calls "a level 10 decision."
The problem is that without them, the GOP isn't big enough to beat the Democrats. They're like the Democrats without the DSA. Keeping them around is politically toxic, but cutting them loose is politically deadly.
Andy Olson retweeted
Hey Protest vote no vote folks, it’s going great so far Right? 🤦🏼♂️
“Democrats don’t want your Guns”
Ooopsie 🤷🏼♂️hey @jamie_raskin South Carolina has a 2A ordinace law on the books.
Molon Labe Nickel Dick 🫡
Andy Olson retweeted
Dear @JDVance,
You warned on Wednesday that the next few months would bring a lot of gaslighting. Then you wrote the first draft.
Your post says any honest conversation must start with the war. Great. Since April you have been the administration’s lead negotiator, which makes you the owner of the track that turned a seven-week bombing campaign into an eight-month stalemate. Every week of ceasefire that was not a peace kept the Strait a question mark and kept diesel where eighty-seven percent of voters said they could feel it. Had you spent the spring arguing for the one hour the President says it would take instead of extending the stalemate, the war would have been over by summer, the pump would have said so, and you would be writing a different post. You promised no forever war. You then built a ceasefire with no exit, and sat on it for seven months. Tell voters what settlement you believed was achievable, what deadlines mattered, and what the administration planned to do if negotiations failed.
You say you know a great many of the smartest people in politics, but not one of them has a name. (Tucker?) At least one of them cannot count (also Tucker?), because on your list of four things, items one and two are the same item, and item three is a bumper sticker. Item four is the only entry that names a country, and it is not the country we are at war with.
(BTW I can guess where item four came from. Days ago @TuckerCarlson wrote that the administration was considering striking Pickaxe Mountain under pressure from Netanyahu, on the strength of Israeli intelligence. That is your fourth item, written out in full. No one had to poll for it. It was posted.)
The poll itself. “Change our relationship to Israel” is broad enough to mean several incompatible things. What did those voters actually say? Did they spontaneously mention Israel? Were they offered a list? What percentage selected that answer? Were they objecting to this war, particular Israeli policies, American assistance, or the alliance itself? Why not publish the questionnaire, the sample, the percentages, and the crosstabs.
By contrast, the networks published their exit polls. The issues voters were asked about were the economy, democracy, immigration, corruption, the Iran war and artificial intelligence. Israel did not need a column, because voters were not voting about Israel. The sole evidence that the American electorate rendered a verdict on Israel is a phone call between you and a man you will not identify.
Contrast your response with @realDonaldTrump’s. Asked about your post, he acknowledged the war’s electoral cost and said he would make the decision again because long term it's the only answer. Agree or disagree, he defended his decision.
In July, you yourself said America would have fought this war without Israeli influence. You explained that the president independently opposed an Iranian nuclear weapon—and that you agreed.
Now your post finds room for an unnamed pollster’s undefined grievance against Israel, but none for an accounting of your own decisions as the administration’s lead negotiator.
Name the pollster. Publish the questions and the results. Tell voters which decisions you supported, which you opposed, and which you would reverse.
The President answered for his decision. That is leadership. If you want to be a leader, you need to be able to answer for yours.
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.
Reposted not because I agree with any insinuation towards violence, but because I agree that it's unfortunate that the Left seems to have figured out how to make it work.
Andy Olson retweeted
Charlie Kirk was assassinated, the left spent two years mocking his death, and the Democrats won in a landslide.
The Weathermen bombed the Capitol, and their founder ended up as a professor and advisor to president Obama.
It's unfortunate, but violence seems to work.
Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
Revelation 19:6–8 (ESV)