People have raised concerns about voting irregularities around the state, and I have weighed their input heavily. But at the end of the day, I have had to ask myself if putting the people of South Dakota through a recount would be divisive or helpful to the process.
Republican John Thune (2002 concession speech)
The politics of resentment – as in I resent how I was cheated or mistreated – is killing our country, but it was not always thus. Rep. John Thune (R-SD) narrowly lost his US Senate bid in 2002, knew of voting irregularities, kept his eye on the future by not dragging South Dakotans through a “long, drawn-out, painful, and protracted struggle over 524 votes,” and defeated majority leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) in 2004.
Resentment is part of losing and not getting one’s way. It’s why rock bands write “break up” songs. No harm there, but increasingly it stokes unbridgeable division, election cynicism, disregard for law and order, and violence against employers. And it’s not just lone wolves. We live today in the era of social resentment movements, such as Black Lives Matter and its political doppelgänger; replacement theorists.
There’s nothing wrong with political resentment, per se. It’s why Madison enshrined the right to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances” in the 1st amendment, but his “redress” meant to preserve civil order – not send an “angry mob” into the Capitol, turn 574 George Floyd protests into violent riots, or sic G-men and Big Media on political rivals. Someone make them stop – before their self-serving resentment foments civil war.
SOW ENOUGH RESENTMENT AND NOBODY TRUSTS ELECTIONS
Arizona, it’s Kari Lake and I wanted to update you on our fight against Arizona’s sham elections and those who run them.
Kari Lake (video update)
After Terry McAuliffe (D) said the 2000 election was “stolen” from Gore, and Hillary Clinton (D) said her election was “stolen,” the 2016 Antifa riots should have shocked no one. After Stacey Abrams (D) refused to “concede” a “rigged election” in 2018, and Donald Trump (R) called the 2020 election the “Big Steal,” one might have predicted January 6 or Kari Lake (R) saying her 2022 election was “stolen.” So much resentment – how’s it gonna end?
The Wall Street Journal has branded Lake a sore loser and blamed a bad campaign for her loss; alienating GOP centrists by calling John McCain a “loser” and Independents by echoing “Trump’s debunked 2020 fraud claims.” They are right. In spite of fewer down-ballot votes being cast, Lake got fewer votes than other (winning) Republicans:
- 77,342 fewer than Treasurer-elect Kimberly Yee
- 39,165 fewer than those cast for GOP House candidates
- 23,901 fewer than county prosecutor-elect Rachel Mitchell
Still, Lake lost by only 17,200 votes; leading to speculation she will run for Senate in 2024 against incumbent Kyrsten Sinema (I). Sure she’s articulate and attractive, but why? Odds are Lake would make her point (“sham elections”) and lose again. If the Arizona GOP doesn’t nominate outgoing governor Doug Ducey, they’re nuts. His 1,330,863 votes in 2018 top the 1,287,891 won in 2022 by Democrat Hobbs, and the 1,191,000 senatorial votes won in 2018 by Sinema. He’s a winner – and doesn’t need Trump’s endorsement!
SOW ENOUGH RESENTMENT AND EVERYONE’S A VICTIM
To be a Black public figure who chooses to be honest about white supremacy in this country is dangerous business.
Karen Attieh (The Washington Post)
Maybe black columnist Karen Attiah’s racial paranoia was sown by Joe Biden warning “they gonna put you back in chains” or Michelle Obama saying the White House was “built by slaves.” Who knows, but she just accused liberal MSNBC of racism. Despite MSNBC president Rashida Jones being black, Attiah writes the firing of black TV host Tiffany Cross was a “backlash” against “black people doing public discourse work” (source: The Washington Post).
Cross is a victim in Attiah’s mind; “de-platformed” by Jones for hosting “one of the few shows left on a major news network that centered on the voices of Black people.” Not true: Jones canceled a show that “captured fewer viewers than its time-slot rivals on Fox News and CNN” (source: Variety). To be blunt, a black CEO dumped a black journalist for sucking at her job, and race had nothing to do with it. Still, Attiah sees a conspiracy.
Cross was “unapologetic about discussing white supremacy” and “stirred up the right-wing media pot.” To wit, Megyn Kelly said Cross was “the most racist person on television.” Then, rather than “support our (black) voices,” Ms. Jones “abruptly de-platformed” Cross without “the dignity of a final, sign-off show.” And the big outrage? “The National Association of Black Journalists has been quiet.”
What’s up at the NABJ? Common sense! Cross had said Sen. Tim Scott was a Republican because he was “thirsty for White approval,” and called Kyle Rittenhouse a “little murderous white supremacist” after his acquittal. She was fired one day after saying on-air “Ron DeStupid” and “Florida literally looks like the d*ck of the country. Seriously, let’s castrate Florida.” Seriously, is that “public discourse work” or resentment gone wild? Neither, it’s hate speech that should have been panned – not defended – by Attiah.
SOCIAL MEDIA: THE FONT OF RESENTMENT
I’m just saying, we fly over those states that voted for a racist tangerine for a reason.
Yoel Roth (former Twitter fact checker)
The rise of social media gave rise to the politics of resentment. Partisan owners and employees made sure Facebook and Twitter were the font of left-wing resentment. Dry your eyes: thanks to Elon Musk, Twitter is now a story of revelation, restoration, and revolution. Freedom of speech and the press is in the first amendment for a reason; because democracy does die in darkness.
Revelation. Please read the Twitter files as they release, because they prove liberal cranks like Yoel Roth (see above) colluded with deep-state agents, silenced breaking news, and influenced an election. Global Head of Trust and Safety Roth “met weekly with the FBI and DHS (and) the DNI” (source: 3rd dump). A “Supreme Court” of Twitter employees did “build blacklists, prevent tweets from trending, and limit the visibility of accounts” (source: 2nd dump).
This is a revelation because CEO Jack Dorsey said under oath Twitter enforced “rules impartially” and did not “use political ideology to make decisions.” He testified in Congress that “we do not shadow-ban anyone based on political ideology.” Really? Because Roth tweeted to female voters there was “no bigger threat to your brand of feminism than ACTUAL NAZIS IN THE WHITE HOUSE.” No “political ideology” there, right?
Restoration. How fitting that two cancelled journalists, Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss, are digging into the Twitter files and reporting the truth. Once-liberal Rolling Stone cancelled him, and the once-honest New York Times cancelled her. If you don’t think this is a great moment in American history, consider who (political left) was cancelling whom (political right). Trump used Twitter in 2016 to speak directly to his base, circumventing liberal media and getting elected.
Democrats resented that Trump advantage and intervened with Twitter, claiming no US president has a “right” to spread alternate facts. Except it wasn’t just BS about inaugural crowd sizes. His “they spied on me” tweet was true, as was the New York Post’s banned report on Hunter Biden’s laptop. Twitter’s gag order kept all voters uninformed and denied one side the right to redress its grievances.
Not condoning the January 6 riots – or Trump’s election denials – but banning voices is no way to bring America together. A “legitimate election” is not the consensus of media that’s distrusted by 71% of America (source: Reuters). It’s the consensus of voters – and 40% said Biden’s win was NOT “legitimate” one month after his election. Once hashed out face-to-face around the water cooler, “legitimacy” its now hashed out facelessly on social media; thus, it was a grievous error to silence Republicans. Thanks to Musk, their voices can re-enter the conversation.
Revolution. Thanks to Substack (the medium you’re reading), journalists like Taibbi and Weiss are reinventing journalism by delivering un-edited content directly to subscribers; reaping enough profits for Weiss to launch “The Free Press” and hire throngs of respected and now-independent journalists. She and Musk have incurred an ugly backlash from self-described “liberals” that are anything but – because that judgement is demonstrably bad.
Two years ago, those folks trusted Musk’s EV and AI inventions to save the planet and get them safely about town. Now, they don’t trust Musk with the equivalent of passing a note in 8th-grade study hall. Dave Chappelle is right that “Twitter is not a real place,” because it just disperses petulant opinions to a larger audience. Fact: 90% of the tweets come from 10% of the users (just like 8th grade study hall). By the way, you are NOT part of that 10% (just like 8th grade).
Shame on Kari Lake and Karen Attiah, but they are just collateral damage from the politics of resentment. The real threat to democracy is cancel culture and Big Media’s monopoly of the public square. If there are two sides to every argument (and story), then the electorate must hear and read both sides.
Let’s close with GOP senate minority whip John Thune, who “drew Trump’s ire” for pushing back on the “stolen election” claims (source: The Week). Trump asked Gov. Kristi Noem (R) to run against Thune in 2022. She declined. Guess what? 69.6% of South Dakota just re-elected Thune to the US Senate. He’s a good Republican, who’s on Twitter – where he did NOT rip Trump for his “termination” of the constitution post on Truth Social. He disagreed in front of a free press in the halls of Congress – just as Madison intended.