Source: The American Conservative
by Luke Nicastro
“Over at the New York Times last week, the conservative commentator and editor of Compact Matthew Schmitz pronounced Vice President J.D. Vance the ‘biggest loser’ of the midterm elections. Despite the popular endorsement of Vance’s own view of the war—viz., that it was an egregious mistake that should be corrected posthaste—Schmitz found in the blue tsunami only downside for the vice president. ‘J.D. Vance Is Probably Toast,’ ran the headline. … reports of Vance’s political demise are greatly exaggerated. In fact, the further we get from the initial shock and hysteria of the midterm massacre, the better his prospects look.” (11/10/26)
“While proponents of a wealth tax proved unsuccessful at the polls in their efforts to downsize the billionaires, it seems the financial markets are doing the job for them. The S&P 500 index fell 4.4 percent on Thursday, more than reversing its post-election rally on Wednesday. The NASDAQ dropped 5.5 percent, losing more in one day than what the wealth tax would have taken from the billionaires over 5 years.” (11/10/26)
“Donald Trump has long aspired to build an impregnable edifice. Now, finally, he has done it: He has constructed a narrative of election fraud that’s completely impervious to evidence. On Monday, nearly a week after his party was trounced in the midterms, Trump wrote on Truth Social …. ‘It’s all about the machines, which are far more important than the voter!’ Like all of Trump’s allegations about massive voter fraud, this one is baseless. But as a denialist innovation, it’s marvelous. It covers all the scenarios he failed to cover in his previous tales of rigging and cheating. Anytime he loses, no matter the facts or circumstances, he can say the election was stolen.” (11/10/26)
“Outrageous benefits have always been a feature, not a bug, of the Section 8 rental subsidy program created in 1974. In 1980, the US General Accounting Office concluded: ‘The high rents and quality of [Section 8] housing invite resentment on the part of the taxpaying public who see their subsidized neighbors living in better accommodations than they themselves can afford.’ GAO also observed that Section 8’s goal of mixing the poor and the middle class is often not achieved because Section 8 ‘housing is often so costly that … even middle-income unassisted households cannot afford to live in it.’ Federal rental handouts reward irresponsibility and perennially bring out the worst in many recipients.” (11/09/26)
“If its other failings weren’t maddening enough, now the $45 billion city Department of Education is hiring obvious psychos to work with kids and paying ‘principals’ $200,000 to run nonexistent schools. Sayed Mohassib allegedly slaughtered jogger Katie Suarez near the Belt Parkway in Bath Beach Oct. 30; he claims he found himself sitting on a nearby bench, drenched in blood but with no knowledge of why. Scariest of all, he was then working as a substitute paraprofessional at PS 200, a position of trust and responsibility helping young children. Did anyone check his background? After a red-flag few weeks with the NYPD, he joined the Marines only to get discharged on psychiatric grounds, then be rejected for reinstatement as a cop — and that very same day win transport to Bellevue because of his erratic behavior.” (11/10/26)
“‘Together we will defeat communism, socialism and Marxism in America,’ said President Trump in a mid-term election spot. ‘America will never be a communist country.’ But what does he mean by those words? … ‘You can’t defeat socialism with an alternative form of collectivism,’ explains Agustina Vergara Cid of the Register, ‘only with its opposite: the principle that the individual is not a means to any group’s end.’ That’s unfortunately not how Trump or Vance approach the issue … but that may be of limited relevance, considering that their failures led to a backlash sending actual communists into Congress.” (11/09/26)
“Last Tuesday’s election was a stunning defeat for President Donald Trump. Democrats won both houses of Congress, including Senate races in states they haven’t won in generations. Americans went to the polls angry about rising prices, government corruption, rising authoritarianism, and a war with Iran they never wanted. Those frustrations are deeply connected. But this moment can, and should, be an opportunity to do more than move beyond President Trump and his movement. It’s an opportunity for people across the country to question how we got here, and what needs to change about American power.” (11/10/26)
“Limits on the president’s power to remove top officials have mostly fallen away. Cabinet secretaries have long served at the president’s pleasure. In June, the Supreme Court extended that rule to most independent agencies. … The confirmation vote is now the main point at which the Senate has a say over who exercises executive power, and Democrats should use all of it. That means taking the Constitution at its word. The text does not merely require the Senate’s consent to the president’s appointments. It gives the Senate two jobs: advice and consent. Consent is the up-or-down vote on a nominee. Advice is counsel, and nothing in the Constitution limits it to a verdict on a choice already made. It can include signaling to the president in advance whom senators would accept. For most offices, the Senate has let that half of the job lapse.” (11/09/26)
“In September, The New York Times published 30 Ideas for Fixing U.S. Schools, Ranked by Experts. I was among the 37 experts surveyed about the effectiveness and cost of various reforms. In an earlier post I discussed two ideas where I agree with the consensus. Here I’ll talk about one where I disagree: the value of school vouchers.” (11/09/26)
