Howdy,
Welcome to another new “newsletter,” Never Trump From the Jump. I’m going to focus this little thang on my political views. If you’re not a Never Trumper or aren’t interested, no worries—you can go to settings and deselect getting these articles.
I promise. It won’t hurt my feelings.
Over the past few weeks, Harris has started to plateau. I think my mentor,
, is correct - Harris has a 55% chance of winning. Here’s his latest masterpiece:If Trump wins by meaningfully increasing his share of the electorate, despite everything—the insurrection, saying he wants to be a dictator, talking about terminating the Constitution, the criminal convictions, the full-blown mental lapses, the chaotic and disorganized campaign, the talented younger opponent, the good economy—
Well, that will teach us something about America.
And it will strip away every excuse and illusion we have that might cause us to resist such a lesson.
If it comes to that, it won’t be very nice.
But it will be useful. It’s always better to understand reality than to delude yourself with sentiment.
As someone who came up in the conservative movement — reform-a-cons 4 life— I’m a free-market, neo-con to my core. Further, most of my bros in the military are either pro-Trump or are anti-anti-Trump. Not all, but most. Lastly, as a Texan, I was raised with MAGA adjacent people my whole life.
I love politics. Seriously. Ugh. Growing up, I was the kid who read The National Review, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, and The Atlantic.
I’ll still bet on Harris, but I’m not as confident as I used to be.
Why? Why might she lose? I have some theories. Feel free to disagree with me, seriously—-but do it with respect. I do not care if you’re pro-MAGA or part of the #resistance. There was a time in this country when we didn’t hate one another over politics. Someday, I’d like that to return, and it will be in this little newsletter here.
Without further ado. .
1. Biden
I’ll be honest: I loathe Joe Biden. You can lecture me all you want about turning the other cheek and all that gentile shit, but I’m not a man from the New Testament. Whatever you may think of him, I hate him for retreating from Afghanistan. It’s personal for me. In short, I’m a GCV, and I can hate him if I want to!
Nevertheless, I was still going to vote for him—but with hate in my heart! While I’m nowhere near as bullish on Biden as JVL, I don’t dismiss some of his accomplishments, but I’ll take George W. Bush any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
All that being said, he should’ve declined to run for re-election in 2022. You know it. C’mon. I’ll let one of the smartest voices in politics,
, make the case for me.Joe Biden has always been loyal to afault, and undoubtedly,y he would feel a tremendous amount of loyalty to Kamala Harris. But two things should give him pause: (1) Her 20 months in office have not been successful, even by vice presidential standards. And (2) having Biden endorsing her would do Harris no favors in the long term, because if she can’t win the nomination on her own, then she probably wouldn’t stand much of a chance against Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis.
She wrote this in 2022. She begged Biden to get out of the race—but he didn’t because of his vanity.
I hate primaries. I think they’re part of the problem with — gestures wildly— the shitshow that is American life. I think both parties should pick their candidates, which would rob the base (mostly lunatics) of both parties from choosing our general election candidates. Nevertheless, I’m a GCV, so I understand that will never happen.
Regardless, doing the ol’ switch-a-roo six months before the main event left a bad taste in many people’s mouths (not me, but a lot).
Should Harris lose to the Orange G*d King, then this talk about Biden being the best president of our lifetime will come to a screeching halt. Don’t forget who killed Joe Biden.
Everyone knew he was too old. In the age of social media, his mental acuity was exacerbated by all the horrors of our interconnected world. There’s no guarantee that another candidate would’ve been better than Harris, who I think has done a very good job playing a very weak hand, but the optics of the entire ordeal would’ve been more in line with a party that keeps on (correctly) talking about norms.
Walz
Walz seems like a decent man. I don’t share his politics. However, he served honorably in the Army and is beloved by the Democratic base. That ain’t nothin’. And if Harris were running against Haley, it wouldn’t bother me much.
However, suppose you’re inclined to believe that Trump represents a possible existential threat to the country, as Robert Kagan believes. In that case, you choose the option that gives you the most straightforward path to victory.
That option was on the table.
Go ahead and start getting mad. It’s ok. Let the hate flow through you.
The fact remains—as
& both attest—Shapiro was there with his 64% approval rating (it’s dropped since) and it would’ve almost certainly taken Pennsylvania off the board.Maybe picking Shapiro would’ve caused more Dems to flirt with anti-Semites like Jill Stein and Cornell West. Who knows?
But I know one thing: Shapiro wasn’t picked because he took a stand against anti-semitic college protesters. You don’t have to take my word for it.
Maybe Van Jones is wrong. He’s been wrong before, but I don’t think so.
In the end, Harris made a serious mistake by not taking the easy five-meter target. It was there. Sure, he had liabilities—two lawyers on one ticket are two too many (J/K
), but he’s got the goods.
Walz’s VP debate performance wasn’t great. Feel free to loathe JD Vance. I think he’s a worm who served honorably for the USMC. But he’s just better at debating than Walz. Further, the Swiftboat attack-style attacks at the dawn of Walz’s selection reeked of a campaign that hadn’t done its homework. That’s partly Biden’s fault for leaving the field too early, but that’s also on Harris because she did not learn from history.
Unlike 2016 & 2020, Trump has learned from his mistakes and brought in Chris LaCivita—and he’s a killer (also an enormous douchebag), but I think Harris didn’t respect her opponent on this choice.
In the end, Harris is still likely to win (barely), and Walz might turn out to be the greatest selection of all time (unlikely). However, if she loses Pennsylvania.
Bruh—You had Shapiro.
Some will say, Will, what the fuck do you know about political messaging. Of the American version — nada.
However, I supported tactical, operational, and strategic influence operations. One of the first rules of influence operations is to take the easy kill in a knife fight, and Harris is in a knife fight with Trump.
People Love Strongmen
I thought about putting sexism and racism in my top 4. I have no doubt that there is still a segment of the population that won’t vote for a Black woman. What is that? 10%? I don’t know. But it ain’t 1%. Just like more than 1% of the Democratic Party hates Jews.
It’s there.
However, I think most Americans don’t understand the appeal of a strongman. I’ve fought alongside some rather unsavory characters. They were son-of-a-bitches, but they were my son-of-a-bitches.
Let’s take my Afghan grandfather, Haji Zahir Khan (HZK). I learned a lot about life from him. We weren’t incredibly close; he had better relations with the Special Forces Team Leader, but he knew me. I was an advisor for the district governor (who is almost certainly dead), but I also focused on tribal engagements.
HZK was the Ghorak Popalzai elder. His brother was a bigger deal, but he had fallen ill and handed the reins to his younger brother. HZK’s family was close to Hamid Karzai, the former Afghan President whom Americans used to love but then turned on because he was corrupt.
Anyway, HZK was no angel—he was an ally. I wouldn’t want HZK running America. We’re an advanced first-world Western democracy—or Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD). HZK’s way wouldn’t work. He ruled with the gun. Like it or not, but that was the way out in the hinterlands of Kandahar.
Nevertheless, people flocked to him because he provided them with security. He gave their lives some predictability. Now, Donald Trump doesn’t have the amount of blood on his hands that HZK did. DJT has never done the work. He had other people do it for him.
Nevertheless, Donald J. Trump is a gangsta. He loves Putin and Little Rocket Man. This is known. If you don’t think that his lavish praise of these murderers is a bit much, then that’s fine—you do you, booboo. But for me, it’s not befitting of a modern American President who is the leader of the free world (or we used to be).
Yes, FDR played around with Stalin, and that worked, but those were different times. We’re not in a world war—not yet. But with Ukraine, we’re talking about Europe. If we lose Europe or let Putin keep parts of Ukraine, then he will have won. He will have won like he did in Georgia (2008), Ukraine (2014), Syria’s Civil War, and Afghanistan. He will have won like he did at the Helsinki Summit. This is known. I hate Putin and would consider it an honor to kill him.
Nevertheless, he’s a very worthy adversary who is getting quite close to killing NATO from within. Should Trump win the Presidency, will NATO survive?
No. I don’t think so.
But none of that bothers anyone because Trump knows how to manipulate social media into believing he’s a rich, successful person (which he kinda is). His superpower is his shamelessness and understanding of social media. He knows how to work with a camera and a crowd, which are lessons he most definitely learned in the WWE.
Say what you want about him. This picture is the stuff that would make every fucking strongman green with envy.
Afghanistan
Yep, I’m aware of the Doha Agreement. I’m about to publish something about it very soon (this Wednesday, inshallah).
But Biden followed through with it even though it had no legal standing. Nobody forced him to follow that “agreement” with a terrorist organization. He could’ve thrown it in the ashbin of history. He didn’t and then executed one of the most disastrous NEOs in American history.
Sorry. Trump didn’t do that. Biden did that.
This is a good article by James Cook. Now, I completely disagree with his conclusion that it was wise to retreat from Afghanistan. He’s not a terrorism expert and doesn’t know jack shit about the Taliban or Al Qaeda. But, I provide you with his thoughts, so you understand that even those who think it was the right move are saying it crippled him.
The next president of the United States will inherit a wide array of foreign policy challenges that will require difficult choices and tradeoffs. Although national interests and strategy can (and should) guide these decisions, the Afghanistan withdrawal serves as a reminder they also produce political consequences. While President Biden’s emotional address to the nation formalized the end of his political re-election campaign, his political misfortune began years earlier with the calamitous events in Afghanistan and the associated stigma of “strategic failure” after nearly two decades of conflict. Although his foreign policy legacy can be framed by an unwavering support for democracy and the global order, as well as an enduring commitment to alliances and partnerships in a time of tremendous strategic uncertainty and conflict, he will always be associated with this tragic episode in U.S. history.
If you agree that Biden was wise to retreat from Afghanistan, I get it. The military did a horrible job and so did our civilian leaders. Nevertheless, Biden’s retreat led to this:
We are all to blame for Afghanistan. All of us. Myself very much included.
Nevertheless, maybe Americans just don’t like getting humiliated on the world stage?
Let James Cook tell these Afghans that Biden did the right thing. And since VP Harris refuses to distance herself from this debacle, then she’s buying it too. Now, I will guess she’s doing it because she (incorrectly) thinks it will create problems instead of showing some spine.
LOL. Good luck, bruh.
All right, sports fans, that’s the first salvo. Leave me some comments. Be respectful. Dissent with respect. We’re all friends here.
Basically, I love the fact that you have illustrated this post so richly. But I went to art school, so I gotta be a critic.
Grumpy Combat Veteran Crying
This picture cannot possibly represent you. Clearly, you failed to tell the AI image generator that you live 5 miles inside the border of insanity. This man has clearly never lost his mind—I do admit he's somewhat worn out. Also, his eyes are dry. They should at least be red and swollen. Damn, his uniform isn't even dirty.
Putin's Grave
Why is no one pissing on Putin's grave? Why aren't there piss and shit stains all over the grave?
If you gave prompts to create these images, I suggest you might want to try again. Also, tell me what program you use to generate these images 'cause I want to try it out!
Pictures of Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris are good!
I love your writing. I am curious to know if you know that Josh Shapiro more or less helped cover up/ignored/tried to bury a prominent Republican aide sexually harassing (and retaliating against) an employee? It was huge nonstop news in PA for quite a while. Shapiro fired the guy (months later) and quietly settled for almost 300K (you know where that money came from). If Harris had picked him, it may have complicated the misogyny that is in many ways already driving certain voters to Trmp (I won't spell his name, he thrives on heat as The Bulwark has argued and I see no reason to make his online footprint bigger). My personal pick was Mark Kelly but I think you are being too critical of her not picking Shapiro. It was not as obvious of a pick as it seemed.
I thank you for your perspective on Afghanistan. To me Biden more than made up for it with the job he did with Russia and Ukraine, as well as the economy. But I understand it is personal for you and that makes sense. I would point out the horrors happening in Sudan and gently suggest that America (and her soldiers) cannot fix it all. I continue to be enraged that we have not processed all of the SIV recipients and gotten those who helped our military into America, but as to the rest I could drive myself insane imagining the way women and children especially live in various areas of the world.
I've never understood the military's support for Trmp. Your answer would be that the way Biden left Afghanistan trumps Trmp's blatant disrespect for veterans and for democracy?