8 November—Josh Hammer is a generally obnoxious columnist who calls himself an “outspoken conservative” (which is actually a pretty damn good thing to be) and has tended to defend Donald Trump and Trumpublican shenanigans rather than criticize them. But his column yesterday, “MAGA forgot what populism is,” is an excellent post-mortem of Tuesday’s mid-term election, which he calls a “blue apocalypse.” Here’s the gist of his critique:

The GOP and the MAGA movement got their well-deserved comeuppance because of the Iran war, which Trump and his warlord [not Josh’s words] still haven’t made a valid case for, as well as irrational, wanton, excessive tariffs that have largely caused inflation and pissed off “Joe and Jane in flyover country.”

Then there’s the corruption and “elite self-dealing,” than which “there’s nothing more anti-populist,” according to Josh: “Some in and around the administration have engaged in the most brazen corruption—pardons, access, illicit cryptocurrency enrichment, real estate side deals—in a century or more of Washington life.

“When Americans see ‘special envoys’ Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner negotiate with wealthy Arab states while padding their bank accounts from those same states, they understand what’s going on.”

“Populism,” Josh tells us, “means governing of, by and for the people.” So “how,” he asks, “could a purportedly populist president not even bother to try to sell the [Iran] war to the public?” [Hey, it’s Trump.]

“It was astonishing political malpractice.” [Hey, it’s Trump? Nothing Trump is astonishing.]

Josh reminds us that “a true populist movement needs to focus on real-world concerns, not the conspiratorial rabbit holes of social media” and that “real populism means boosting wages and lowering inflation—not staying up to the wee hours of the night trying to crack the Charlie Kirk murder case (news flash: it was Tyler Robinson) or blaming the Jews for stabbing the GOP in the back.” [Like Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff?]

Josh suggests that “most of the necessary changes are easy.” [Dream on.]

“End the corruption. Wind down the global tariffs. Save face in Iran. Stop indulging brain-rotted conspiracists. Stop with the asinine lake name-change gimmicks. And get working quickly to lower gas and food prices. [Dream on. And don’t depend on the Democrats.]

“Above all, make life easier, not harder, for ordinary Americans.”

“If this happens,” Josh reckons, “the GOP will have a chance in 2028.” [And it’s not unlikely the Democrats will screw up, as is their wont, thus improving the GOP chance in 2028.]

In conclusion, Josh opines: “The MAGA movement died on Tuesday. But Trump’s final two White House years should still reflect the original MAGA spirit: governance for the people.”

Josh Hammer must be alluding to the original MAGA spirit of Ronald Reagan’s “Let’s Make American Great Again” campaign slogan in 1980 rather than the phrase Donald Trump swiped, trademarked, and put on baseball caps in 2016 . . .