That was the fear amongst many conservatives, including myself, who saw in Trump a dangerous, ignorant, narcissistic, demagogue and grifter who was untethered from the thing that mattered most to us — conservatism.

We’d later learn he was untethered from other things, too — a moral compass, ethical standards, the United States Constitution, American law, and even reality at times.

We’d watch Trump convince previously principled conservatives to abandon their principles. We’d watch Republicans jettison policy for culture wars, democracy for division, political competence for conspiracy theories.

We’d watch Trump convince an angry mob to storm the U.S. Capitol in a brazen and violent attempt to overturn democracy. We’d watch him tempt the legal system to hold him accountable for dozens of alleged felonies, including fraud and obstruction.

And we’d watch his once mighty empire crumble as he faces hundreds of millions in legal fines and fees.

Now, years later, despite everything we’ve watched, Trump is poised to be the Republican nominee once again after nearly sweeping the primaries on Super Tuesday.

The one ray of hope inside the Republican Party, a party that Trump has wholly remade in his crooked image, was Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina and Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.

After knocking out bigger spenders and buzzier candidates like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, she became the last woman standing between Trump and the nomination. She impressively won 40% of the vote in numerous Republican primary and caucus states, and won outright Vermont and Washington, D.C., making her the first Republican woman ever to win a primary and the only Republican to beat him anywhere since 2016.

She wasn’t a perfect candidate, but she spoke to a growing number of Republicans, moderates, and independents who desperately wanted a Trump alternative.

She represented a return to normalcy, conservative principles, and problem-solving, and promised a new generation of leadership at a time where both frontrunners are noticeably old and slipping.

But just as Trump bragged about ridding the GOP of good conservatives like Sen. Mitt Romney, and reducing it to 100% MAGA, she’d ultimately suffer the fate of every other Republican since 2016 who has lost to Trump.

The Republican Party is, as Trump says, 100% MAGA now. There’s no going back. And with Haley’s departure, that becomes even clearer.

But Trump is wrong in one sense. The GOP may be condensed and purified of apostates. But Republican voters are not united around Trump.

No one losing 40% of the Republican vote in places like Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina could claim voters are united.

In North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, less than 40% of Republican voters consider themselves MAGA. And a huge majority of Haley voters in North Carolina, South Carolina, and California say they won’t support Trump in the general, according to exit polling.

That makes Trump a considerably weak candidate in the general election — and Haley’s campaign has a lot to do with that.

Lucky for him, President Biden is just as weak, facing low approval numbers and increasing concerns over his age.

Unluckily for us, one thing is clear after Super Tuesday: we’ll end up with someone deeply unpopular no matter who wins.

As for Nikki Haley, her political future is unclear. Certainly, something could happen to Trump — you can fill in the blank. Her candidacy could be resurrected at some point.

But the Republican Party isn’t with Haley, it’s with Trump.

And there are some early indications she might end up returning to him after all of this.

As she said when withdrawing: “It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it, who did not support him. And I hope he does that.”

And I asked her campaign on Wednesday morning if there was a world in which she could eventually endorse him, and, alas, they implied that there was.

It’s disappointing, but predictable and probably politically smart if she wants a future in today’s GOP — there’s simply no surviving outside of Trump’s orbit.

So now we must accept that Trump will be the nominee and is still the standard bearer for the Republican Party, and everything that brings with it.

But for a brief, fleeting moment, there was the promise of Nikki Haley.

secuppdailynews@gmail.com

That famous aphorism delightfully — and somewhat snarkily — illuminates what animated the Founders to form a democratic republic and break with the oppressive rule of the monarchy.

Practically since the day America was born, there’s been a national debate over government’s role.

Historically, on the right there’s been a push toward smaller government — “starve the beast” economic policy, fewer regulations, states’ rights, lower taxes, a leaner social welfare system.

And on the left, there’s typically been more optimism about what government can accomplish if unleashed — more public spending, income and wealth redistribution, more regulation, expanded social safety nets.

Today, we find ourselves in an odd position, where one side isn’t advocating for bigger government or smaller government — but no government at all. That is, a government that is marked less by its size and entirely by its inability to do anything.

Whether we call it intransigence or obstructionism — and neither term is new to Washington — today’s Republicans seem utterly convinced that among their many expectations as members of Congress, solving problems isn’t one of them.

How else can we explain their inability to govern even themselves let alone the country?

The Republican Party writ large, as represented by chaos agents like Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene, has prioritized everything BUT solving problems over the past few years.

Division, purity tests, owning the libs, keeping their base angry and afraid, prostrating to Donald Trump, unleashing culture wars, and getting reelected are just some of the things that Republicans have decided are far more important than governing.

On immigration, Republicans infamously just rejected a bipartisan deal that would have given them more than they’ve ever gotten on border security, including things they’ve insisted are an urgent matter of national security.

Instead, they focused on getting Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas impeached — before their two week vacation.

And now, as a government shutdown looms, House Speaker Mike Johnson is still refusing to bring an aid package for Ukraine and Israel to the floor, insisting Congress must secure the border first — something, remember, it just punted on.

Johnson has also pushed to move the shutdown deadlines AGAIN, rather than sign any long term funding bills.

While the immigration shenanigans are a perfect example of this Republican Party’s total indifference to governing, it’s hardly the only issue they’ve been unmoved to fix.

After Trump’s Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republicans had no plan for addressing reproductive health concerns of millions of women and families. The sudden upheaval after 50 years of settled law left many in the crosshairs, from a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim to a Texas mom who required a life-saving abortion. And now, as that ruling also threatens to throw IVF access into limbo, Republicans still have no answers other than “fend for yourselves.”

On gun violence, Republicans have blamed everything BUT guns to avoid bringing any real solutions to the table. After yet another horrific school shooting in Nashville, Greene blamed “hormones like testosterone and medication for mental illness.”

Rep. Tim Burchett admitted candidly, “there’s not a whole heck of a lot you can do about it.”

And just last month, Trump told an Iowa audience to “get over it,” after a school shooting in the state a day earlier.

On climate change, an issue which many younger Republican voters are worried about, GOP lawmakers are more interested in removing the issue from federal oversight, rather than on any solutions that the public sector might be able to offer.

We can blame Trump for a lot of this — he was simply uninterested in policy, and doubly uninterested in solving problems unless it directly benefited him. But the party is now responding to voters who just want their grievances amplified, but not necessarily addressed in any meaningful way, like through policy or legislative solutions.

Being angry at the problem — and explicitly not solving it — is the Republican Party platform.

It’s a strategy that hasn’t resulted in many electoral wins over the past few years. But in running Trump again and digging in their heels, it seems the No Solutions GOP is tripling down on its commitment to do nothing.

I miss the days when we used to argue over how to solve problems, and criticize opponents for merely having the “wrong” solutions. Now, solutions are absent entirely.

To be sure, voters are disappointed in Democrats as well. On the border, crime, and the economy practical solutions have been few and far between.

Unless our parties can turn away from self-preservation and embrace a radical commitment to problem solving, our government — big or small — will remain ineffectual, unproductive, and deeply distrusted.

secuppdailynews@gmail.com

“What does it mean?” is simply too tempting a question to answer honestly, which is sometimes, “It doesn’t mean anything” or “It doesn’t mean that much.”

Former Rep. Tom Suozzi defeated Mazi Pilip to win back the seat once occupied by the disgraced, truth-averse Republican and self-proclaimed diva George Santos, who is fetching $350 a video on Cameo while he awaits trial for the 23 fraud-related charges he is facing.

So what does Suozzi’s decisive 8-point win mean? Well, not nothing, but not everything either.

And with all due respect to my friend and CNN colleague, former Rep. Max Rose, whom I joined on television Wednesday morning, the victory was not “monumental” for the Democratic Party and President Biden. Not even close.

But here’s what we can take away:

First, special elections aren’t usually a bellwether for national elections, and this is no exception. It’s a district that, despite being flipped by Santos in 2022, Biden won by 9 points in 2020, and where Democrats lead Republicans 39% to 28%. Another third of registered voters are independents.

Suozzi also held the seat for three consecutive terms making him a de facto incumbent.

Pilip, on the other hand, was a relative unknown. She had just under two months to introduce herself to voters and in that time offered up some confusing and mixed messages on abortion, and immigration, and even whether she was supporting former President Donald Trump.

Democrats also outspent her $14 million to $8 million. So, to call her the underdog is a fair statement.

But Suozzi’s win can tell us something about how Democrats can win despite the fact that Biden is unpopular.

First, he ran as a moderate, and reminded voters of his centrism.

“I think my whole campaign is a warning sign for Democrats,” he told ABC News. “I’ve always been somebody who has been battling with my own party. I’ve always been a centrist…and they asked me to run. Why? Because they know my message is what we need to be talking about.”

He also, importantly, didn’t run with Biden, whom he acknowledged was “very unpopular” in his district. When asked if he wanted the president to campaign for him, he said, “I don’t think it would be helpful, just as I don’t think Donald Trump would be helpful to my opponent.”

He also gave some very frank — and even heretical — assessments of Biden. “The bottom line is, he’s old,” he said on Monday. He said he’d “likely” support him “if he ends up being the Democratic candidate,” but also admitted there’s “all kinds of debate as to whether he’s going to stick it out or not.”

On the issues, he also strayed from Democratic talking points, which have painted a far rosier picture of the border crisis, the economy and crime than many voters are feeling.

“The Democratic brand is in trouble here, and we have to do a lot to overcome that,” he told CNN earlier this month.

Suozzi was staunchly supportive of Israel, despite heavy criticism of Biden’s support among the party’s progressive base.

He supported a bipartisan deal on immigration, which included increased border security, and admitted, “people in my district are upset with the Democrats because they haven’t been tough enough on things like the border.”

“They’re worried about the immigration crisis, people streaming across the border. What the hell’s going on? Seems so chaotic,” he said, echoing the frustrations of many Americans who blame both parties for inaction.

He also talked tough on crime, a problem Democrats often claim is overblown by Republicans. “Crime and immigration and taxes is not a Republican message,” he said. “It’s an American message, and Democrats as well as Republicans need to be addressing these issues.”

In short, Suozzi knew his district, but he also seemed to have a pretty good read on where the country is, too — and it’s not on the extremes, where both parties prefer to live these days. It’s in the moderate, centrist middle, where common sense prevails in the face of partisan posturing.

The lesson isn’t that Democratic policies are winning — in fact, it may be the opposite, and acknowledging as much goes a long way.

So, if Democrats are interested in regaining the House, holding the Senate and winning the White House again, all despite having an unpopular president leading the party, take note — this is how you do it.

secuppdailynews@gmail.com

The fall of the Roman Empire, aside from pre-occupying the minds of all modern American men evidently, is a cautionary tale for every advanced society, including ours.

That may sound alarmist, but trust me — our Coliseum is already crumbling.

One need only gaze upon our once noble and dignified body of government — Congress — to see the cracks in the bricks, thanks in no small part to the usurpation of the Republican Party by one Donald J. Trump.

Lest you thought his ouster in 2020 marked the end of dysfunction and chaos in Washington, the turbid depths to which the Republican Party can sink have only steepened, believe it or not.

And the Grand Old Party isn’t looking so grand these days, as it both comically and tragically pinballs from one incompetent and embarrassing episode to another. Ding, ding…ding, ding, ding.

Putting aside the ugly pall cast on the party by its embattled frontrunner for president — he’s facing 91 criminal charges in four separate indictments involving everything from fraud to insurrection — the Republican Party he built and shaped into his likeness is doing just as badly.

The dysfunction and self-destruction is nothing short of stunning. And just taking into account the most recent humiliations — literally from this one week — the Republican Party seems to be all but collapsing.

There was the failed effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a wholly political exercise presumably meant to punish and embarrass the Biden administration. It had the opposite effect, however, when House Democrats outmaneuvered the Republicans, who failed to come up with the votes.

GOP House members were quick to complain about their self-own.

“I was embarrassed for our conference, for our party, because we can do better than we did last night,” Rep. Lance Gooden told CNN’s Manu Raju.

“He didn’t count votes,” said Rep. Ralph Norman of Speaker Mike Johnson. “I think he will next time.”

“When you are handed the keys to the kingdom…then when you have the majority there is an expectation that you will be able to govern. And we’ve just struggled with that over and over again,” said Rep. Steve Womack.

The stunt was such a failure of vote-counting that Rep. Matt Gaetz, who’d boastfully orchestrated the ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year with no plan for his replacement, was feeling a little wistful. “[W]ouldn’t it have been nice to still have Kevin McCarthy in the House of Representatives? Never thought you’d hear me say that.”

The debacle prompted others to question the wisdom of that hamfisted effort to defenestrate McCarthy. “Getting rid of Speaker McCarthy has officially turned into an unmitigated disaster,” Rep. Thomas Massie lamented. “Name one thing that’s improved under the new speaker.”

Over at the party’s governing body, the Republican National Committee, things are just as dysfunctional. There, chairwoman Ronna McDaniel announced she is stepping down — in the middle of an election year no less — due to pressure from Trump. (This is a woman who dropped her maiden name — Romney — because Trump didn’t like it, and yet he still sees her as insufficiently loyal to him.)

Gaetz, who, remember, ousted McCarthy over personal grievances, submitted his ringing endorsement of the former speaker for McDaniel’s replacement, tweeting, “Kevin is well organized and a very high-revenue fundraiser. He will also be well-liked by the RNC Committee.”

Then there’s the border bill disaster.

House Republicans tanked a bipartisan border bill, stuffed with provisions they’d long been asking for, because Trump — an unelected and four-time indicted private citizen — prefers to use the issue to get elected rather than solve it.

But the pyrrhic victory backfired. Reaching the pinnacle of utter uselessness, Republicans took an issue they were winning on — Biden’s broken border — and handed Democrats a very helpful talking point.

Afterwards, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell lamented that his party “can’t get an outcome.” And for backing a border bill, McConnell was blasted by Sen. Ted Cruz, who called for his replacement. “I think a Republican leader should actually lead this conference and should advance the priorities of Republicans.” (The border bill would have delivered on a number of Republican priorities.)

American politics has moved out of the dignity of the Roman Forum and into the vulgarity of the Coliseum, thanks in large part to Trump and his GOP.

And rather than govern or legislate, the Republican Party seems to prefer the theatrics of the Coliseum — bloody battles between gladiators and wild beasts, punctuated intermittently by magic shows, acrobats, and executions.

Can the GOP survive its own self-destruction? Does it want to?

For America’s sake, let’s hope so.

Because the last part of the quote is “And when Rome falls — the world.”

secuppdailynews@gmail.com

Now that the singer’s beau Travis Kelce and his Kansas City Chiefs are going to the Super Bowl, that deranged conspiracy theory is getting more legs from the right-wing, MAGA-loving crowd that’s been rabid fans of other definitely true and totally plausible scenarios, like the one where John F. Kennedy Jr. comes back from the dead to run with former President Donald Trump. Could happen.

Never mind their track record on such wild whoppers — just because Pizzagate didn’t pan out and Biden probably isn’t a robot doesn’t mean this one isn’t true.

In between her Eras Tour’s 151 performances, it’s not hard to believe Swift has also been working with Deep State defense contractors on the side to manufacture a relationship with the Kelce, so that Americans finally discover the previously unknown singer and the NFL’s middling tight end, somehow rig the Super Bowl so that his bumbling team can win, and become so famous that when she endorses Biden it secures his reelection. What’s not to buy?

It shouldn’t matter that Swift is already one of the most famous people on the planet, Kelce is the NFL’s best tight end, and this will be the Chiefs’ fourth Super Bowl appearance in five years. Or that Swift already endorsed Biden in 2020. Who cares — this is totally happening.

But in case you’re a little skeptical (i.e., a brainwashed establishment lib), I’ll tell you how we got here, to a world in which a former Republican presidential candidate is wondering — out loud — “if there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall.”

On the evening of Jan. 9 this year, while you were probably taking down Christmas lights or doing dry January with a mocktail that — let’s face it — didn’t quite hit the same, over on Fox News a truth-defying primetime host was busy concocting yet another bogus and utterly bizarre story to rile up his gullible viewers.

“Have you ever wondered why or how [Swift] blew up like this?” Jesse Watters asked, seemingly unaware that the 12-time Grammy winner and billionaire has been famous for quite some time.

“Well, around four years ago, the Pentagon’s psychological operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting,” he told his viewers.

His proof? A video of a woman at a conference in a small Eastern European country suggesting that online communities could work with influencers like Swift to counter disinformation and misinformation online.

The speaker was a Johns Hopkins University research engineer, an academic. She does not work in the Pentagon’s psychological operations unit. She is not even a government employee.

No one discussed turning Swift into a Pentagon “asset.”

And the presentation was not at an official-sounding “NATO meeting,” but at a conference for the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, based in Estonia.

The Pentagon quipped back at Watters’ ridiculous hypothesis, “as for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off.” Get it?

But as Swift and Kelce’s relationship blossomed, and the three-time Super Bowl champs won their AFC championship game — inexplicably! — the false prophecy became super-duper true to a MAGA base that’s been conditioned to fall for even the lamest attempts at fooling them.

“George Soros owns Taylor Swift music,” penned the busted conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on X. “She is a performer following orders. The dying system is trying to subconsciously switch her out with Biden in young voters minds. This only works if you are not living an awake life. If you are reading this and don’t understand there is a good chance you are in a waking trance.”

“I have never been more convinced that the Super Bowl is rigged,” Jack Lombardi, a rightwing personality posted on X.

Jack Posobiec, the favorite mouthpiece of white supremacists, insisted: “They’re gearing up for an operation to use Taylor Swift in the election against everything: against Trump, for Biden, they’re gonna get her and all you know they call them the Swifties, they’re going to turn those into voters, you watch.” No word on who “they” are.

All because a guy on Fox News — who’s pushed dozens of dumb conspiracy theories involving everything from “Law & Order: SVU” to the Grand Canyon — threw some more manure into the ether to keep MAGA angry, afraid and, in this case, delusional.

But angry, afraid, and delusional is just how Watters likes his viewers — because if they were happy, healthy, and sane, he couldn’t keep peddling this lunacy.

secuppdailynews@gmail.com

But I was 33 years old when Hustler, the Larry Flynt smut rag, published what we’ve come to know now as a deepfake image of me…with a penis in my mouth.

The accompanying headline read, pointedly, “What Would S.E. Cupp Look Like with a Dick in Her Mouth?”

I was apparently targeted by Flynt for the sin of being a conservative woman. “Her hotness is diminished,” the piece read, “when she espouses dumb ideas like defunding Planned Parenthood.”

I was on set at a TV network when a friend called to tell me about the very graphic image of me that was now circulating. What happened immediately was a mix of panic and nausea. How many people are going to see this? How many are going to think it’s real?

Then came the awful task of telling my colleagues and bosses the humiliating story. I had to call my parents and family members. I called other employers I worked for. All were sympathetic, of course. But that didn’t make it any less horrifying. I had protected my reputation doggedly, and now I was having to tell people I respected that I was somehow in Hustler.

I got a ton of support, not only from my employers, but from the women at “The View,” as well as Gloria Steinem, NARAL, and Planned Parenthood, to their great credit.

But despite the support, I actually felt worse as time went on. I felt dirty and ashamed, as if I’d actually done the thing I was shown doing. I was sick at the thought of anyone seeing me that way, and worried that one day my future children would see that somewhere in the bowels of the internet.

Back then, it was defended as an issue of free speech and satire. Flynt, who had won many a lawsuit over these sorts of things, was defiant, saying, “As the result of our publishing an ad parody of political pundit S.E. Cupp that depicted her having oral sex, the prudish and delusional right wing has accused me and my magazine of being sexist and waging a war on women. That’s absurd.”

Of course, that’s exactly what it was, and it was intended to degrade and shame me. He went even further, saying, “Find another horse to beat. We don’t know anything about Ms. Cupp’s personal life, but we do know that oral sex is practiced by the majority of adult Americans, both male and female.”

In other words, the image we manufactured is probably not all that fake.

This awful chapter came rushing back to me with deepfakes of Taylor Swift, generated by artificial intelligence, circulating on social media. They showed her in graphic, sexualized positions at a Kansas City Chiefs game.

While she benefits from being famous, so her fans presumably know they’re fake, many others perusing the web might not — or don’t care if they are. Swift hasn’t spoken about them yet, but I can only imagine how she’s feeling.

These images are a horrific violation of a woman’s body, integrity, and privacy, and they can have a very deep impact on a woman’s psyche and self-worth.

That it’s happening to a massive celebrity like Swift is likely no consolation for the thousands of teen girls and young women it’s also happening to — girls and women who have no public recourse and perhaps no resources to fight them or prove to friends, family, and employers that they are not real.

Online bullying, including revenge porn and images like these, has led to a plethora of high-profile suicides amongst adolescent girls, and at least 13% of all adolescents have made serious suicide attempts because of cyberbullying.

Deepfake porn makes up 96% of all deepfakes, almost exclusively targeting women.

Rep. Joe Morelle has authored the bipartisan Preventing Deepfakes of Intimate Images Act. “Deepfake pornography is sexual exploitation, it’s abusive, and I’m astounded it is not already a federal crime,” he said.

HR3106 would prohibit the non-consensual disclosure of digitally altered intimate images, which makes the sharing of these images a criminal offense, and creates a right of private action for victims to seek damages.

If this had existed 12 years ago, I might not have had to endure the humiliating experience of being sexually exploited, shamed, and then told dismissively and callously to “find another horse to beat.”

I survived that experience, but not every woman will. It’s time to end this assault on women — pass HR3106.

secuppdailynews@gmail.com

We have some insight into how Trump managed to pull that off. It may be simply because a majority of Republican voters in that state are convinced that President Biden’s win over Trump in 2020 was illegitimate, according to results of CNN’s entrance poll.

After all, it can’t be purely about “the issues,” as we like to say. On immigration, Trump failed to deliver on the wall or solve our broken system while president. On abortion, Trump touts the overturning of Roe v. Wade as his signature accomplishment, but is also signaling he’s not willing to go as far as pro-lifers want. As for the economy, Trump exploded the debt and the deficit, something Republicans are supposed to find problematic. His trade war with China resulted in a huge blow to Iowa farmers, which Trump had to offset by sending them government checks (something Republicans are also supposed to loathe).

The Iowa caucuses weren’t about electability either, apparently. Roughly 40% of caucus-goers prioritized a candidate who “shared their values,” while only 14% said they cared that he or she could beat Biden.

They couldn’t possibly have been about what’s best for the Republican Party. Trump lost the White House, the House and the Senate for the GOP in four short years. Not so much with all the winning.

And they clearly weren’t about morality or character, either. A whopping 72% of Trump voters in Iowa said he was fit for the presidency, even if convicted of a crime.

So, congratulations, Iowa, you’ve fallen for it! You’ve nominated a guy who didn’t deliver on most of his promises the first time, who was handily defeated by Biden, who lost the whole smash for Republicans, and who might just be in prison when the election actually takes place. But at least you’ll be able to sleep at night believing — falsely — that Biden isn’t the actual president. Terrific.

But as commanding as Trump’s lead is — and no one should doubt that millions of other MAGA voters around the country are equally as committed and hoodwinked — it’s worth pointing out that almost half of Republican voters turned out in frigid temperatures to vote for someone other than Trump.

Now, that fact remains utterly meaningless if it continues to be split between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who finished neck and neck in Iowa, DeSantis in second and Haley in third.

But the voters who want a Trump alternative exist, and DeSantis and Haley are hoping to live another day — or primary — to win them over.

So with Iowa in the rearview mirror, it’s now on to New Hampshire, another small state, unrepresentative of the country’s electorate, with outsized early importance.

There, Trump is also ahead in the polls, but Haley isn’t far behind. DeSantis, on the other hand, is polling in the single digits. More than a month later, it’s on to South Carolina, where Haley and DeSantis are polling second and third, respectively, behind Trump.

So in order to pierce Trump’s seeming inevitability, the race will come down to a battle between two competing factors:

How long can Ron DeSantis go versus how far can Nikki Haley go?

DeSantis’s problems are immediate. New Hampshire and South Carolina aren’t his voters. And he’s running out of money. Can he last on the dwindling fundraising he’s got long enough to make it to more favorable states?

Haley’s problems are more distant. She’s well positioned for good results in New Hampshire and South Carolina, and just announced a huge fundraising haul for Q4 2023. But the map beyond those two states gets harder for Haley, where there are fewer moderates and independents to woo.

It’s hard to say which is the more enviable position to be in — having money problems or map problems — but neither is ideal. DeSantis has to hope for an influx of cash from some very bullish and trusting donors and Haley has to hope DeSantis drops out early enough to give her a chance to be competitive in later states.

How long versus how far.

Of course, it might all be pointless in the end. Nearly 70% of all Republican voters still believe the 2020 election was stolen. If that’s all that’s motivating the majority of the party — as it appeared to be Monday night — it’s safe to say Trump will be their nominee.

Thanks, Iowa.

secuppdailynews@gmail.com

The exasperated driver, whose identity is as of yet unknown, had to finally get out of his car in Manhattan and scream at a group of more than 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters who decided this week that the best way to draw attention to their cause of the fighting in Gaza was to block traffic and access to several bridges and a tunnel in the most populous city in America.

As a mom myself, I can tell you — anyone who came between me and my child wouldn’t get as polite a warning.

“Our aim today was to clog the arteries of New York City to draw attention to the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people and the people of Gaza,” said Jamil Madbak, the 29-year-old organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement — the same group that’s previously celebrated terrorism against Israel and the murders of innocent Jews.

“American bombs and American-made internationally prohibited chemical weapons are being dropped on Arabs again, financed by American tax dollars and protected by the American media, again. Those in power think they can get away with this, but us being out here every week is our way of saying we won’t let them.”

No word yet on whether this stunt to snarl traffic using the Holland Tunnel and the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges, was successful in lobbying the Biden administration or Israel to change their course in the war against Hamas in the wake of the terrorist group’s barbaric slaughter of more than a thousand innocent Jews and the kidnapping of hundreds more on Oct. 7.

But it did end in the arrest of more than 320 protesters in New York.

Similar protests blocking access to JFK, LAX, and Chicago O’Hare airports over the holidays — on the busiest travel days of the year — also resulted in dozens of arrests and delays for legions of frustrated travelers who couldn’t get to their flights.

If you’re wondering how these obnoxious, self-important, unserious, and even dangerous antics would be an effective way of eliciting sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians suffering in wartime Gaza, your guess is as good as mine. I’m betting that most weary travelers who couldn’t get to work or missed a flight to see their loved ones aren’t going to be buoyed by the fact that, “Hey, at least it’s for a good cause.”

In the wake of that awful tragedy in October, pro-Palestinian groups like PYM and Students for Justice in Palestine have embarked on misguided and arguably ineffective stunts like these to get their point across and try to bring some favorable attention to their efforts. But harassing unsuspecting bystanders hasn’t done the trick. Nor has it endeared them to anyone but each other.

Nor have the countless videos of young anti-Israel activists tearing down posters of Israeli hostages all over our cities. Nor have the threats against Jewish students on college campuses. Nor have all the strongly worded letters demanding various institutions denounce Israel for the death of their own civilians.

What this all misses is that there are plenty of Americans who are persuadable on this, who simply want peace in Gaza, who are sympathetic to the suffering of the Palestinian people, who might even object to Israel’s political objectives. But holding up their flight or keeping them from their family is itself a version of indiscriminate hostage taking, and that is sure to change no one’s hearts and minds.

Neither is blaming Israel for the murders of its own people, refusing to acknowledge that Hamas is a terrorist organization, or calling for the genocide of Jews with signs on college campuses like “Holocaust 2.0.”

It’s stuff like this that starts to verge on Westboro Baptist Church territory. When the infamous hate group protests the funerals of gay people and AIDS victims with signs like “God sent the killer” and “God hates f-gs,” it’s hard to imagine that needlessly and heartlessly harassing these grieving people is going to win anyone over to a point of view that is already controversial and offensive to many. And outside of that small group of activists, it just turns everyone else off.

The cause of peace for innocent Palestinians and an end to the war in Gaza is a serious, righteous and good one, at its core. It needs serious voices, and deserves advocates who promote compassion and clarity, not callousness and chaos. But these unserious performances — which range from silly to annoying to deeply offensive — are only hurting that cause.

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Former President Donald Trump still overwhelmingly leads the Republican pack, despite the fact that he’s facing more than 90 criminal charges and four different indictments and may, at some point, have to run from prison.

Trump voters, blinded by their fealty to him and convinced that he is the unwitting target of a grand conspiracy to take him down, are unbothered by this historic, unprecedented, and otherwise humiliating state of affairs — just as they are unbothered by his attempt at overturning a democratic election and inciting a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, his recent guilty ruling in the sexual abuse of E. Jean Carroll, his latest fraud ruling, and his near-constant praise of evil dictators who hate our country and all that we stand for…to name just a few indiscretions.

Yes, all of this is just fine with Trump voters. In fact, what would normally be categorized as a very bad year for anyone, but in particular someone running for president, was actually a banner year for Trump. He started off 2023 polling at 45.2% among Republican voters, and ended the year at 61.3%. Lucky guy.

So, despite how discomfiting that is, and how queasy it makes many of us who are not in the idolatrous cult of MAGA, it seems very likely that Trump will be the Republican nominee.

But, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis still believe they have a fighting chance, and Iowa will be the first indicator of whether that’s true or wishful thinking.

Haley in particular might be in a good position to win over independents and moderates — and with the MAGA base’s rabidity and fierce loyalty to Trump, that might be her best bet at winning the nomination.

She seems to know this ecumenically. She’s already spent much of the primary positioning herself as the saner choice, often pointing out, albeit gently, that Trump is followed by chaos. Again, this is not a thing that bothers his voters — but it does bother independents and moderates.

On abortion, she’s opted for language and policy that sounds more compassionate and reasonable than many in the Republican Party. And that may resonate in Iowa, for example, where 61% of adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and 70% of women say the same.

And in the Hawkeye State, where a plurality of Republicans actually said that Trump’s recent attacks on immigrants — that they were “poisoning the blood” of our country — makes them more likely to vote for him, her rebuke of those remarks are far more likely to sit well with independents and moderates.

In Iowa, that’s not an insignificant voting block, where there are more registered independent voters than registered Republican voters.

And perhaps most importantly, independents are allowed to change their affiliation on caucus day to vote for Republicans if they so choose.

So, this would all seem to be very good news for Haley, right?

Yes. Except, for some reason, her Iowa ground operation isn’t going after independents.

In a bizarre twist, Haley’s team is only targeting registered Republicans, believing that’s primarily who turns out to vote in caucuses. “There really haven’t even in recent history any historical indications of campaigns going out and really targeting independents, and they also have a pretty low rate of actually showing up to participate,” says Drew Klein, senior adviser for Americans for Prosperity, the PAC that is essentially running her GOTV — get out the vote — effort in Iowa.

While that may be true, this might also be the best shot she has at narrowing that gap between her and Trump. And, considering how undyingly loyal they are to him, chasing MAGA voters seems utterly futile.

There’s some more good news for Haley. CNN announced she, DeSantis and Trump were the only candidates to qualify for its Jan. 10 debate in Des Moines, effectively setting up a DeSantis vs. Haley match since Trump won’t show up.

For her, it’s another chance to position herself as the sane Trump alternative, especially against DeSantis, who’s been running to the right of Trump on many issues.

Or, Haley could use the final Iowa debate to try, in vain, to win over MAGA voters — voters who are so devoted to Trump they say they would vote for him to run the country from prison.

Ignoring independents and moderates in Iowa seems like a very bad strategy. They’re gettable votes, while Trump voters are not.

We’ll see if the odd move helps or hurts Haley in just under two weeks. Here we go.

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2023 wasn’t an easy year for many of us. It was marked by war — in Ukraine and later in Gaza. With Hamas’s barbaric attack on innocent Jews in October came a shocking and deeply disturbing rise in antisemitism here at home, and a heartbreaking feeling among many American Jews that they are no longer safe in their cities or their college campuses. With that also came a tragic humanitarian loss of life among innocent Palestinians, for whom there is seemingly no end in sight.

It was also a tough year economically for many Americans. Inflation and high cost of living meant tightening the purse strings yet again. And, despite President Biden’s insistence that the economy is improving, it still remains the top concern among voters.

Donald Trump, running for reelection, was catapulted back into our lives after being indicted four separate times on more than 90 charges. He ended the year by telling his enemies, “MAY THEY ‘ROT IN HELL. AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS!”

We’re facing a 2024 election that very few Americans want, and one in which issues like immigration, abortion, and crime are deepening divides.

With all of this hanging over us, it’s hard to locate some optimism heading into the new year. But that’s what New Year’s resolutions are for — an earnest attempt at manifesting some control and hope in an otherwise chaotic and disorienting environment.

With this in mind, my New Year’s resolution is to find myself again.

It felt like 2023 was about surrendering to so many forces beyond my control, whether that was at work, in the world, within my mental health journey, and in my job as a mom. Sometimes that’s what you have to do to survive. But in doing so, I lost myself a little. Okay — a lot. In 2024, I’m determined to re-discover the confident and self-assured woman I used to be, before life got so damn hard.

As I do every year, I asked my friends and colleagues to share their resolutions, in hopes that it will provide some inspiration for all of us. Here’s what they said:

Michael Kelly, actor, “House of Cards” and “Jack Ryan”

“It’s basically to be a better version of myself. I have been thinking so strongly about how divided we are as a country (almost finished reading Liz Cheney’s book) and how I have addressed the other side during these past few years. Anyway, it’s something along those lines of being better at understanding and having real conversations. And not just politically.”

Molly Jong-Fast, journalist

“A lot of people died around me this year. My goal for next year is less death.”

Kyung Lah, CNN reporter

“I do have one — and one I’m really going to accomplish because time is truly fleeting. My mom was diagnosed with dementia. And in aiding her struggle, I’m learning that the memories that have stuck for her have been exactly what you’d expect — the moments of intense laughter with her children, often over food made at home. My resolution this year is to create as many of those memories as I can — with my husband, my children and my friends — over food we make and love. Memories that stick through illness, through age, and disease. I don’t care what those memories are — I just want to hold onto those moments.”

Mehdi Hasan, MSNBC host

“To take risks.”

Henry Winkler, The Fonz

“Continue my journey to being my most authentic self!”

Brad Garrett, actor and comedian

“To stop trying to understand or rationalize support for Capt. Marmalade (Trump).”

Andy Ostroy, host “The Back Room”

“To throw an amazing Trump-conviction party!”

Diana Falzone, Mediaite

“My wish for 2024 is peace in a turbulent, divisive world. I’m not trying to sound like a Miss America contestant but we are in need of some serious healing.”

John Avlon, CNN

“To have the discipline to focus on the important over the urgent and the courage to do everything I can to defend our democracy. Also, more laughter with our kids.”

Andrew Yang, Forward Party founder

“I resolve to help a new generation of leaders emerge in 2024 — we need some new energy and optimism.”

Eric O’Neill, author of “Gray Day”

“My resolution is to finish my second book! The Invisible Threat – all about the Dark Web, Cyber crime and how to think like a spyhunter to stop attacks.”

Mondaire Jones, Democratic candidate for NY17

“My New Year’s resolution is to save American democracy in this upcoming election.”

Heather Dubrow, “Real Housewives of Orange County”

“I would say my resolution is to be bolder. Leap without over analyzing. Go for it. Sounds so simple I know, but releasing yourself to go after the things you REALLY want without worrying about so much or being afraid to put yourself out there is HUGE.”

 Rachael Ray, TV host and chef

“Stay calm and listen as much or more than you talk. Make my first thought and last each day about what there is to be grateful for.”

Josh Gad, actor

“Less screen time!”

Dave Quinn, People magazine

“It’s been a tumultuous year of massive change in my life, so I’m zeroing in on three S’es for 2024: Stability, service, and self-love. Time to reset and refocus on what’s important.”

Victor Shi, host iGen Politics

“I only have 10 weeks until I graduate from UCLA. I want to make the most of my time left in college, with my friends, and in LA. Also, doing all I can to help defeat Donald Trump and keep democracy alive.”

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