{"id":2700825,"date":"2026-11-07T00:14:02","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T05:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republicans-post-midterms-war-denialism-is-an-exercise-in-special-pleading\/"},"modified":"2026-11-07T00:18:42","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T05:18:42","slug":"republicans-post-midterms-war-denialism-is-an-exercise-in-special-pleading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republicans-post-midterms-war-denialism-is-an-exercise-in-special-pleading\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans\u2019 Post-Midterms War Denialism Is an Exercise in Special Pleading"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frepublicans-post-midterms-war-denialism-is-an-exercise-in-special-pleading%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2700825&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Republicans suffered heavy midterm losses, and debates erupted over causes. some, like Erick Erickson and Sen. Thom Tillis, dismiss blaming the Iran war, but Vice President J.D. Vance and reporting say polling showed the conflict hurt GOP prospects. Tariffs and economic pain in farm states mattered,but the war-by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/two-years-after-lockdowns-the-wests-troubles-arent-ending-theyre-just-beginning\/\" title=\"Two Years After Lockdowns, The West\u2019s Troubles Aren\u2019t Ending \u2014 They\u2019re Just Beginning\">spiking fuel prices<\/a> and keeping inflation high-was the main drag on voters. Critics argue unilateral, poorly explained policies and \u201chalf-assing\u201d the war worsened outcomes, echoing past GOP refusals to accept broader strategic or political obligation.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"c-blog-post__content s-wysiwyg s-wysiwyg--blog\">\n<div style=\"margin-bottom:30px;\" id=\"elevenlabs-audionative-widget\" data-height=\"90\" data-width=\"100%\" data-frameborder=\"no\" data-scrolling=\"no\" data-publicuserid=\"cb0d9922301244fcc1aeafd0610a8e90a36a320754121ee126557a7416405662\" data-playerurl=\"https:\/\/elevenlabs.io\/player\/index.html\" >Loading the <a href=\"https:\/\/elevenlabs.io\/text-to-speech\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Elevenlabs Text to Speech<\/a> AudioNative Player&#8230;<\/div>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/elevenlabs.io\/player\/audioNativeHelper.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script>                            <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap wp-block-paragraph\">Republicans took a pounding on Tuesday that made past wave elections look like a mild drizzle by comparison. Just whatever you do, don\u2019t blame the Iran war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a bizarre crashout in the early morning hours after the GOP\u2019s midterm debacle, the radio commentator Erick Erickson <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EWErickson\/status\/2117880035491070029\">likened<\/a> blaming the war for the result to pretending the 2020 election was stolen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That bold truth-teller Sen. Thom Tillis, the North Carolina Republican who slithered away rather than defend his Senate seat in a supposed act of defiance against President Donald Trump, also poured cold water on the idea.<\/p>\n<p>                         <!-- \/22404337467,3946880\/theamericanconservative-Leaderboard-Top -->                         <\/p>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1742316429780-0' style='min-width: 300px; min-height: 50px; max-width: 100%; '>                         <\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDo you honestly believe, for example, respectfully, Mr. Vice President, that we saw the departure of Hispanics over the war?\u201d he asked on CNN the day after the seat he declined to defend fell to the Democrats by 20 points. \u201cGive me a break. It\u2019s more complicated than that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among the reasons it has taken so long for \u201cstanding up to Trump\u201d to go anywhere in the GOP is that until relatively recently, most of the Republicans who do so are worse than he is. But I digress.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vice President J.D. Vance has taken a lot of heat for <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jdvance\/status\/2118004988433641835?s=42\">stating the obvious<\/a> about the war. Some <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NoahCRothman\/status\/2118013652381176161\">like to imagine<\/a> his Trump-ordered Iran diplomacy is somehow a form of insubordination. They should instead ruminate on the number of Republican congressional seats that could have been salvaged if the memorandum of understanding had held and the war had ended in June. The <em>New York Times<\/em> has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/11\/04\/us\/politics\/trump-midterms-losses-republicans.html\">confirmed Vance\u2019s account<\/a> that the White House received polling to that effect. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u2019s Kim Strassel <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/KimStrassel\/status\/2118075813916733671\">thinks<\/a> it\u2019s a \u201choot\u201d that Vance recognizes the war\u2019s downsides rather than blaming the tariffs exclusively. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTrump\u2019s first-term success came from largely following that Reagan playbook,\u201d she writes. \u201cThe second-term leaned into me-too progressive populism\u2014at the veep\u2019s urging\u2014and it ain\u2019t working.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Or, hear me out, Trump\u2019s first-term success\u2014which still resulted in a 40-seat loss in the 2018 midterm elections\u2014was because he followed the Reagan playbook of limited military interventions, no new foreign wars, and his more limited tariffs regime was compatible with inflation running consistently below the Federal Reserve\u2019s preferred target of 2 percent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The second term leaned into me-too progressive neoconservatism dressed up in \u201cHow do you do, fellow MAGA?\u201d populist garb against the veep\u2019s advice, and it ain\u2019t working. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s not to say the tariffs have helped, especially in the farm states where Republicans took a beating. Anything that cut against affordability was always going to be politically damaging, even if the goal was to reshore jobs. Voters continued to be angry about the economy despite relatively low unemployment under both Trump and former President Joe Biden because of the high cost of living.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beyond the fact of the tariffs, their implementation has been capricious and haphazard. On this, there is much in common with how Trump has conducted the Iran war: purely unilateral moves, no working with Congress or recognizing its constitutional powers, no clear explanation to the public of what is going on or what the point is, and no empathy for families straining under several years of elevated inflation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even many Buchananite economic nationalists have long favored free trade with Canada and comparable economies, the target of Trump\u2019s current trade war. Perhaps we have <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2002\/11\/11\/us-should-invade-canada\/\">been at war with Canada<\/a>, like Iran, for decades.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the Iran War is the single biggest driver of inflation and the reason it hasn\u2019t continued to come down. The war is the primary reason inflation remains stubbornly above where it would need to be for the Fed to consider lowering interest rates. The spike in gasoline and diesel prices is felt more broadly than the tariffs, and it also makes the tariffs\u2019 bite worse. And for better or worse, Trump never implied he wouldn\u2019t impose tariffs during the 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is never just one cause of something like the GOP\u2019s midterms flop. Trump\u2019s foibles are what they are at this point, and they aren\u2019t likely to improve at the age of 80. He has never worn well with his more timorous supporters, and he has now been around for a decade. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even in 2006, Republicans had other problems besides the Iraq War. But this furious denial of the war\u2019s impact is reminiscent of those who wanted to blame GOP congressional losses 20 years ago on earmarks. Yes, earmarks often were used for wasteful projects. They were part of the culture of corruption and neatly illustrated Republicans\u2019 abandonment of any pretense of fiscal discipline.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the attempt to pretend they were a bigger driver of the 2006 blue wave than Iraq was always absurd. Hawks are upset today because two decades ago, they would have had a Republican vice president who went along with their ridiculous spin. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The persistence of inflation has also elevated other issues like corruption as Republican problems. This cost the GOP seats. This is downstream of the war, which itself alienated some people who voted for Trump and Republicans just two years ago, and left the party limited to voters and media voices who were always going to go down with the ship when the blue wave came. <\/p>\n<section class=\"c-subscribe-email\" >\n<div class=\"l-container\">\n<div class=\"c-subscribe-email__wrap\">\n<div class=\"c-subscribe-email__head\">\n<h4 class=\"c-subscribe-email__heading\">Subscribe Today<\/h4>\n<h5 class=\"c-subscribe-email__subheading\">Get daily emails in your inbox<\/h5>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"c-subscribe-email__form-wrap\">      <!-- Begin Mailchimp Signup Form -->      <\/p>\n<div id=\"mc_embed_signup\">\n<form id=\"mc-embedded-subscribe-form\" class=\"validate\" action=\"https:\/\/theamericanconservative.us4.list-manage.com\/subscribe\/post?u=442e644c01f8e54e26e4ff3f8&#038;id=f7b67cac40\" method=\"post\" name=\"mc-embedded-subscribe-form\" novalidate target=\"_blank\">\n<div id=\"mc_embed_signup_scroll\">\n<div class=\"c-subscribe-email__fields\">              <label for=\"mce-EMAIL\" class=\"u-screenreader-text\">Email Address:<\/label>              <input id=\"mce-EMAIL\" class=\"c-subscribe-email__field\" name=\"EMAIL\" type=\"email\" value=\"\" placeholder=\"Your Email\" \/>              <input id=\"mc-embedded-subscribe\" class=\"c-subscribe-email__submit o-button o-button--red-500 o-button--solid\" name=\"subscribe\" type=\"submit\" value=\"Subscribe\" \/>            <\/div>\n<div id=\"mce-responses\" class=\"clear\">\n<div id=\"mce-error-response\" class=\"response\" style=\"display: none;\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"mce-success-response\" class=\"response\" style=\"display: none;\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>              <!-- real people should not fill this in and expect good things - do not remove this or risk form bot signups-->            <\/p>\n<div class=\"u-screenreader-text\" aria-hidden=\"true\">              <input tabindex=\"-1\" name=\"b_442e644c01f8e54e26e4ff3f8_f7b67cac40\" type=\"text\" value=\"\" \/>            <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>      <!--End mc_embed_signup-->          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Strassel allows that voters are \u201cunhappy about the war, though the numbers might be different if the president had been clear about an exit strategy.\u201d But hawks and Vance-bashers have made clear they don\u2019t want to hear about exit strategies beyond \u201cJust win, baby!\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI don\u2019t think the war itself was <em>per se<\/em> a mistake,\u201d Erickson says. \u201cI think half-assing the war was a mistake.\u201d But it is the war itself that led to the Strait of Hormuz quagmire and it is the \u201chalf-assing\u201d that is keeping this a more limited, less deadly (to Americans) operation than Iraq.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How many times will Republicans in Congress listen to the same people with the same result? Will the last one let us know before they turn out the lights?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republicans were soundly beaten on Tuesday, more decisively than any past wave election, and the Iran war should not be singled out as the culprit. After the GOP debacle, radio host Erick Erickson compared blaming the war to insisting the 2020 election was stolen. Even Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina pushed back, telling CNN that blaming Hispanic voting shifts over the war was simplistic and that the race\u2019s 20-point Democratic victory shows the issue is more complex.<\/p>\n<p>For a long time, many Republicans who spoke out against Trump were seen as problematic in their own right, which helped silence attempts to confront him. Yet some critics have focused on the war\u2019s downsides, not just tariffs. Vice President? No, Senator J.D. Vance faced scrutiny for acknowledging the war\u2019s drawbacks, and the White House reportedly had polling suggesting the war affected several races-a point the New York Times confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>Kim Strassel of the Wall Street Journal found it notable that Vance recognized the war\u2019s problems rather than blaming tariffs alone. She argued that Trump\u2019s first term drew on Reagan\u2019s approach-limited foreign intervention and a tariff strategy that kept inflation near the Fed\u2019s 2% target-while the second term veered toward a populist, neoconservative stance urged by the vice president and failed to pay off.<\/p>\n<p>Tariffs haven\u2019t helped, especially in farm states where Republicans suffered, because policies that raise prices damage affordability even when the aim is to bring back jobs. The tariffs\u2019 effects, combined with the Iran war, have fed inflation and the cost of living, influencing voters\u2019 attitudes even when unemployment has been relatively low under both Trump and Biden. The wars and tariffs have been pursued largely unilaterally-without steady congressional backing, clear public explanations, or empathy for families strained by rising prices.<\/p>\n<p>Even some traditional free-trade nationalists who generally favor Canada-style open trade have criticized Trump\u2019s current approach, suggesting the root of inflation runs beyond tariffs. The Iran war, in particular, is a major driver of inflation, keeping price increases higher than they would be otherwise and intensifying the impact of tariffs, while Trump signaled during the 2024 campaign that tariffs would stay in place.<\/p>\n<p>There isn\u2019t a single cause for the GOP\u2019s midterm losses. Trump\u2019s personal flaws are part of the story and unlikely to fade with age, and he remains unpopular with many quieter supporters after a decade in the limelight. Back in 2006, Republicans faced problems beyond Iraq, but blaming earmarks for the blue wave was always a weak argument, even to hawks who would have preferred a different VP at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Inflation and corruption have further hurt the party, partly as a consequence of the war, alienating some voters who backed Trump and leaving the GOP with a core of loyal supporters and media voices who are likely to stay the course. Strassel notes that voters are unhappy about the war, though the margin might have looked different with a clearer exit strategy; hawks and critics of Vance insist on the slogan \u201cJust win, baby\u201d and nothing more. Erickson adds that the war itself wasn\u2019t a mistake, but the half-measures were, and while the campaign has produced a limited, less deadly outcome than Iraq, the broader question remains: how long will Republicans keep listening to the same voices producing the same results? Will anyone step forward before the lights go out?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2659,"featured_media":2700826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/tac.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2269641966-scaled.jpg?auto=compress&#038;crop=faces%2Centropy&#038;fit=crop&#038;fm=jpg&#038;h=630&#038;ixlib=php-3.3.1&#038;q=80&#038;w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[5894,87589,87588],"class_list":["post-2700825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-politics","tag-post-midterms","tag-war-denialism"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/tac.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2269641966-scaled.jpg?auto=compress&#038;crop=faces%2Centropy&#038;fit=crop&#038;fm=jpg&#038;h=630&#038;ixlib=php-3.3.1&#038;q=80&#038;w=1200","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2700825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2659"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2700825"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2700825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2700829,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2700825\/revisions\/2700829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2700826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2700825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2700825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2700825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}