This clip is the biggest thing we have to wrestle with after a historic level of defeat. A Watergate midterm 1974 in its depth, but 1994 in its message from the voters. Just as Bubba and Democrats were punished for not being the “new Democrats” they had promised in 1992 and immediately raised taxes, grew government, and attempted to input socialism via Hillarycare — we were punished for not giving the people the populism that we promised. Instead we fought harder for over ballrooms and the Kennedy Center than we did the Epstein list, we chose the stock market and data centers over Doge and debt reduction, and (the literal straw that broke the camel’s back) we made affordability worse with the very stupid Middle East foreign war we promised for a decade there would be no more of. Of course, this was all true going into this election as reflected by the polls (which were sadly right). However, I had hoped the level of unprecedented radicalization of the Democrats and their party’s unpopularity would counter the justifiable anger of the American people at least somewhat. Sadly, it did not. And when a state like mine, Iowa, is voting to make it virtually impossible to raise taxes by a wider margin then it voted for a tax raiser like Rob Sand for governor and to make a literal Satanic priestess my congresswoman (and after overwhelmingly supporting Trump three times), then the message is clear as painful as it is. The earth moved, yes, but not in continental realignment. This was generational frustration that a president and party who had promised to listen to them no longer was doing so. People didn’t want to move Left (although that will now be the reality on the ground with the new governors in former red states Iowa, Ohio, and Texas). They just wanted us to stop doing whatever this current mess is. We are completely off the rails as a party and lost credibility as a result, and that includes our leader. People want Avengers End Game comic book movies, not The Eternals or The Marvels versions. And you can’t tell them to want what they don’t — especially when you originally promised them otherwise. Let’s see if we’re better at getting that message than woke Hollywood has been. Is populism a brand or a real movement? We found out, in the most politically costly and painful way possible, which version the American people prefer.