The Price You Pay for Wielding Semi-Illegitimate Power
Not All Shots Score the Same
In this time of lost submersibles and rouge Russian warlords, it is important to keep an eye on the domestic political scoreboard. Also, it’s almost midnight in New Orleans and the heat index is still like 120, so I’m going to stay right here on this couch and try not to move. Last year, right after the midterms, I wrote up the political order of battle leading up to 2024. I tried to lay out where the political energy was for the Blue and Red teams, as well as their likely moves and biggest liabilities.
The hyper-condensed version is this: for the GOP, the Supreme Court, the Freedom Caucus, and Texas & Florida was where all the action was going to be. The plan was to focus on immigration, inflation, government spending, and “anti-woke” social wedge issues. Basically, the GOP wanted to nationalize the DeSantis for Governor campaign. If the U.S. entered a recession (even if House Republicans had to give it a little push) and the Freedom Caucus could manufacture enough scandal and doubt about President Biden’s age and son, 2024 could see a return of the Republican trifecta.
The biggest, most-apparent dangers for the GOP came from Trump, judicial and legislative overreach, and blowback. Many ideas now deemed essential by the former president and the MAGA…
