President Donald Trump’s Republican Party just suffered the worst midterm defeat since the Obama years, and everyone wants to know who or what is to blame.
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everyone → suffer → who
One popular explanation is that the GOP ran bad candidates, which it did, but that is not why it lost.
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it → run → which
If bad candidates were the deciding factor, the Democrats would have been on the receiving end of the 2026 shellacking.
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Democrats → decide → shellacking
They really rolled out James Talarico, the guy who calls God “non-binary” and is obsessed with “trans children,” and Abdul el Sayed, the terrorist-tied candidate who centered his campaign strategy on blaming Israel for every domestic problem we face — and won!
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we → roll → problem
They ran a woman, Aber Kawas, who literally sported a Hamas headband and blamed America for 9/11 — and won!
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who → run → 9/11
Republicans absolutely rolled out some bad candidates, too.
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Republicans → roll → candidates
I was on record in May saying that the “Winner of Paxton-Cornyn Texas Senate primary runoff” was Talarico after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton defeated Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), handing the radical leftist his best chance to be the first Texas Democrat elected since the 1980s.
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Paxton → say → 1980s
Selecting Vivek Ramaswamy in the Ohio primary was another own goal by Republicans, who leaned into MAGA candidates in an election in which only 25% of voters identified as MAGA.
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% → select → MAGA
But if we’re holding a competition for which party nominated the worst candidates, the Democrats win all day.
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Democrats → hold → candidates
It simply didn’t matter who was on the ticket for the Left as long as it wasn’t a Republican.
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it → matter → Left
It might have helped the GOP in a few states to run better candidates, but this “blue tsunami” was happening regardless.
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tsunami → help → candidates
So why did the Republicans get killed on Tuesday?
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Republicans → kill → Tuesday
I’d argue it wasn’t as much a policy issue as it was a marketing one.
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it → argue → ?
According to the exit polls, 74% of voters considered the Iran war to be a crucial or major factor.
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war → accord → voters
Under no circumstances can a jihadist dictatorship obtain a nuclear weapon.
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dictatorship → obtain → weapon
The public was terrified of Kim Jong Un’s nuclear ambitions a decade ago.
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public → terrify → ambitions
The average consumer does not want to spend thousands of dollars for Stranger Things to look and sound better.
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Things → want → dollars
Yet people would come in looking to spend $500 on a new TV set and leave with the biggest smiles on their faces after spending $20,000 on a surround-sound system.
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people → come → system
What makes someone a good salesman is the ability to demonstrate the value of the product they’re selling.
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they → make → product
He spent more time renaming everything from the Gulf of Mexico (America) to artificial (super) intelligence than he did showing the public the value of his Iran war.
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he → spend → war
The general public will not see the value on its own until it hits home.
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it → see → home
That’s why the public supported World War II after Pearl Harbor or the War on Terror after 9/11.
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public → ’ → 9/11
We don’t need another mass-casualty incident for the public to get on board, but people need to understand the real danger of one.
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people → need → one
Instead of seeing the crisis Trump averted, if only temporarily, by attacking Iran, the public only saw the cost: high gas prices.
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public → see → cost
Any rational person would agree that paying more for gas would be worth it to avoid another Pearl Harbor or 9/11.
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paying → agree → Harbor
Trump’s problem was that he never “showed the value,” so to speak.
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he → show → value
In other words, he didn’t do enough to make the public take the Iran threat seriously.
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public → do → threat
This same problem applies to Trump’s economic and immigration agendas, which I largely agree with, but whose value was not adequately demonstrated to the voting public.
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value → apply → public
The other point of failure was policy-related, and it’s that Trump was frankly not strong enough to finish what he started in Iran.
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he → relate → Iran
The war should have been over quickly and forcefully, with the terrorist regime toppled.
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regime → topple → ?
Instead, Trump took his foot off the gas and rushed to the negotiating table, supposedly at the behest of Vice President JD Vance.
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Trump → take → Vance
In chess terms, Trump had the king dead to rights and blundered into a stalemate.
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king → have → stalemate
Instead of a swift and resounding victory, those short-term consequences became a war of attrition between the blockaded regime and the American public paying $4 a gallon for gas.
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consequences → become → gas
Given the results of the election, it’s safe to say the regime won that battle.
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regime → give → battle
Trump said the reason Republicans lost is that he wasn’t on the ballot.
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he → say → ballot
He’s dead wrong.
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He → ’ → ?
Trump’s ability to sell the public on his agenda was absolutely on the ballot, and Republicans, good and bad candidates alike, paid dearly for it.
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Republicans → sell → it
The Aporia
