The night before the midterms, someone made a brilliant, sorrowful observation about the state of MAGA.
asserted
someone → make → MAGA
The insight came from an unlikely source: comedian Conan O’Brien.
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insight → come → source
And it came in the unlikely form of a parable about auto manufacturing.
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it → come → manufacturing
“Cars used to look wildly different, each one,” O’Brien said.
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O’Brien → use → ?
“And then they started using a wind tunnel to design them, and all the cars started looking the same,” because manufacturers settled on more or less one design style that makes for “the most aerodynamic shape.”
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that → start → shape
That’s “why a Ford and a Maybach and a BMW and a Porsche all look like this — ‘cause it’s the most aerodynamic shape,” he said.
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he → ’ → this
Then he delivered the kicker: “I think that in modern politics we’ve gotten to the point where someone figured out if you don’t have a soul, you’re more aerodynamic, and you’ll go faster.”
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you → deliver → soul
Days later, after the midterm election results proved that the American people felt the same way about a number of soulless politicians throughout the country, one political figure made an effort to stand out — rushing to show himself the fastest-moving Republican, and the most aerodynamic vehicle for achieving the will of the people.
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himself → prove → people
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis identified Israel as the goal-setter behind the disastrous Iran war, and their goal as “regime-change in Iran.”
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DeSantis → identify → Iran
But “that’s not something that we’re gonna be able to impose,” DeSantis said.
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DeSantis → ’ → that
“That would require massive amounts of boots on the ground, massive amounts of treasure that the American people are not interested in providing.
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people → require → that
He called out Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for giving conflicting justifications for the war, and also argued that the Ayatollah are now “more powerful” than before as the Trump administration’s hamfisted attacks “drag on.”
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attacks → call → war
There’s no denying that what DeSantis has learned from this year’s elections is true: Americans don’t want more war, and we reject the ideologies and interests that treat human life, both in America and throughout the Middle East, as expendable.
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that → deny → East
As I wrote in a column the week of the elections, “The demand facing both parties is crystal clear: Stop financing the destruction of Palestinian families, stop treating American soldiers as expendable, answer to the people who elected you.”
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who → write → you
But DeSantis is showing the reason I added: “A candidate who discovers these obligations only after studying this year’s election returns will have no standing in a competition with those who honored our principles all along – even when it cost something.”
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it → show → something
The Record DeSantis Chose Instead
This is why DeSantis will never come anywhere near White House.
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DeSantis → choose → House
Because other candidates, men and women who today can already say they’ve spent three years opposing the destruction of Gaza and warning against another American war, will only have to ask him a simple question to knock him out of the 2028 race: Where were you when it mattered?
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it → say → race
And we already know the answer.
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we → know → answer
He was helping make opposition to that destruction politically unacceptable.
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opposition → help → destruction
In April 2023, DeSantis traveled to Jerusalem and signed Florida legislation against “antisemitic” harassment and intimidation.
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DeSantis → travel → harassment
His office celebrated the measure as “protecting religious liberty and the State of Israel both in the United States and around the world.”
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office → celebrate → world
How will the American public react to a U.S. governor going overseas to sign a law governing Americans, and his office explicitly advertising it as a move to protect a foreign state?
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office → react → state
Jewish Floridians deserve protection from threats and harassment because they are our fellow citizens.
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they → deserve → threats
But their rights require no justification from Israel, and defending those rights should never be confused with defending the policies of that foreign nation’s government.
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defending → require → government
Especially now, in a time when the whole public is waking up to the fact that Israel’s government is uniquely corrupt, immoral, aggressive, and meddlesome — none of which plays well with a coalition built around the central position of opposition to war, corruption, and special interests.
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none → wake → war
But as Palestinian families fled their homes in October 2023, DeSantis made clear how radically he adheres to the Zionist ideology that smears opposition to Israeli military aggression as hate.
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that → flee → hate
Speaking in Iowa about people from Gaza, DeSantis declared: “Not all of them are Hamas, but they are all antisemitic.”
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they → speak → them
A population of roughly 2.3 million people, half of whom were children who had never cast a vote or held a weapon, condemned together by a man asking to become president of the United States.
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who → cast → States
On Face the Nation the next morning, Margaret Brennan challenged him.
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Brennan → challenge → him
He doubled down with the sloppy accusation that the residents of Gaza had elected Hamas.
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residents → double → Hamas
The children he was condemning — and a huge portion of the adults as well — had never voted at all.
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he → condemn → adults
Nonetheless, DeSantis went even further: In the same interview, he came out against Israel allowing water into Gaza — a necessity for survival, without which children would die a slow death, essentially by torture.
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children → go → torture
DeSantis cited the Israeli prisoners being held by Hamas in Gaza.
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DeSantis → cite → Gaza
But a Palestinian mother had no power to release an Israeli.
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mother → have → Israeli
Her newborn had no responsibility for Hamas.
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newborn → have → Hamas
DeSantis was prepared to defend denying them water anyway.
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DeSantis → defend → water
Three days later, Biden announced $100 million in humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
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Biden → announce → Gaza
DeSantis denounced it as “Biden’s $100 million gift to Hamas” and challenged every Republican candidate to join him.
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DeSantis → denounce → him
“I say no U.S. tax dollars to the Gaza Strip,” he declared.
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he → say → Strip
He was setting a standard for the whole party.
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He → set → party
…and 17 more, not listed.
The Aporia
