My response to a Russian Times article on Thomas Massei's Loss:
Y’all,
It wasn’t just Thomas Massie who lost, or some obscure district in rural Kentucky, or even just America, but the whole Peace-Loving, Cooperative World who lost – you might as well say, Humanity. We will all dearly miss his Sword – and most assuredly, dearly Pay. Some would argue we had it coming, but will someone please show me some kind of Hope for Tomorrow other than having my Ticket punched for my next Transcendental Express out of here? Has four-score just been long enough to not over-stay my visit? What about Gen X, Y, Z, Alpha, etc. – what’s left for them in this burgeoning Brave New World? What Hope? What is to be done? Whatever happened to Peace, Goodwill toward Others? Say, Where is it? Who now fights this Cloying Darkness? What Armour must they Don? What Weapons must they Wield? Is this where they were in 1775 when Enough, dammit, had had Enough? Indeed, what Force musters Men to such dire, selfless acts as to Right themselves against the Gales of Tyranny? What Force, indeed; Pray that it Comes.
This stuff just makes a fella ponder, n’est-ce pas? Maybe just too much wine after dinner, da?
In 2018 and 2019 I had the opportunity to meet with Rep Massie in his office with several other women as part of the DC Project- a non partisan group advocating for the 2nd Amendment. Women from every state met in groups of 3 or 4 with every senator or representative who would talk with us. Mr Massie was very gracious to us and we had great conversations with him. He spoke at our opening session with the whole group as well. At the time I wished I could move to his district in Kentucky.
Like Massie or not, I think (but who am I...) that Trump wants someone to be totally on his side for everything. Time will tell. With the relationship between Donald and Zohran Mamdani, I believe he is almost egging him on to ensure he fails. We all see the failure and mess in New York City. It's like a reality show. We all want success. I guess we will have to wait and see if Mr. Ed will be successful.
<< Trump wants someone to be totally on his side for everything. >>
An understandable and lofty goal, but woefully unreasonable and almost childishly naive. Especially in politics. Allowing his sun-burned sensitive ego and turbo-charged mouth to produce scathing insults indiscriminately - and for public consumption - suggests there is less to the brilliant 5-D Chess Master than meets the ear. Unless he really does plan to nullify the 22nd Amendment, he and his "legacy" will be forever stained by his lack of measurable self-control and increasing evidence of growing megalomania.
It's a damn shame. I'm not surprised at all though. My Republican friends are staunch fans of Israel. Straight up religious thing, something about the end times, I gather. Plus, the Republican party itself got hurt twice by Massie. The budget BS and Epstein both hurt the cobbled together MAGA coalition badly, fracturing them I dare say. Can't bite the hand that feeds you, just how it works.
Voters are often more pragmatic than one would think, especially primary voters who tend to be more hard core party people, who know how the game works. I watched a bunch of interviews of people in his district. They know Massie might have cost Republicans the midterms. They let him know how they felt about it. Politics is war and many of them felt like he shot them in the back, which let's be honest, he kind of did. Who wants someone on your team who costs you the championship out of spite?
I actually thought the Epstein stuff was a big mistake politically, he's feuded with Trump before but never tried to take the low road. Trump lives on the Low Road, you can't beat him going low and those are the fights Trump picks because of that.
Massie just wasn't good at playing the low road game and lost. If you notice, Rand Paul stayed out of it.
I'll be honest, I really don't like seeing MAGA fractured over Epstein, which I don't buy into as a grand conspiracy, not in the way that many people do anyway. I honestly wish Massie had stayed out of that one, it didn't do him credit and he's not good at that kind of battle, Trump is.
I think it also pushed the Israeli supporters into believing Massie was antisemitic, just as much or more than his opposition to the war. Being antiwar isn't being anti-Jewish per se. Peddling conspiracy theories about Mossad led pedo rings will be taken that way by people who love Israel, so you better have all the proof on hand or don't go there as a republican politician.
Personally I don't believe for one second that Mossad is above doing it, so I have no problem with asking the question, in fact I have asked that question myself. However, people forget that a big part of the Republican base doesn't live on-line where the conspiratorial minded people gather, yes they are older, but many just have real lives.
He also screwed up reading names into the congressional record who were innocent, he blamed Bondi for redactions that she didn't make, the states had actually done it. And of course he had never made a big deal out of Epstein until he got into the feud with Trump.
It became a very bad look for him all around. It gave people an excuse to question his motivations and they started to ask why he was willing to burn down the MAGA coalition and hurt Republicans chances during the midterms. For dedicated Republican primary voters that's honestly a lot to take, so even the ones who liked him were willing to go with the new guy, because he would stop hurting the party. And that's what I think primary voters care about the most, the Republican party and it's winning chances.
It also didn't help that so many Democrats were supporting Massie or that 95% of his own donations were from out of state. If all the wrong people wanted him elected, do I really want him in there, became a question for many primary voters too.
Ps. I suspect that Massie might care less than we think about losing. If it was me, I'd be glad to be heading home to the farm and I'm sure he can rake it in doing podcasting, if he so chooses. I wish him all the luck in the world and I'm sure he's not done fighting the good fight.
Brian,
My response to a Russian Times article on Thomas Massei's Loss:
Y’all,
It wasn’t just Thomas Massie who lost, or some obscure district in rural Kentucky, or even just America, but the whole Peace-Loving, Cooperative World who lost – you might as well say, Humanity. We will all dearly miss his Sword – and most assuredly, dearly Pay. Some would argue we had it coming, but will someone please show me some kind of Hope for Tomorrow other than having my Ticket punched for my next Transcendental Express out of here? Has four-score just been long enough to not over-stay my visit? What about Gen X, Y, Z, Alpha, etc. – what’s left for them in this burgeoning Brave New World? What Hope? What is to be done? Whatever happened to Peace, Goodwill toward Others? Say, Where is it? Who now fights this Cloying Darkness? What Armour must they Don? What Weapons must they Wield? Is this where they were in 1775 when Enough, dammit, had had Enough? Indeed, what Force musters Men to such dire, selfless acts as to Right themselves against the Gales of Tyranny? What Force, indeed; Pray that it Comes.
This stuff just makes a fella ponder, n’est-ce pas? Maybe just too much wine after dinner, da?
But, Lord knows, Something must be done.
As always, Open for Suggestions,
Roger T
Out
Yeah, mon sourire, me be a Boomer.
But, then, there's Spencer Pratt; a glimmer; touche'.
Roger T
Out
In 2018 and 2019 I had the opportunity to meet with Rep Massie in his office with several other women as part of the DC Project- a non partisan group advocating for the 2nd Amendment. Women from every state met in groups of 3 or 4 with every senator or representative who would talk with us. Mr Massie was very gracious to us and we had great conversations with him. He spoke at our opening session with the whole group as well. At the time I wished I could move to his district in Kentucky.
Like Massie or not, I think (but who am I...) that Trump wants someone to be totally on his side for everything. Time will tell. With the relationship between Donald and Zohran Mamdani, I believe he is almost egging him on to ensure he fails. We all see the failure and mess in New York City. It's like a reality show. We all want success. I guess we will have to wait and see if Mr. Ed will be successful.
<< Trump wants someone to be totally on his side for everything. >>
An understandable and lofty goal, but woefully unreasonable and almost childishly naive. Especially in politics. Allowing his sun-burned sensitive ego and turbo-charged mouth to produce scathing insults indiscriminately - and for public consumption - suggests there is less to the brilliant 5-D Chess Master than meets the ear. Unless he really does plan to nullify the 22nd Amendment, he and his "legacy" will be forever stained by his lack of measurable self-control and increasing evidence of growing megalomania.
Sometimes, actually most of the time, I wish he would keep his mouth shut.
Constructive advice...!
But, then, there's Spencer Pratt; a glimmer; touche'.
Roger T
Out
It's a damn shame. I'm not surprised at all though. My Republican friends are staunch fans of Israel. Straight up religious thing, something about the end times, I gather. Plus, the Republican party itself got hurt twice by Massie. The budget BS and Epstein both hurt the cobbled together MAGA coalition badly, fracturing them I dare say. Can't bite the hand that feeds you, just how it works.
Voters are often more pragmatic than one would think, especially primary voters who tend to be more hard core party people, who know how the game works. I watched a bunch of interviews of people in his district. They know Massie might have cost Republicans the midterms. They let him know how they felt about it. Politics is war and many of them felt like he shot them in the back, which let's be honest, he kind of did. Who wants someone on your team who costs you the championship out of spite?
I actually thought the Epstein stuff was a big mistake politically, he's feuded with Trump before but never tried to take the low road. Trump lives on the Low Road, you can't beat him going low and those are the fights Trump picks because of that.
Massie just wasn't good at playing the low road game and lost. If you notice, Rand Paul stayed out of it.
I'll be honest, I really don't like seeing MAGA fractured over Epstein, which I don't buy into as a grand conspiracy, not in the way that many people do anyway. I honestly wish Massie had stayed out of that one, it didn't do him credit and he's not good at that kind of battle, Trump is.
I think it also pushed the Israeli supporters into believing Massie was antisemitic, just as much or more than his opposition to the war. Being antiwar isn't being anti-Jewish per se. Peddling conspiracy theories about Mossad led pedo rings will be taken that way by people who love Israel, so you better have all the proof on hand or don't go there as a republican politician.
Personally I don't believe for one second that Mossad is above doing it, so I have no problem with asking the question, in fact I have asked that question myself. However, people forget that a big part of the Republican base doesn't live on-line where the conspiratorial minded people gather, yes they are older, but many just have real lives.
He also screwed up reading names into the congressional record who were innocent, he blamed Bondi for redactions that she didn't make, the states had actually done it. And of course he had never made a big deal out of Epstein until he got into the feud with Trump.
It became a very bad look for him all around. It gave people an excuse to question his motivations and they started to ask why he was willing to burn down the MAGA coalition and hurt Republicans chances during the midterms. For dedicated Republican primary voters that's honestly a lot to take, so even the ones who liked him were willing to go with the new guy, because he would stop hurting the party. And that's what I think primary voters care about the most, the Republican party and it's winning chances.
It also didn't help that so many Democrats were supporting Massie or that 95% of his own donations were from out of state. If all the wrong people wanted him elected, do I really want him in there, became a question for many primary voters too.
Ps. I suspect that Massie might care less than we think about losing. If it was me, I'd be glad to be heading home to the farm and I'm sure he can rake it in doing podcasting, if he so chooses. I wish him all the luck in the world and I'm sure he's not done fighting the good fight.
Thomas Massie is a brave and honorable man. That's why he stands out in Congress.