In this bonus episode, Matt takes Sam on a tour of his native state, Pennsylvania, where a number of key primaries were held this week. The results brought some hopeful news: Lt. Gov. John Fetterman handily defeated State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta and (even better) Manchin-backed moderate Rep. Conor Lamb in the contest for the Democratic senate nomination. But it also revealed the madness that continues to grip the GOP: State Sen. Doug Mastriano, a January 6 marcher and election-fraud true believer, will be running for governor in November, and Dr. Oz, as of this writing, was clinging to a narrow lead in the race to take on Fetterman. Don't worry, though, it's not all punditry: the cuisines, strange regional dialects, and curious folkways of the virtuous commonwealth also are discussed. Then the episode turns to the fortunes of the Thiel tools: J.D. Vance and Blake Masters, both of whom are running for the Senate (Vance in Ohio and Masters in Arizona). The former won the Republican nod, and in come-from-behind fashion—how did he do it, especially after months of woke pundits dismissing his campaign? And what are Masters chances in August, when the Arizona GOP primary will be held?
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But I think something that's really interesting about conservative politics right now is that there's some tension but also just some coincidence, sort of like at the same time that there's this strong new push to use the machinery of government to shape the culture in its morals, according to their preferences. There is also a very strong, might seem slightly counterintuitive, instinct towards creating exits from sort of social obligations. They're sort of saying, we're going to try, you know, we're going to try to take back the machinery of government, get rid of the teachers unions, you know, get rid of CRT and wokeness from the curriculum. If we don't succeed, we need to make sure that the exit option is still there. You know, in a way that tracks with a point I've made before on the podcast about the way, say, Catholic integralism and something like Rodriguez Benedict option are two sides of the same coin in that they're both positing like we either dominate or retreat. Yeah, there's no kind of negotiated pluralistic middle ground. That to me is just the thing, you know, it's they're going to get their way and if not, they're going to just sabotage and protest, you know, there's just no middle ground, peaceable agreement kind of compromise. No, no, definitely not. I mean, one of the things that you find really, I would say the sort of defining feature of Blake Masters, rhetoric and affect is just this deep pessimism, like he's so brooding and dark and sort of just like America is on the brink, like we're living through dark times and where they're going to come out on the other side or it's all over. It's really not the sunny optimism. It's not even like sort of fun, outsider-y, like chaotic, carnival-esque kind of Trumpian energy. It's this dark, dark, depressive, your family is in danger and you know it and I know it. Yeah, I mean, think about what I said about Vance by killing people on purpose through fentanyl. Yeah, when I say I'm fond of someone like Federman, what else can you do? Maybe go into these places and say something constructive and hopeful of like what a concretely better future would look like for you and your family and Connor Lamb being the person who says, I mean, he was endorsed by Joe Manchin for God's sake, right? Like, and he had that kind of infamous tweet where he was like, I'm a normal Democrat and I say no to these things. People like him, the type of Democrat who says better things are not possible for you basically and the kind of Republican who traffics in what we've described, Vance, Masters, Mastriano, trafficking in, that kind of darkly pessimistic revenge fantasy. Yeah, or someone like Federman saying, you know, we can actually do better by each other. [Music]
Matt and Sam talk about this week's Pennsylvania primaries—especially Lt. Gov. John Fetterman's big win in the Democratic Senate race—then turn to the prospects for J.D. Vance and Blake Masters, Peter Thiel's chosen GOP Senate candidates in Ohio and Arizona, respectively.
