Conservative Ben Domenech, who has founded right-wing websites such as Red State and The Federalist, broke hard truths to the MAGA faithful this week during an appearance on Ezra Klein's New York Times podcast.
In reflecting on recent elections -- including the 2022 midterms where Republicans vastly underperformed expectations given President Joe Biden's low approval numbers and inflation that was at the time at highs not seen in decades -- Domenech concluded that Trump's 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton was more of a fluke than anything.
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In 2022, Democrats turned it into a conversation, successfully, about January 6th and about anti-democratic... Republicans, about these whackadoo folks who are denying elections," he said. "And I think that sort of proved that that lack of normalcy, that lack of stability among these politicians was something that really damaged them. They took an election that should have been about... crime rise in the major cities, about inflation, about pocketbook issues... and they turned it into an election about, 'These people are going to seize your government and your democracy away from you.'"
Domenech said that this strategy was effective both because Democrats helped to push "crazy people" in the primaries and because Republican voters gravitated toward many of those candidates on their own.
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"People don't like crazy in their politics," Domenech asserted. "Donald Trump got lucky in 2016 by running against someone who was way more unpopular than many assessed, and by shooting the moon in terms of the electoral college. That's a very difficult thing to do and the math is even harder for him in 2024."
