1) Not every column is vindicated by subsequent events but, unhappily, this one in @JNS_org from Monday was: Why the #Georgia Senate runoff hinges on the tribal culture war about @realDonaldTrump.

2) The GOP's loss of both #Georgia Senate runoffs was in part caused by changing demography & weak candidates. But it was also entirely avoidable. Instead of a referendum on #Warnock & #Ossoff, it was a referendum on #Trump.
3) Had the president & those who believe every word he says & every conspiracy theory floated by his acolytes who won't accept the reality that a majority of the nation rejected him, not spent the last two months re-litigating that loss, the Senate would not have been lost.
4) Trump visited GA only twice to campaign in that time & spent both ranting about the delusion that he won instead of trying to ensure that the GOP had the means to prevent a radical transformation of the country that would erase his legacy.
5) Yes, the Dems are hypocrites & there were irregularities & likely some fraud as is the case with every election. But the idea that magical Communist software or mass dumps of illegal votes decided the election was as much of a conspiracy theory as Russian collusion.
6) The problem is that Trump & many of his followers didn't understand that his losing wasn't the end of the republic so long as the GOP held the Senate & was in position to win back the House in 2022 & the White House in 2024.
7) But by obsessing over the myth of his winning when he lost & by foolishly claiming that all elections were frauds despite the fact that Republicans did well in other House & Senate races, Trump & the true believers have now ensured the worst possible outcome for conservatives.
8) Challenging election results isn't an assault on democracy but it treated Trump's rage & sore loser attitude (& yes Dems were sore losers after 2016 as the collusion hoax & impeachment showed) as more important that Republicans fighting for the future of the country.
9) Moving on & showing some class about Nov. 3 wouldn't have been weakness. It would have meant a commitment to future victory. Instead, Trump has engaged in a destructive Gotterdammerung act in which he has dragged the GOP onto his funeral pyre & lost the Senate.
10) Everything that follows from the loss of the Senate & the radical disasters that the Democrats will impose on the nation will not be the fault of RINOs but be the result of Trump's destructive & selfish behavior over the last 2 months.
11) Trump's presidency had its ups & downs but his achievements for conservatives on the courts, the economy, trade & foreign policy were real & deserved to be continued. And might have been if not for the pandemic. But the answer to losing in November was not to blow up the GOP.
12) The Republican Party is not destroyed because nothing is permanent in politics. Given the disaster that a Biden presidency & a Dem Congress is likely to be, its prospects for 2022 & 2024 are still bright.
13) But if Trump & the segment of the party that is going down with the ship with him continued to sink the GOP in a morass of conspiracy theories & denial that led to defeat in Georgia, then the disaster will be complete & possibly permanent.
14) The last two months of conspiracy theories have been a self-fulfilling prophecy for some on the right as they have truly made this a Flight 93 election with implications that are truly frightening.
15) But it didn't have to be that way. By listening to Trump's delusions, they have made it so. And, though they'll never admit it & will continue to deflect & foolishly cast blame elsewhere, what happened in Georgia & the implications of a Dem Senate is on his and their heads.

More from Politics

We’ve been getting calls and outreach from Queens residents all day about this.

The community’s response? Outrage.


Amazon is a billion-dollar company. The idea that it will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks at a time when our subway is crumbling and our communities need MORE investment, not less, is extremely concerning to residents here.

When we talk about bringing jobs to the community, we need to dig deep:
- Has the company promised to hire in the existing community?
- What’s the quality of jobs + how many are promised? Are these jobs low-wage or high wage? Are there benefits? Can people collectively bargain?

Displacement is not community development. Investing in luxury condos is not the same thing as investing in people and families.

Shuffling working class people out of a community does not improve their quality of life.

We need to focus on good healthcare, living wages, affordable rent. Corporations that offer none of those things should be met w/ skepticism.

It’s possible to establish economic partnerships w/ real opportunities for working families, instead of a race-to-the-bottom competition.
This is partly what makes it impossible to have a constructive conversation nowadays. The stubborn refusal to accept that opposition to Trumpism and GOP nationalism is about more than simply holding different beliefs about things in and of itself. 👇


It's fine for people to hold different beliefs. But that doesn't mean all beliefs deserve equal treatment or tolerance and it doesn't mean intolerance of some beliefs makes a person intolerant of every belief which they don't share.

So if I said I don't think Trumpism deserves to be tolerated because it's just a fresh 21st century coat of cheap paint on a failed, dangerous 20th century ideology (fascism) that doesn't mean I'm intolerant of all beliefs with which I disagree. You'd think this would be obvious.

Another important facet. People who support fascist movements tend to give what they think are valid reasons for supporting them. That doesn't mean anyone is obliged to tolerate fascism or accept their proffered excuse.


Say you joined a neighborhood group that sets up community gardens and does roadside beautification projects. All good, right? Say one day you're having a meeting and you notice the President and exec board of this group are saying some bizarre things about certain neighbors.

You May Also Like

I’m torn on how to approach the idea of luck. I’m the first to admit that I am one of the luckiest people on the planet. To be born into a prosperous American family in 1960 with smart parents is to start life on third base. The odds against my very existence are astronomical.


I’ve always felt that the luckiest people I know had a talent for recognizing circumstances, not of their own making, that were conducive to a favorable outcome and their ability to quickly take advantage of them.

In other words, dumb luck was just that, it required no awareness on the person’s part, whereas “smart” luck involved awareness followed by action before the circumstances changed.

So, was I “lucky” to be born when I was—nothing I had any control over—and that I came of age just as huge databases and computers were advancing to the point where I could use those tools to write “What Works on Wall Street?” Absolutely.

Was I lucky to start my stock market investments near the peak of interest rates which allowed me to spend the majority of my adult life in a falling rate environment? Yup.