Bi-Partisan Friendships Forged in LOL-Worthy Campaign Ads.
If you haven’t been watching what’s happening in Utah, I suggest you do. Evan McMullin, a Republican policy wonk and former undercover CIA operations officer has been building support of many anti-Trump conservatives, and it looks as if he may take Utah. And if Utah votes the ways that way, "A Mormon and a Jew Are Poised to Be the First Third-Party Presidential Ticket to Win a State Since 1968,” as Tablet describes McMullin and running mate Mindy Finn. And this is a big deal. As BuzzFeed’s McKay Coppins says, Evan McMullin Isn’t Just Running For President — He’s Literally Building A New Party. At a rally, Coppins reports McMullin "called for a “new conservative movement” that welcomed Muslims, immigrants, and “people who don’t look like me.””
Meanwhile, as the Washington Post writes, For some conservative female pundits, this election has been a nightmare. For me, one of the silver linings that has come out of the hurricane of this election has been how many of the original voices decrying Trump and his bigotry came from the female GOP. Some of my new favorite tweeters are S.E. Cupp, Ana Navarro, Sarah Isgur Flores, etc.
A frequent conversation I’ve had with moderates and Republicans I know is how the worst part of this election is that policy issues themselves have been overwhelmed by venom, on both sides. McMullin is that conservative intellectual voice this election has been lacking, an intelligent and articulate compassionate conservative, in the vein of where some thought the GOP should move after Romney’s loss in 2012. <— that link btw is to the GOP’s “Growth and Opportunity Project” from 2013, the document that Thomas Edsall at The New York Times crassly called The Republican Autopsy Report. The document was commissioned by Reince Preibus as a way for the GOP to look both inward and outward to attempt to understand why, as the report mentions, Republicans had lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections. I’d heard of it before, but I’ve never read it. I hope friend of the Missive Dan will be pleased to note that I intend to sit and read the whole thing this weekend.
And this doesn’t mean I suddenly don’t have ideological differences with these individuals, I sure still do (#oneissuevoter.) But I think it’s important that the rhetoric is toned down (also looking at you, fellow liberals) and we attempt to find common ground in the goals we share, but with different paths towards them. Also, we can all agree that this Texas GOP candidate and his wife made the best goddamned ad of this election cycle.
Love and hugs,
Amy