@RealCandaceO’s support would double overnight immediately after she announced. Would be a media craze. She would ham it up to all the right constituencies. Low energy Cruz and DeSantis wouldn’t be able to keep up.
And Don Jr is energetic, but not as smart...
All the right people would attack her candidacy: Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Ronna McDaniel, the always candidates (Cruz, Rubio, Paul), and Noem would feebly try to call her out for lack of experience—which no GOP voter cares about.
Of all the candidates—every single one on the list!—@RealCandaceO is hands down the most honestly sold on Trumpism. She breathes it. And she most convincingly wears it & markets it to the masses. All others are fake. That’s why the masses are already giving her 5% *already*.
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The GOP has taken a disturbing anti-military & anti-US intelligence turn in the last two years or so. It’s sharp.
Tucker jumped on Gen. Milley for his saying he reads books. He called him a “pig.”
They routinely go after the military as “woke.”
They distrust almost immediately anything our FBI and other intelligence agencies say & Trump praised the KGB.
That is not a pro-America posture..
They like to say they are “America First”—but “America” for them almost never includes the institutions that are American. Things like the Constitution, the military, our intelligence, our DOJ, our judges, elections, our economy—they distrust almost everything about our country.
If by banning CRT, Ricketts means that race can’t be discussed as an explanatory variable for historical events—it seems he’d have trouble teaching the 3/5s Compromise or Jim Crow or sit-ins or much of America’s 20th century progress.
Race is part of our story—good, bad & ugly.
Alternatively, if by no CRT Ricketts means the unobjectionable point that we can’t instruct students in public schools that white people are evil b/c they are white or that America is evil because of racism among its citizens—then of course, literally no one disagrees with him.
A center-right policy *agenda* distinct from Trumpism, but rooted in principle:
—Roll back tariffs for good trade agreements
—Fix & Fund the Police
—Modernize every federal agency by 2035
—Actual border security (soft tech) + increase in ALJs/asylum processing
—Federalism 2.0
—“Womb-to-Tomb” defense of life, includes abolishing death penalty
—“Health” reform that increases supply & reduces demand of healthcare
—Market-driven climate action, with a push for safe nuclear
—Renewed US global leadership; strong pressure on tyrants & human rights abusers
—Pay down debt w/ balanced budgets (e.g., lower spending & stop deficit tax cuts until we make headway)
—“Solvency & Sustainability” for the Social Safety Net (reform it for 21st century)
—Fix schools, pay teachers, reduce admin
—Workforce 2040: Train, Equip, Prepare
I may be naive, but instead of government indiscriminately destroying tech companies based on political vendetta & Tucker Carlson’s rants, I’d rather gov’t collaboratively harness tech innovation to modernize itself & its oversight capabilities. Tech should be a US strength.
I mean, yes—Big Tech isn’t perfect. It does bad things largely because it’s making decisions of first impression that only the product designers at these companies understand. Government should catch up and participate.
But, Tech has also literally changed the world in 5 years.
There’s also a huge NatSec factor for letting our tech sector continue to do it’s thing. The global leader of the next century will be the country with the deepest tech capabilities—& Silicon Valley is our ace in the hole. It has both scale & dynamism if we preserve it & use it.
🧵 Today, a grassroots group I’m part of convened an online rally to support Liz Cheney after our open letter collected nearly 4k signatures. A member of Congress, 3 former members, & ~500 people attended.
And aside from our $50 Zoom license, we didn’t spend a single $ to do it.
We have no paid staff. A handful of people—all of whom either have full-time jobs outside of politics or are full-time students—sacrificed their time, sweat, & energy to make it happen. We don’t do graphic design, we don’t have a social media team—but it came together.
As a result of this volunteer model, we didn’t have to toe any lines. We didn’t have to pause 5 seconds to sell you a mug for liberal tears. We didn’t have to cook up incendiary things to say. We just talked as citizens about the principles we think should guide this country.
DeSantis strikes me as someone I could’ve supported if he hadn’t jumped headfirst into the crazy pool to win votes. His CPAC speech was more serious & substantive than the others. But he still ignores the big, inconvenient truths that need to be spoken. He’s still a follower.
If you’re on the CPAC stage this week and you don’t have at least one line that the crowd boos or jeers you for, you aren’t being a leader. You’re just hankering for applause and you’ll say anything to get it.
Good grief. This is a real thing that actually happened. This is what I’m talking about. If you jump in the pool like this, there’s no getting out.