Feckless RINOs, Phony Dems, & the Mid-Terms (posted 9/21/26)

So Labor Day is over, and the pace of political news is picking up, the way it always does in the last couple of months before a mid-term election.  My gut tells me that the GOP will definitely lose the House, and might possibly lose the Senate, narrowly.  If the polls are close to right, and there aren’t any big momentum changers, that seems to be the smart bet.

On the other hand, I might be cautious, but I am also an optimist, so I haven’t given up hope.   I’ve acknowledged all of the headwinds we’re up against: the decades-long pattern of the party in power losing way more seats than our thin majority margin is now; Trump’s lack of discipline that gives many distracting gifts to our opposition (his name must be on the Kennedy Center, he’s re-naming all of the lakes in North America, etc.); and his inexplicable mishandling of Iran since late April, for example.

Instead of continuing to blast IRGC forces when they were on the ropes (my preference), or having Bessent put the economic vice on them back then instead of waiting until late August, he allowed them almost 4 months of phony negotiations under a cease fire.  We’re back to near-max pressure on them now, but even if they’re soon in their death throes, they’ll survive long enough to be able to spring some kind of low-level October surprise that hurts the GOP chances, and helps the Democrats in November.

It is going to be some bitter irony if the IRGC collapses or gets overthrown between the mid-term and the end of the year, when it does us no electoral good! 

On the positive side of the ledger, between the surging DSA commies and some of the extremist candidates the Dems have nominated, they are doing their best to snatch a few defeats out of the jaws of victory.  It’s hard for me to believe that weirdos like James “I eat meat, but not in a gay way” Talarico will win in Texas, or that Abdul “Allahu Akbar!” el Sayed will win in Michigan (except in Dearbornistan.)  And I think there’s at least a decent chance that conservatives in Iowa and Ohio won’t go for Dems who pretend to be conservative.     

Tallarico had quite the red-flag moment last week.  Someone from the crowd in a press availability asked him in passing who his favorite drag performer is, and without a second’s hesitation Talarico gave the name of someone.  And that someone was not RuPaul.

I only mention RuPaul because even I know that name.  I know he had some kind of tv show, and was around enough in the pop culture zeitgeist that his name would be recognizable even to someone who was not the least bit interested in drag performers. 

But remember that Tallarico is running for a Senate seat in Texas, and that he is a male who identifies as a straight male.  (Seriously.  He allegedly has a girlfriend, but I think she goes to another school.  Possibly in Canada.  But she is super real.)  So you’d think that his team of consultants would have coached him up on this kind of thing.

Most guys would usually be able to quickly drop at least a name or two when asked a “Who is your favorite BLANK?” question in many categories.  You should be able to go 10-deep on your favorite football player.  Actually, you should be able to go 10-deep on your favorite running backs and quarter backs.  I was raised in Illinois, and could be woken up from a sound sleep and go 5 deep on favorite Bears linebackers while barely out of the REM stage.  (The answer is Butkus, then some combo of Urlacher, Singletary, Wilbur Marshall and Otis Wilson, if you’re scoring at home.)

You should have at least 5 top rock guitarists at your fingertips (If Stevie Ray Vaughn is not on that list, you’re dead to me), along with at least 5 country singers (Johnny Cash and George Jones must be two of them), and at least 3 favorite WWII airplanes.  (The judges will accept the Mustang and the Spitfire, and one other of your choosing.)  

If you’re in Texas, you should be able to name a bunch of Cowboys players, a handful of gun makers, several rodeo riders, and at least two favorite whiskeys and your favorite cut of steak. 

But you should never, EVER have a non-RuPaul drag performer’s name chambered and ready to go at the drop of a feathered boa if you’re running for a Senate seat in the great state of Texas!   

It’s not primarily the gayness (which isn’t the campaign killer it would have been a few decades ago) that is the problem.  Scott Bessent is gay, and nobody cares. Because he’s not pretending to be a cattle-driving, brisket-eating, six-gun-toting, Stetson-wearing, he-man Texas ranger.

It’s the transparent dishonesty, with all of the corresponding cringe. 

There are just some groups a candidate shouldn’t know well enough to have an instinctive top-favorites list to blurt out. 

Strippers. K-pop bands.  Illicit drugs of choice.  Porn movies.  Fashion designers. Manga characters.  No grown man running for high office should know any of those, especially not well enough to have them at the tip of his tongue.  

But more than the fish-out-of-water mismatch of a candidate in Texas who could name all of the first-ballot hall of fame drag queens, it’s the phoniness of the whole mess.  Talarico is pretending to be many things – a mainstream Christian, a carnivore, conventionally heterosexual, a Texan, relatable – none of them convincingly.

I know.  Newsflash: politicians – on both sides of the aisle – are phony and dishonest.

But I’ve noticed a depressing pattern in the different ways both sides lie. 

When Republicans lie to their voters, the lie is that they are more conservative than they actually are.  They run as rock-ribbed conservatives, but when they get into office they reveal themselves to be RINOs.  I swear that when they first get to DC and check out their new offices, they find a briefcase on their desk full of pre-written excuses for why it’s actually not possible to cut spending, pass voter ID legislation, deport all illegals, or do most of the other stuff they ran on promising to do.

By contrast, when Democrats lie to their voters, the lie is that they are more moderate than they really are.  Slick Willie says the era of big government is over; Obama says there are no red states or blue states, just the United States; Biden is blue-collar, centrist “Scranton Joe”; Tim Walz is a duck-hunting, football-coaching, military man. 

Then they get into office, and govern like a far-left amalgam of Lenin, Castro and Bernie Sanders.  Which delights their leftist voters – both those who were gullible enough to believe their “we’re normie moderates” schtick, and those cynical enough to know they were lying all along. 

The aggravating results?  Conservatives are always outraged at the leftist wolves in moderates’ wool, who govern much farther left than they said they would, and we’re also infuriated by the feckless RINOs…who govern much farther left than they said they would!

But the motto on the Simpson family crest – I’m not making this up – is “nil desperandum,” Latin for “never despair.” 

And so we shouldn’t.  We’ve got 6 weeks left, and a lot more cash on hand to spread the truth about the DSA Dems and their dysfunctional plans and candidates.  And there are some stories that indicate a few trends that might be moving in our direction.

I’ll talk about those in my next few columns.

Que Mala/Crockett, 2028!

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