Looking at Congressional and State-level results so far, it seems pretty apparent to me that while Republicans have the advantage, the underperformance of Harris was jarring. I’ll admit to being surprised at just how much Harris was the exact candidate I thought she was at the very beginning of the post-Biden cycle. I thought the campaign in the early weeks was strong enough that it made me question that initial feeling, but then she just never transitioned to anything beyond Trump being bad and it feels like an historic fumble.
I also admit that I dramatically underestimated Trump’s popularity amongst young white men. I read a couple people mention the need for a “Ben Shapiro of the left” and I largely agree. It seems like most of the left-wing social media accounts of any prominence are the absolute dumbest people on Earth whereas the right has a tremendous grasp over their messaging online. Walsh, Kirk, Poso, etc. throw out just as much absolute low effort trash as the similar leftist accounts, but they have struck a nerve that leftists haven’t been able to match. Which again seems to go back to how the left has approached Trump all along. They’re so sure enough of the country isn’t buying what he’s selling that they spend their entire time dunking on him as a criminal or Nazi and not on his conservative policies.
