Political Tea Leaves, The Main GOP Event, & What Evil Looks Like - Top 3 Takeaways – November 8th, 2023
- Political tea leaves. While the final results aren’t yet in, what is, is a clear sense that for the second consecutive Election Day Republicans generally laid an egg. It still appears to be a case of abortion trumping all else. It was literally on the ballot in Ohio and overwhelmingly won, as did recreational marijuana. But it was figuratively on the ballot in Kentucky and in Virginia with Democrats making it a key issue in races and winning with it. The results weren’t all bad for Republicans, it was a mixed bag of results including flips in multiple mayoral elections and a decent showing in Mississippi, down ballot in Kentucky and potentially in New Jersey. But what’s clear is that on balance Democrats had the better night, especially in Virigina where instead of Republicans flipping the state senate to Republican control, Democrats flipped the state house over to their control – an ominous sign for Republicans hoping to bring the Lovers’ state back into play in next year’s Presidential election.
- The main event. As per usual Florida is at the epicenter of the Republican political world today. And specifically, Miami will be in focus for not one but two heavyweight political events. The Republican primary debate and it’s counter-programing – the former and perhaps future President of the United States’ rally from Hialeah. Tonight’s Republican presidential debate marks the third time candidates have gathered on stage to debate each other and the third time that the front runner has not. But unlike previous counter programming maneuvers like the Tucker Carlson Twitter interview, Trump is going back to his roots for this one. As for who will be on the debate stage tonight – it's a more intimate affair with only five Republican candidates who qualified for the debate. The five who’re in are Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Christie and Tim Scott. This means that since the second debate many people’s favorite Muppet, Doug Burgum, is out as is of course Mike Pence who dropped out. This debate just may prove to be the most consequential to date because Nikki Haley’s heels are hot on DeSantis’ heels – including having now passed Florida’s governor for 2nd place in polling in two of the first four primary states (New Hampshire and South Carolina). The race to be the top non-Trump candidate has intensified and the time to separate is neigh. We’re only two months away from the first votes of this cycle starting to count and given Trump’s bigly lead in all of the polls there’s only room for one non-Trump candidate if they’re to have any chance to win. DeSantis hasn’t moved the needle in any debates yet. Nikki has been nudging higher. That’s the matchup to match. But while 1,700 people will be in the Adrian Arsht Center for the debate, there will be many thousands more at Ted Henricks Stadium at Henry Milander Park rallying with the former and perhaps future President of the United States. Which is the main event? I report...you decide.
- This is what evil looks like. An elderly Jewish man struck in the head with a megaphone and murdered, a woman driving into a building with the belief that it was a Jewish school. The University of Pennsylvania alerting the FBI about targeted death threats to Jewish faculty and students on campus. Brandeis University disbanding the student organization Students for Justice in Palestine after the SJP called on its chapters to engage in conduct that supports Hamas in its call for the violent elimination of Israel and the Jewish people. These are just a few of the latest bits of news from around the country in the past couple of days. On a daily basis, I continue to hear from people who are still shocked at stories like those and the blatant anti-Semitism that’s on display across society. I’ve continued to receive questions from people who’ve perhaps for the first time on this issue, the issue of Islamic law, have begun to realize the extent of its effect on wide swaths of its believers. After 9-11 the understanding of the threat of Islamic terror was real. But the terrorists weren’t Americans, and the threats to Americans weren’t staged here. What's different now is that we’re talking about threats and violence from Americans against Americans in the name of Islam (and most specifically Palestinian “liberation” - which is defined as the destruction of the Jewish state). What we’ve witnessed stateside, and what continues to play out stateside is precisely what I was warning of weeks ago when I warned that polling indicated that 58% of American Muslims believed that Hamas was justified in attacking Israel. That doesn’t mean that 58% of American Muslims will act out, but what it does mean is that most are generally supportive of an Islamic terrorist organization in Hamas, which means the most radical elements within the population are likely to act out and are likely to be dangerous. This is why it’s absurd for President Biden to have created an Islamophobia task force, as opposed to an anti-Semitic task force. It’s clear what the biggest threat is. And the acts that have been carried out are what evil looks like. And unfortunately, with a majority of American Muslims expressing support for Hamas, they’re expressing support for evil. People need to be aware. This is still about Islam and will continue to be because the elimination of Jews is what the Quran calls for under sharia law. Islamic terror is a way of life and a matter of death. In just the past week there have been 25 Islamic terror attacks in 7 different countries killing 149 people. And none of those include anything that’s happened in the U.S. The odds are as per usual that you simply haven’t heard about any of them. That’s what evil looks like. The uncomfortable truth is the sheer volume of people in this country who’re supportive of it along with the growing number of people in this country acting out on it.