Communicator. Former: congressional cand., syndicated radio host🎙️, Army OIF1 vet 🇺🇸, airborne. Bylines: @FDRLST @dcexaminer @RCPolitics et al. Pizza snob 🍕
Illinois, USA
Joined July 2008
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Mike Koolidge retweeted
The Midterm is Not the Endterm
It is too soon to calibrate the direction of the post midterm Democratic and Republican Parties.
But if the first 72 hours are any indication—and despite the soon to be Speaker’s denials—the Left is already bragging about subpoenas, and it is intoxicated by the notion of investigations and impeachments.
Heady Democrats have entirely forgotten the politically suicidal fashion of the 2021-4 five civil and criminal courtroom circuses, the Mar-a-Lago raid, and the blue state deballoting efforts.
All that and more fueled the Trump recovery.
Wild talk of multi-trillion-dollar new agendas grows, like socializing the health care system, a renewed Green New Deal, student loan forgiveness, and illegal alien amnesties, along with new punitive income and estate regulations and taxes.
This socialist dream is reminiscent of the 2021 giddy splurging that gave the country a 9.1% inflation rate by midterm year 2022.
Along with the Afghanistan disaster (the Left’s correction for a Middle East ‘forever war”) the inflation would ensure Biden a 40% popularity.
The idea that the Left, which cannot do much real lawmaking without a veto-proof Congress, will try to reach deals with the White House, adopt a 1995 Clinton-like realist agenda, simply claim credit for the growing Trump economy, or moderate its rhetoric is highly unlikely.
Instead, we hear crazy talk of confiscations, new billionaire and millionaire punitive taxes, imprisonments, changing the Constitution—all in full suicidal 1972 McGovern style.
Republicans are blame-gaming each other, which can be constructive if over issues and reforms rather than social media ad hominem. But they need to message far better, about both the administration’s successes and the dangers of a socialist future.
There will be likely be no planned presidential succession, or gentlemanly agreement on a front runner. That’s likely good news. More likely as of now a triangular race between front-runners De Santis, Rubio, and Vance emerges—all of whom are far preferable to any ticket with a Newsom, Harris, AOC, Mamdani, or el-Sayed.
If the Republicans can stay reasonably united, they can ensure permanent presidential vetoes of crazy leftwing legislation, fight back on the Democratic committee inquisitions, and see the economy in the final two years become an asset in recovering their popularity.
Absent in all conversations is that there is increasing evidence that the economy is actually expanding and has the potential to boom in 2027, or at least the data indicate such potential.
The jobs report came out yesterday with a stunning 165,000 jobs created in October (accompanied by the usual journalists’ adverb “unexpectantly”), dropping unemployment to 4.1%.
Revised 3rd GDP stats now show a robust 3.4% growth—likely ensuring at least 3%+ growth for the year.
Third Quarter consumer spending soared 3.8%.
Private domestic investment surged with 19.4% growth.
Just reported last week: median family income in 2025 hit a new record ($87,460)—the highest in 60 years adjusted for inflation. And poverty dipped to its lowest rate (ever 10.2%).
In October manufacturing activity grew faster than at any time in the past five years.
Yes, prices are too high, and final 2026 inflation, given gas hikes, is scheduled to increase by one point (3.7%) from last year’s (2.7%). But it is still lower than the pan-European average (ca. 4+%)—and much lower than the Biden average over four years of 5.1%.
Gas prices are already falling. On November 6 prices fell to a $4.06 average—as global oil transit is mostly back to prewar levels and refineries scramble to handle the increased deliveries.
U.S. companies are dominating all the top 10 rankings in market capitalization/usage in key area such as software, AI, digital media, space, satellite launches, and bio/genetic engineering.
Note that today gas prices are not that much higher than 4 years ago at the 2022 midterm time ($4.06 vs. ca. $3.80), and haven’t once spiked to $5 a gallon as they did in 2022, just four months before the Biden midterms.
Yet oddly, the red wave sputtered in 2022 when the U.S. was in far worse economic shape than this week when the blue wave became a tsunami.
Messaging, media, and communication count, so note:
Four years ago GDP growth was lower than today—even though the pandemic was about over and there was a dramatic return to work and spending.
The inflation rate was almost three times higher in 2022 than now.
Median family income was $14,000 lower than now. The poverty rate was higher in 2022.
The Dow was 20,000 points lower. Foreign investment will likely end the year 30-40% higher than in 2022.
Real wage growth (nominal wages minus inflation) while not great in 2026 is likely to end the year far better than in 2022 (when real wage growth fell 2-3%).
So why would “affordability” have been decisive in the 2026 midterms when it was not in 2022?
The 21% aggregate inflation rate Trump inherited force-multiplied the average 3.15% Trump inflation rate of 2025-6— yet in a way the aggregate first-term Trump inflation rate (7.7% just a third of the Biden total) did not exaggerate all that much the 9.1% inflation rate in 2022.
Messaging, however, matters. The administration did not explain adequately that a 21% rise in prices cannot be lowered without radical deflation or recession, but only ameliorated by medium family income growth and lowering the inflation rate from the Biden 2021-5 averages, both of which occurred in 2025-6, but were forgotten.
Media coverage of the Biden 2022 weak economy were muted, while Trump’s 2-year inflation rate was exaggerated during 2026.
The Iran war became the culprit as a war of choice that made the inherited Biden 21% high prices and the inability to lower were them solely Trump’s fault. Again, there was inadequate explanation of either the economic reality or why the gamble to denuclearize Iran was defensible–with the caveat that stopping the bombing at day 38 and talking with theocrats for seven months was an unfortunate mistake.
The domestic and foreign policy activism of the lame-duck Clinton (1998-2000} and Obama (2014-2016) presidencies increased after their loss of Congress. Indeed, their popularity climbed from a once nadir of below forty to sixty percent approval or above.
There is no reason why the Trump administration cannot have a successful last two years. The economy is growing.
The crime rate is at historic lows.
The border is closed shut. The radical pro-Western political transformation of South and Central America has remade the entire Western Hemisphere.
European NATO is rearming.
Oil and gas production is at highest levels of any nation in history.
The bloated federal work force has been trimmed by over 270,000 jobs.
There is no longer a 40,000-50,000 shortfall in military recruitment. The forced reforms in higher education were long overdue.
The verdict on Iran is still out.
If it is denuclearized, the crippling sanctions continued, the Strait kept open, the provincial opposition armed—and our military gone home— the regime will face an increasingly restive population
2026 was an unequivocal defeat, but 2028 need not be.
If the administration and Congress stay disciplined and united, and can message better, while the Left goes utterly berserk, drunk on their midterm successes, socialism/Islamism, and Trump Derangement Syndrome 2.0, the tide will soon radically turn— as the economy already has.
Mike Koolidge retweeted
It was great having you moderate this, Mike. Can’t wait to show the panel discussion.
Mike Koolidge retweeted
I think a lot of people are completely wrong about what caused this midterm "blue tsunami."
I also believe that much of the hyperbolic, misguided analysis is coming from people who have hated Trump for a long time and who have been eagerly waiting with bated breath to declare the end of Trump and MAGA.
"It was obviously the Iran War. Trump didn't put America first. He betrayed America. It was gas prices. Only a fool would think otherwise."
Ok. Fair enough.
Allow me to present a hypothetical scenario. Let's pretend that Trump #2 never started the war with Iran.
Imagine if the price of gas was not around $4.00 a gallon but instead, let's say something low, assume $2.70 a gallon.
Pretend inflation was at a near perfect 2% for the year and GDP was cruising along at a 15 year high.
Assume wages were up and unemployment was at about a 50 year low.
No war. Great economy. That would have won Republicans the midterms right?
That would have prevented Democrats from flipping 41 House seats and 5 Governorships?
Those hypotheticals I listed above are what was happening in 2018 before the midterms. And yet, Democrats flipped 41 House seats and 7 Governorships during the midterms.
The Senate races turned out differently because Democrats were defending races all around the country in 2018. Republicans took back a couple red states. But the 2018 midterms were considered a massive blue wave for Democrats. No Iran War, economy booming, and still, that's how the midterms turned out.
Here's a fun fact. There were approximately 35.5 million Democrat votes during the 2014 midterms. There were approximately 61 million Democrat votes during the 2018 midterms.
25 million more Democrat votes during a booming economy. Do the current criticisms of Trump's second term explain that?
Trump went from 63 million votes in 2016, to 74 million in 2020, to 77 million in 2024. During each of his three midterms (2018, 2022, 2026), the Republican vote has increased substantially. But those increases do not compete with the additional 20 million Democrat vote bumps that happened in 2018, 2020, and 2026.
The question for Republicans becomes why do these gigantic Democrat vote bumps happen. How are they doing it? Is it because people hate Trump? They hate his policies? If those things were true, he would not continually gain support for himself and for the Republican Party.
Without even touching voter fraud, I believe that there is a clear, multi-faceted strategy that Democrats employed in 2018, 2020, and 2026 to drive insane amounts of people to polls, regardless of economic conditions. It's not difficult to identify, but Republicans don't talk about it and certainly don't have an answer for it. And Democrats can do it at will when needed.
Yes Trump won in 2024, but he was the only Republican that would have won and his win was helped by some unprecedented circumstances. Democrats were caught off guard. They did not make that mistake this time around.
Trump's second term has been far from perfect. Lots of mistakes and unforced errors. And once again, many terrible personnel choices by Trump.
That being said, I also believe that things could have been close to perfect right now and Republicans would have still gotten crushed during the midterms. Look at 2018.
Perception is everything. Republicans are not prepared or even willing to step on to the field with Democrats in this regard.
The Democrats are a cohesive, well oiled, united machine working in perfect harmony with the MSM. Together they can create and push any narrative they want to push. Republicans not only have no answer to this, they instead spend their time fighting each other.
Democrats don't argue about policy. They create mass hysteria and fear. It's all emotion. It's their entire platform. Most Americans don't like their policies. But they are playing a game in which policy and ideas and reality do not factor into the equation. And there are very clear strategies that they use to create this mass hysteria and to drive voter turnout.
Republicans are just going to keep helplessly watching this happen over and over again. They learned nothing from Trump's first term. The exact same lies, smears and hoaxes were used again, except this time around they replaced Russia with Epstein. Same game plan to the tee. For example, they created the same immigration hysteria that they did in 2018. Everything happened again.
Democrats were doing No Kings/Fight Fascism protests back in 2018 over immigration. People don't remember this but they were. I've posted videos about it. Bernie proudly declaring "No Kings." The immigration hysteria is especially effective at getting women riled up.
People don't remember Kamala Harris taking a ladder to climb a fence to break into an ICE facility in 2018 or Rachel Maddow fake crying on TV, AOC crying at the fence, or Oprah holding her book club at the border. Protesters literally glueing themselves to the ground in protest (over nothing). A Time Magazine cover with Trump menacingly towering of a crying migrant child. The audio recording of a baby crying that the MSM played on repeat for weeks before the midterms. The British PM Theresa May publicly condemning "kids in cages" (the same cages that Obama built and used).
Republicans just sat idly on their hands and watched it happen all again, making no attempt at rebuttal. Democrats are on TV every hour of every day. Republicans politicians can't even bring themselves to post on social media in defense of enforcing the law. No matter who the next Republican President is, if he or she attempts to enforce immigration laws, Democrats will turn it into a midterm win. Guaranteed. And that's just one weapon in their playbook.
Republicans don't even know how to deal with the sabotage coming from their own side, let alone unite in a perception war with the Democrat Party.
Before the 2022 midterms inflation had reached a 40 year high, gas was above $5.00 a gallon, more people died from Covid in 2021 than in 2020, the botched Afghanistan withdrawal happened, the border was wide open and Biden was struggling to walk and talk. Still, Democrats only lost a few House seats and even picked up a Senate seat.
With all that happening, why didn't 20 million more Republicans vote during the 2022 midterms than in 2018? If economy matters so much, why was there no red wave? Have an election "expert" answer that one.
People who are playing Monday morning quarterback and criticizing everything Trump has done this time around are so not prepared for or even aware of the war that is being waged. They most likely care. They are ok with losing and many just want to declare all things Trump dead and buried. Maybe next election they will decide to fight back against the incredible machine Democrats. Good luck with that.
The Republicans who are so joyfully celebrating the end of "Trumpism" are in for a rude awakening when he's gone. Trump has increased his support and Republican support in every Presidential and midterm election he has been involved in.
I'm going to lay out in another post some detailed thoughts on the strategies Democrats have used to turn out massive amounts of votes and what Republicans might consider doing in response. It's nothing genius but there is a clear, detailed method to the Democrat madness and nobody seems to be talking about it or even care about it.
Granted, I'm just a guy on X who doesn't know much, but it doesn't hurt to post my thoughts so I will.
Mike Koolidge retweeted
People forget what 2018 and 2020 were like. Bad GOP years.
In 2018 we were in the depths of Russiagate and the investigations into the President. Democrats were completely unified in their effort to stop Trump. Republicans were still massively divided. Women's marches were everywhere. Protests in DC nonstop. Democrats were activated, mobilized, and Trump was completely hamstrung.
We came in with 53 Senate seats and held on to 51. We flipped Florida - Rick Scott defeated an incumbent Bill Nelson, and DeSantis won. We flipped Missouri and Indiana, too.
In 2020 we were in the depths of COVID and peak BLM hysteria. Democrats were again incredibly activated. Mass protests everywhere. Polls were projecting a complete wipeout, and the President losing to Biden by 10+. Trump only lost the popular vote by about 4.5 points. Dems just barely held the Senate, getting only to 50 seats.
What, exactly, is happening in 2026 that is driving the GOP to the worst performance since Watergate? Gas being $4.00 a gallon instead of $3.00 a gallon?
I mean yeah, it's a midterm and inflation is too high. Ok. Democrats have problems EVERYWHERE, unlike anything they had in previous years. They had a rapist with the Nazi tattoo win the primary in Maine, and were forced to replace him at the last minute with the guy who came in 4th in their gubernatorial primary. Their candidate in Michigan is so repellent that his primary opponent - who got 47% of the primary vote - has endorsed the Republican. Their candidate in Alaska is likely going to face criminal charges for conspiring to defraud Alaskans of the right to vote for the candidate of their choice. Democrats everywhere are bickering and fighting. And where are the Iran War protests? Oh right they aren't happening. The "No Kings" protests are anemic.
Meanwhile, Republicans have never been more institutionally behind President Trump. He's still doing rallies everywhere and pulling big audiences.
That's going to lead to a D+13 environment - something we haven't seen since Watergate?
Sorry I just don't believe you. It's 2026, normal people have been ignoring polls for a decade now and aren't picking up the phone for Nate Cohn.
D+4, and Susan Collins and Mike Rogers defy the tide and win too because the Democrat candidates are historically bad.
Mike Koolidge retweeted
When we talk about election denial, I think there’s one episode that gets left out.
Ahead of the midterms, I revisit for @commonplc.
Mike Koolidge retweeted
I met her, and she talked about the necessity of having in-person GOTV efforts over TV ads. I started talking about the NGO network on the left, and she slammed a document in front of me reverse engineering all the NGOs involved & what they did differently.
She had it calculated down to what percentage of dollars went to nonprofits, what was taxpayer funded. She had a bunch of research, down to calculating the dollar figure per voter when advertising versus having a pipeline to physically get voters to the polls.
Republicans have traditionally treated campaigns as winning the debate. Democrats treat them as physically getting voters to the polls.
Mike Koolidge retweeted
No Kings explained for people who think they're fighting fascism.
You're standing in a crowd on Saturday. You look around and think yeah. No Kings. This is what democracy looks like.
Bro.
You're holding a sign made by a communist billionaire who lives in Shanghai.
You live in a constitutional republic.
Elections. Term limits. A free press that spent four years calling the president a fascist without one journalist being arrested.
The modern left's definition of fascism:
You love your country? Fascist.
You want to enforce the border? Racist.
You think parents should raise their kids? Bigot.
You want to know who's voting in your elections? Jim Crow.
Being patriotic is fascism to the modern left.
But every country has borders and enforces them. 176 countries require ID to vote. That's the definition of a country.
But the Democratic establishment told you otherwise. And you believed them.
Congress has a 15% approval rating. 80% of Americans disapprove. 97% of incumbents got re-elected.
Chuck Schumer. 46 years. Longer than Stalin.
Steny Hoyer. 45 years. Longer than Mao.
Mitch McConnell. 42 years. 5x more than Napoleon.
Nancy Pelosi. 39 years. Longer than Henry VIII.
Maxine Waters. 35 years. Longer than Mussolini.
Bernie Sanders. 35 years. Triple Hitler's entire reign.
Trump. 5 years and 3 months. Won the popular vote and the electoral vote.
But Trump is the king. Okay buddy.
You don't hate kings. You hate kings that aren't yours.
And they have you in the streets carrying their water.
The Democratic Party installed a president without letting you vote. Biden quit on a Sunday. By Tuesday your queen was crowned.
No primary. No debate. No ballot. First time since 1968.
Three days before your march every Senate Democrat voted against photo ID to vote.
During COVID you carried a vaccine card everywhere like a hall pass from the government just to eat at a restaurant.
But getting a birth certificate or waiting two hours at the DMV to prove you're a citizen before you vote? That's oppression.
The Democratic Party is pro illegal immigration.
Counts non-citizens in the Census. Census determines congressional seats. More non-citizens means more seats means more power. No voter ID means no way to check.
That's how you keep power without wearing a crown.
Biden built a censorship machine.
Pressured Facebook to suppress true information and admitted it in writing. Censored scientists. Censored doctors. Censored JOKES. The Biden White House told Facebook to remove "humor and satire."
They literally went after people for making fun of them. UK does it better tho...
Everything they censored turned out to be right. They just outsourced the silencing to Silicon Valley.
And it doesn't stop at speech.
The extreme left justifies taking children from families.
Six thousand schools rewrite children's identities without telling parents. And the State has the right to intervene.
The Hitler Youth did this. Mao's Red Guards did this. The Soviets built statues of a child who reported his own father.
Same playbook.
During Covid, your bakery got shut down. Church closed. You couldn't hold your dying mother's hand at the hospital.
But thousands packed together during BLM to burn Minneapolis and THAT was essential civic engagement. Obviously.
$2 billion in damage. 25 dead. 2,000 cops injured. 20 states burning. VP Kamala promoted a bail fund for the rioters. No investigation. No hearings.
January 6. One building. Few hours. 1,000 prosecuted. Two years of televised hearings.
Kings decide which violence counts. The left decided.
Charlie Kirk spent his life walking onto campuses asking for honest debate. He was assassinated.
CSIS terrorism database. 2025 is the first year in 30 years that left-wing attacks outnumber right-wing. Yet no one brings this up.
75% of liberal students say preventing a speaker from talking is justified. 27% say violence is acceptable.
Liberals who went to Trump rallies: "I never felt unsafe." "The experience changed me." They say.
Conservatives who show up on liberal campuses get screamed at, blocked, and assassinated.
One side talks. The other side screams.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation marched
Their stated purpose in their own words: "Revolution." Not reform. But Marxism.
500 groups. $3 billion in revenue. Pre-printed signs.
The signs were ready before you were even angry.
AND its all coming again .... if the left gain any power.
VOTE RED RED RED on November 3rd
Mike Koolidge retweeted
It's election time again so the Divider in Chief has pulled out his fake preacher voice and is telling crowds that he doesn't know why the country is so divided.
If he really wants to know, he should start by watching himself in this video.
December 16, 2016. Obama does an hour long interview with NPR. The purpose of this interview is to sabotage the presidency of the incoming President.
Almost everything Obama says during this interview is in direct contradiction to the intelligence report that he had just recently received about interference in the 2016 election.
Obama had just received a report informing him that attempted election interference was negligible at best, had no impact, and that it wasn't being directed from the Russian government.
Watch how Obama carefully chooses his words while spewing his lies during this interview.
Obama finished the interview, left and then returned to talk about a new "Intelligence Assessment" that would be dropping before Trump's inauguration.
He was priming the media to be on the look out for the bogus report that he had just asked to be created.
He sent the country down a road of immeasurable division, all because he couldn't accept the results of the 2016 election and just let the incoming President be President.
Mike Koolidge retweeted
With everything you see going on and beginning to happen, remember:
You were built for this.
Mike Koolidge retweeted
June 2008, candidate Obama: "we'll lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year."
That year KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) put the average family premium at $12,680. KFF's 2026 number just dropped: $28,303. Workers alone now pay $7,471, up 9% in a single year, while wages rose 3.7%.
Then 2013 brought the sequel: "For a lot of people, it will be cheaper than your cell phone bill."
Show me the phone plan that runs $2,358 a month. Nine days before the midterms, the party that built this machine is asking for your vote again.
Arsonists bidding on the fire department contract. Competition, price transparency, portable plans. Anything except another rescue from the people who wrote the original.
Mike Koolidge retweeted
If you think Democrats really care about lowering gas prices remember that on the First Day of the Biden Admin they cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline and halted all new oil and gas leases.
Mike Koolidge retweeted
So glad Obama got us the affordable care act to make health care so much
more affordable…
BREAKING: The average cost of a family’s annual health insurance premium in the US is up +$1,303 YoY, or +5%, to a record $28,303.
This marks the 4th consecutive annual increase of at least +$1,300.
Over this period, the average annual premium for family coverage has surged +$5,884, or +26%.
To put this into perspective, CPI inflation has risen +13% over the same period, or half as much.
Since 1999, the average health insurance premium for a family has soared +$22,494, or +387%.
This represents an average annual growth rate of +6.1%, well above CPI inflation at +2.6% over the same period.
Health insurance has never been more expensive.
Mike Koolidge retweeted
OBAMA: “He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened up a Cheesecake Factory”
ALSO OBAMA:
Mike Koolidge retweeted
When my nephew was very, very small @FaithKMoore and I took him on a long, sweaty, and generally cranky subway ride to see our grandmother, then suffering from advanced dementia. She was our one remaining grandparent. We walked into the room and this woman, who no longer reliably knew our names, lit up with what I can only describe as an uncanny sunburst of understanding. “It’s my great grandson!” she said, and scooped him into her arms like some protecting angel in a parting act of benediction. I never saw her again.
This tripe will do absolutely nothing to make anyone feel more comfortable fending off unwanted romantic advances, but at least it might introduce a made-up problem where none exists into a few young people’s lives. And hey, maybe they’ll even squirm out of an embrace or two that they can never, ever get back, replacing one of life’s most nourishing mysteries—the love that broaches time by force, without our choosing, like an unstoppable angel—with a black crater of discomfort and regret. Nice going, chuckleheads.
Everyone involved in the making of this ad should be forced to watch a million home videos, Clockwork-Orange style, then subjected to one thousand of the sloppiest kisses by a doddering old woman of the state’s appointment, and then sent to sit in a corner wearing a dunce cap while the rest of us go hug our eldest living relative extra tight.
Mike Koolidge retweeted
I was accused of disenfranchising black and Hispanic Americans by preventing them from voting by posting a humorous meme that was obviously a joke.
Number of votes stolen? Zero (I was acquitted).
Conversely, when illegal aliens vote, they rob all of us of the franchise via dilution. That is happening by the thousands, according to Harmeet Dhillln.
Journalists like Lesley Stahl were extremely concerned by the former and are extremely unconcerned about the latter.