Sweet Virginia

Glenn Youngkin’s victory in Virginia has raised plenty of questions: Will Republican candidates in 2022 ...

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Glenn Youngkin’s victory in Virginia has raised plenty of questions: Will Republican candidates in 2022 emulate his style? Has Trump’s grip on the GOP loosened? And where exactly did Terry McAuliffe go wrong? Remnant stalwart Matt Continetti returns today to provide answers and engage in punditry so rank your head may spin. Tune in also for discussion of critical race theory, the future of the conservative movement, and Biden’s faltering presidency. And make sure you have your bingo cards on hand.

Show Notes:

– Matt’s page at the Washington Free Beacon

– Matt’s previous Remnant appearance

– Matt’s upcoming book, The Right

– The Morning Dispatch breaks down Youngkin’s win

– Frederick Hess: “The Right Way to Reject Critical Race Theory”

– A smile and a fleece vest

– The Wall Street Journal’s editorial on Youngkin’s victory

– The Sean Parnell scandal

– The Remnant with George Will

– Jonah on the right’s Hungary obsession

– “Nobody elected him to be FDR”

– Democrats want another candidate on the ballot in 2024

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Comments (22)
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  1. Avatar photo
    Tracie

    "I think he's really worried that people aren't paying enough attention to him..."

    Doesn't that explain everything?

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    Faraday

    I was thinking more yeti than unibomber Jonah.

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    Ben Connelly

    Great discussion. More importantly, I was walking down the hall in an Airbnb while listening to this podcast and glanced at the bookshelf, where I spotted a certain underrated second book. My hosts have good taste:

    https://unsplash.com/photos/t6iEbFsrSoc

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      Ben Connelly

      Other names on the shelf included the names Chaucer and Shakespeare, I believe, so it’s in good company

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  4. Richard Fulmer

    I think that the “thermostatic” political swing theory – each party goes too far when in office leading to their defeat in the next elections – applies to the Democrats but not to Republicans, or at least not to Trump. Trump’s policies were more popular than not. His tax cuts and deregulation boosted the economy and employment (despite his ridiculous, self-defeating tariffs on industrial inputs).

    What was not popular was the crazy that went along with those policies. Trump would likely have won in 2020 if he had just kept his mouth shut and had stayed off Twitter. But Trump is addicted to instant gratification and is psychologically incapable of staying out of the limelight. He obsessively *has* to make everything – even COVID – about himself.

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    Adicesa14

    Loved this ‘in-the weeds’ plus punditry session. Thank you.

    The Democratic Party seems to wield the racist accusation for situations when they don’t have anything prescient to say or won’t ‘face the music,’ which seems to be one or the other, always. It’s puzzling because it’s been so over-used that it has come to have little or no meaning for many people. Why do they do it? My best guess is they think it maintains their necessary, solid black voters, who are currently required for elective viability. Sadly, the inability to distinguish real racism from Dem talking-point drivel is gone, which is destructive because even though much racial progress has occurred since WWII, there’s more that could be had.

    It would be best for the Country if both political parties were strengthened. Then, populism would be minimized and vetted, qualified candidates would more often be presented for voter choice. Unfortunately, both parties have a problem beyond the candidate selection process. The Republican problem is Trump, and the Democrat problem is progressives. Regrettably, these negative, vindictive factions are likely to remain for at least several more election cycles, particularly the progressive who have maintained at least some relevance for more than a century.

    Here’s my vote for Liz Cheney running if Trump runs in 2024. I love Jonah’s daydream of ‘she torturing he’ through-out the campaign.

    Feel better, Jonah.

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  6. Pohl

    Good podcast. If you think working with a budding faction like the integralists would be tough, though, I can only imagine that you’re being polite towards David’s even more un-workable third-party idea of conservatives and progressives. Oh, but no V for Vendetta types. That would be crazy.

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    Kevin Johnson

    A wonderful conversation. Continetti reminds me a bit of the late Dick Lugar, for whom I worked for one year as an American Political Science Association Fellow, on loan from the State Department. Both have/had clear, classically liberal/conservative principles, openly and rationally argued. And while they are temperamentally very different, both also exude decency and willingness to deride or dismiss loons on their own “side” and to criticize opponents agreeably and intellectually rather than emotionally.

    They both also share a conservative sensibility, to accompany their conservative ideas. Conservatives don’t have to either accept the “burn it down” approach or the “bow to Trump” approach. After so long debating this in theory, with the Remnant leading the way, we have now seen that some forms of rejecting both Trumpism and the extreme resistance can work electorally (here deposit the dump truck load of caveats about why this might not be sustainable in other circumstances.)

    So Matt cheers me up that doing what I find to be right (opposing Trump AND the left’s cultural revolution) can also be effective. Biden’s incompetence and abandonment of the moderate stance that got loads of us to vote for him obviously helps, as does the emergence of non-frightening conservative candidates. Sustainable? We will see. But a guy can smile for a while.

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    CynthiaW

    Mr. Continetti is a cheerful guest.

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    Francesca

    Very enjoyable listen on my dog walk last night

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    Travis M

    I am 100% here for a Liz Cheney candidacy for the sole purpose of pissing off Trump in debates.

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