What America Wants, and What We Don't

I took a 36-hour editorial pause to think before I spoke. My mom always said that was a good idea.

After the beating Republicans took this week, I wanted to choose my words with wisdom. In no particular order:

1. The 2028 GOP field is already crowded, and the autopsies are in. Vance: "The reason we lost is the war." DeSantis: an "extinction-level event for Republicans." Cruz: too many in politics dismissed affordability concerns.

2. In March, I said on air that if Iran wasn't wrapped up by July 4, the political damage would be devastating. I take no pleasure in being right.

3. Keeping a nuclear weapon out of the mullahs' hands is still the right thing to do. Tuesday didn't change that. I still wouldn't want to be a mullah this morning.

4. Lesson learned: never assume voters will look past the sign at the corner gas station. It read $2.98 the day the war began and $4.15 on Election Day, the highest ever for a midterm. It isn't fair that Trump takes the blame for $4.12 gas when $5.02 was Biden's calling card. It's also politics. Voters drive past that sign every day.

5. In May, Trump told his Cabinet, "I don't care about the midterms." In late September, he turned down an Iranian offer that would have handed him a pre-election win. The morning after the loss he said, "The Iran thing we had to do, and we continue to do it." Disagree if you like. A poll-chaser doesn't talk that way.

6. Not everything went wrong. Voters in eight states hardened their election rules. ID amendments passed in Nevada, North Carolina, and Ohio. Citizens-only voting passed in Arkansas, Kansas, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Alaska.

7. Four states voted to keep boys out of girls' sports. Arizona and Nebraska passed it, and blue Washington and Colorado were leading as I wrote this. Arizona's measure also covers locker rooms.

8. Texas has been blue before, in my lifetime. Ann Richards was governor. Talarico is the first Democrat to win statewide there in 32 years.

9. The principles that drove the Tea Party, then MAGA, then America First aren't dead. Tuesday was a veto of policies voters saw drifting from them, chiefly a war that was supposed to last four to five weeks and is now in its eighth month.

10. Because Trump front-loaded his term, the signature wins are law: no tax on tips and overtime, a bigger senior deduction, Trump accounts for kids. Repealing any of it takes his signature or two-thirds of both chambers. Democrats are nowhere near two-thirds.

11. Energy abundance is still our best path back to cheaper gas, and the Golden Dome, when built, is designed to protect American cities from missile attack as never before.

12. The coalition that won Tuesday is a gaggle of misfittery, not a unified movement. Adam Hamilton won Kansas by promising not to back Schumer for leader. Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan on the opposite pitch. Same caucus. Hold them to their words.

13. They're already misreading the room. Jeffries is trying to quiet the impeachment crowd. "I haven't had a single member of the House Democratic Caucus talk to me about impeachment," he said Wednesday. (*yawn*)

14. Texas's governor-elect, Gina Hinojosa, spent her victory speech vowing to end the state's $1 billion school choice program and "repair the damage of the Texas voucher scam." She rallied with the teachers' union Sunday. She'll need the Legislature. Good luck.

15. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the model. Four years of governing, the LEARNS Act, and nearly 54 percent. Voters reward Republican efforts that work.

16. Ron DeSantis has a point. In a year of brutal national headwinds, Florida held the line: Republicans kept the governor's mansion and the Senate seat.

17. America First isn't losing because of its principles. It's losing patience over a four-to-five-week promise that became eight months.

18. Iran isn't a forever war. It's been fought largely from the air, and I pray it stays that way. But at least 21 Americans have died, and 865 have been wounded. Finish the job, bring our people home, keep Iran nuke-free, and bring the nation together.

19. Talarico and Hamilton both campaigned on their Christian faith. I'll be watching how it shows up in their votes on parents, the unborn, and the Constitution. El-Sayed, who wouldn't let Bret Baier finish a question, now gets six years of them. And Susan Collins, after nearly 30 years, couldn't win forever.

20. This was a veto, not a conversion. A temper tantrum over gas pumps and a war that ran long. We'll recover.

21. The president has the veto pen and has signaled he'll use it. For two years, Democrats can hold hearings and issue subpoenas. They can't override a veto, and I expect the economy to come roaring back around them.

22. God's in control. We're not.

23. America has survived much worse. Put your hard hats on. We've got work to do, and thank God we get to do it in the greatest nation ever to exist.

God Bless America.

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