On a Gender Bender

The numbers — both economic and polling — are not looking great for the GOP. So it’s not that big of a surprise that we’re seeing a concerted effort to reframe the midterms as a culture war. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it is. Elaine Godfrey in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The GOP’s Culture-War Hail Mary. “Last week, as the war with Iran dragged into its seventh month, gas prices shot up to an average of $4.50 a gallon, and polling showed President Trump about twice as far underwater with American voters as he was at this point in 2018, Republican senators determined that the time had come to discuss something else entirely: youth sports. ‘Girls’ sports are for girls. Boys’ sports are for boys,’ Senator Marsha Blackburn said in a news conference. With 32 days to go until the midterm elections, Republicans’ closing strategy is obvious: They’re going all-in on trans. (It seems to have worked for them before, after all. More on that in a minute.) In Texas, Republicans are running an unsettling AI-generated ad that shows the Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico dressed as Maria von Trapp and singing about girls with mustaches. A spot in Iowa accuses the Senate candidate Josh Turek of supporting ‘sex changes for kids.’ On X, former Representative Matt Gaetz offered a tidy summary of his party’s agenda: ‘I hate the war too,’ he told a concerned voter. ‘But the Democrats want to trans your kids.'” The messaging is stupid and cruel, and of course, none of this is really about changing gender, it’s about changing the subject.

+ The bad poll numbers won’t just make messaging more desperate and extreme. All the stops will be pulled out. And when you control all three branches of government, that’s a lot of stops. Is There Anything Kash Patel Won’t Do for Trump Before the Midterms? “In recent months, Patel has been briefed on the FBI’s ‘election integrity’ investigations in Arizona, Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, and beyond. Officials told me their understanding is that many of the election-related investigation requests came directly from the White House, many times with the instruction that ‘this is a big deal for the president’ or ‘this is a push from 47.’ But all of that attention hasn’t yielded results. In meetings, Patel has expressed frustration that there have been no new findings, and instructed staff to ‘look harder’ or ‘look again,’ according to three people familiar with the conversations.”