Steve Hayes is joined by Jonah Goldberg, Kevin Williamson, and Mike Warren to discuss the new right’s efforts to reinterpret the midterm results, the leadership elections in the House and Senate, and the resignation of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
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Hayes → join → Huang
The Agenda
—Reaganism and the new right
—Who gets to define the midterms?
—The Heritage Foundation and Kevin Roberts
—Jim Jordan, Brian Jack, and House Republicans’ choice to double down
—John Thune’s reelection
—Chuck Schumer’s shaky hold on Democratic leadership
—Who’s winning the fight inside the Democratic Party?
—The Jensen Huang story
—NWYT: Vivek Ramaswamy leaves social media
Show Notes
[upbeat music] Welcome to the Dispatch Podcast.
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In the 10 days since the massive Democratic wave blew up the electoral map and reshuffled government in DC, everyone's been working hard to win the fight about what it all means.
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it → blow → what
What did President Donald Trump know, and when did he know it?
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I'm joined today by Dispatch Editor in Chief Jonah Goldberg, Dispatch National Correspondent Kevin Williamson, and Dispatch Politics Editor Mike Warren.
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Let's dive right in.
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's → let → ?
With the election now just more than a week behind us, we have been able to see how various parties, I mean that in the literal sense, the political parties themselves, but actors have responded to the election.
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I → see → election
And what was clear, I think, to most of us, that this was a, an obvious, unmistakable rebuke to Donald Trump, a repudiation of the president, his party, its ideas, his behavior, what have you, seems, at least in some corners of the right, to be less obvious.
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Or maybe it's obvious, but it's so problematic for different factions on the right that they're choosing to treat it as somehow disputable.
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Jonah, I want to start with you.
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You had a terrific G file, and it pains me to say that, that we published Wednesday evening.
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Oren Cass is this non-economist who sort of plays an economist.
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They would think of themselves as kind of an intellectual engine of the new right, a policy shop for the new right.
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And he wrote a piece, in effect, saying the Republican Party has two paths, and there's this big fight between the Reaganites on the one hand and sort of new right types on the other, and people are going to have choices to make.
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You didn't find his column persuasive.
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Yeah, so like, I think some of you may recall that one of my favorite bits from the stand-up comedian geek performer Harry Anderson was where he talks about how he's got this...
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He's about to juggle an axe, and he says, "You know, this is a very valuable axe because it's George Washington's original axe, the one he used to chop down the cherry tree."
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And he says, "Of course, you know, years ago, last-- in the 19th century, the blade broke, and that had to be replaced.
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And then just last week, the handle broke, and that had to be replaced.
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I know.
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And, um, you read this thing where he says the entire fight for the future of the Republican Party is between the Reaganites and the new right.
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fight → read → Reaganites
And the reason why the Harry Anderson bit about George Washington's axe comes to mind is that except for the definition of the new right and the definition of the Reaganites, it's still completely wrong.
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it → come → Reaganites
Um, and, and so, like, first of all, he gets the history of Reaganism completely wrong.
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He also, but more annoyingly, he gets the history and current moment reality of the new right completely wrong.
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He wants to pretend that basically if it doesn't come out of an American Compass policy paper, it doesn't qualify as new right.
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