People with big microphones often don’t have as much influence as they believe they do.
If I could suggest a movie that most reminds me of Tucker Carlson and his pals, it would be "This Is Spinal Tap." We join the band’s world when they are clearly in decline. They recall the days of greater popularity and bigger venues. They try to convince themselves and others that nothing has changed: they are still the popular group that they supposedly were before we ever met them through the lens of the late Rob Reiner. That they still have loud microphones and big speakers on their end doesn’t translate into overwhelming crowds of adoring fans on the other.
George Conway, in his hatred of Donald Trump, spent a great deal of time either putting his thoughts out on social media or being interviewed by the lefty news. He salivated at the prospect of the president being prosecuted, apparently feeling slighted that President Trump was far better to his wife than he was to her now ex. If we were to try to gauge how much Conway was on the money by the frequency of his appearances and the vitriol of his claims, then we would have expected him to be super-popular. And apparently, he came to the same conclusion. He figured that his anti-Trump CV and his disassociation with the president’s former campaign manager would give him some serious street cred with the Democrats. Well, the Democratic primaries came and went, and Herr Conway came in 5th in the 12th District race. He apparently was ahead of a dead hobo, and his 5,400 voters were fewer than the average number of riders that would normally be on a New York subway during rush hour.
While Conway can now return full-time to trashing Donald Trump, his emphatic loss might actually be what Barack Obama liked to describe: a teachable moment. The people who are most anti-Trump or pseudo-pro-socialism live in bubbles throughout the United States. Because everyone around Democrats trashes Israel, calls Trump a Nazi, and wants an open border and lots of free stuff, they think that all Americans must think the same way—except for some small group of fascists who stole the election to put Trump into power. On the Right, there is a similar phenomenon: people like Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly claim that their large followings are harbingers of an anti-Trump Republican backlash. Tucker Carlson claimed he had been a lifelong Republican, though somehow he was registered as a Democrat between 2006 and 2020. He said that he was done with the party, a sentiment seconded by other loud “Woke Reich” podcasters. If one believed they were leaders of a big movement, they might conclude that the Republicans were toast and that they might lose in 2028 if Thomas Massie decides to run as a spoiler.
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The problem these people have is the Spinal Tap Syndrome. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie had their moments in the sun. While others have concluded that they have passed their expiration date for communal importance, they think nothing has changed. Sure, they quit to get their pension or got clobbered by a Trump-supported candidate, but they still have the same microphone and amplifiers. They refuse to accept that the party has left them behind. One can see polls (pre-Iran deal, at least) in which 95 percent of MAGA Republicans supported Donald Trump. Trump’s candidates won, I believe, every single primary that was run. I don’t know his current record, as I quit after 120-0 for House, Senate, and governships. The soft-spoken Professor Victor Davis Hanson would seem more in tune with the thinking of most Republican voters than the human megaphone Carlson or “I was against Iran before I was for it” Joe Kent.
And this is always a problem with our modern means of communication. Israel has a “unicorn” (a startup valued at over $1 billion) that had four employees before it was purchased. People are predicting that with AI, we might have some cybersecurity or similar firm purchased for billions, and the entrepreneur behind it is alone in the endeavor. When Tucker Carlson interviews some lunatic who says that Churchill was evil and that Hitler really wasn’t so bad, the host looks at the number of viewers. From those numbers, he concludes, apparently wrongly, that he is on the right track. He fails to take into account bots, foreign viewers who love anything anti-Israel, Democrats, and even those who wish to see a freak show for free. Megyn Kelly has, on several occasions, proudly mentioned her YouTube engagement or her position in podcast rankings, yet Donald Trump’s candidates keep winning their primaries—including this week in New York. We’ll have to see in November what these “former Republicans” do and if their influence means anything with either Republican voters who have given up on them or Democrats who want absolute card-carrying Jew haters to be their representatives. Does Josh Shapiro have a future beyond his current gig as Pennsylvania governor? Maybe if he runs to be prime minister of Israel.
Most Americans, including Democrats over 40 years of age, do not hate Jews or Israel. Many actually like both and certainly respect Israel for its toughness and for being a loyal partner in the recent fighting against Iran. The Democratic—and more and more Groyper Republican—youngsters are into the Hamas/Qatar stuff, but it’s not clear outside of New York and other blue dumps if their influence has any meaning. Elections are for those who show up, and the victory of faux “socialists” in New York primaries may have less to do with their overall popularity and more to do with their voter base being more motivated than older New Yorkers are. But their ideas are anathema to most Americans. The latter do not want an open border or endless federal funds going to illegal aliens and fraud, as described in Minnesota and California. Just as Spinal Tap mistook full but much smaller venues as proof of their continued relevance, AOC, Chief Warren, and Bernie Sanders think that a room full of spoiled brats who dig playing socialism is reflective of Americans’ views. They are sorely mistaken, and hopefully, the 2026 and 2028 elections will destroy their dream and leave them in their hellhole pockets.
What the Democrats don’t appreciate is that the menu has somewhat changed. Until Donald Trump 2.0, the rule was that one could simply not close the border, so what did it matter if thousands or millions entered the U.S. illegally? Donald Trump closed the border; a future Democratic candidate for president cannot just shrug their shoulders but must actually demand that the closed border be opened by active effort. The same with USAID and fraud. Until now, the waste and theft of billions was hidden from view; now we know about some of the waste, both at home and abroad. Democratic candidates will have to now actively demand the return of USAID gravy for their pals in the Sorosphere; they will have to explain why Somali fraud in Minnesota is a net good for the country. Just as we aren’t going to go for experimental vaccines, closed countries, masks, and worthless spacing for Ebola or any other new, invented threat, we are not willing to go back to the things we didn’t know then but do know now.
Years ago, some Hamas guys held an angry news conference. As people looked at the two dozen microphones, they noted that many of them had no cords. They weren’t wireless: they were just props. Maybe that’s why Tucker and company like them so much. Their microphones were fakes, just as Tucker thinks that his great thoughts resonate far beyond his cabal.
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