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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America break down the news of Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta resigning over the Epstein scandal. They discuss concern amongst Texas Republicans that the Lone Star State may be in play for Democrats in 2020. And they cover AOC’s Chief of Staff admitting the Green New Deal’s true purpose.
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Published in: Elections, Entertainment, Environment, History, Humor, Journalism, Law, Podcasts, Politics
2018 was very bad for TX GOP. I think a lot of that had to do with Betomania lifting all D boats. I don’t see another D pied piper in 2020, thankfully.
Houston and Dallas will be the big battlegrounds down ballot. I have a friend running for state rep in the Houston suburbs and he said the general will be an all out war. Trump will win TX but he doesn’t have long coattails.
I don’t mind ads, but this is the 3rd podcast I’ve listened to where it keeps getting interrupted by that obnoxious Subway guy. Can y’all mix it up on the ads? I’m about ready to commit some violence on that guy with his stupid tuna salad sub (which are one of the worst menu items at Subway).
I like the Subway tuna sandwiches.
Geraghty spent the bulk of the third segment talking about how the behavior of AOC’s Chief of Staff was a procedural and optical misstep — D’ohhhh!!!! — but not about how that misstep exposed the insidiousness of the Left wing agenda.
JG often does this: talks in terms of wonky, operational practicalities whole showing not the slightest interest (or much interest) in the other side’s philosophy or ideology. Very strange.
The discussion did have a curiously naïve quality, when the guys wondered why the media are not interested in the Clinton connection to Jeffrey Epstein, when they were so interested in the Acosta connection.
In addition to garden-variety partisanship, here’s another reason why the media saw forcing Acosta to resign was a high priority: “Acosta is the only Hispanic person to have served in President Trump’s Cabinet.”—Wikipedia.
Wonks fascinate me. But they unnerve me, too, because the culture seems to be secondary for them. It’s almost like it doesn’t exist. Everything is about the politics.
And politics, for them, exists as a kind of sport. The other team did this and got a guy on base — uh oh! — but then our team did that and got the guy out! Yessss! What a great game!
For wonks, it is all procedural. Operational. But the wider implications of what is being discussed, and how this compares to what was being discussed (and acceptable, or not acceptable) 20 years ago … and what this implies for the future of the culture … is a matter of utter indifference to them.
You bring such things up to them, and they look at you in momentary confusion (“Huh?!”). And then can’t wait to change the subject.
And JG, while very bright, is a total wonk.
“It’s almost like it [culture] doesn’t exist.” As the saying goes, fish can’t see water: Jim and Greg swim in the culture and unconsciously accept its assumptions, for the most part.
People who are considered conservatives (especially the squishy, anti-Trump kind) are usually products of the liberal culture, themselves. They differ from that culture only here and there, on points where they happen to be unusually well-informed. Typically, they accept the liberal narrative on race, and on American history in general.
Consider me a grand exception, then. I’m in the Long/Goldberg/Williamson camp where Trump is concerned, but I flatly reject the Progressive narrative on race and U.S history, not to mention PC and American exceptionalism.
In fact, politics as a rule bores the hell out of me because I see politics, ultimately, as the procedural expression of the culture.
And the culture — as Andrew Breitbart famously said — is what politics lies downstream from.
Lose the culture war today, and lose elections tomorrow. A lot of them. And all the important ones.
So it’s all about the culture for me. Which is why the polling on Millennials (the oldest of whom are now in their 30s) and Generation Z’ers (much younger) scares the bejeesis out of me.