Hulu put out a show called “Little Fires Everywhere” – a dramatic interpretation of a novel with the same name.
Set in the 90s, the story intertwines the lives of two mothers in an Ohio suburb, as secrets of the town and their respective pasts gurgle to the forefront.
It’s boring as shit.
I watched part of it on a plane and tuned out – it wasn’t even good enough to attract the attention of a captive audience at cruising altitude, and was a rare misstep for Reese Witherspoon – an otherwise talented businesswoman and performer.
But how does a show like this even get made?
Well, it hit a couple cultural touchstones – race, feminism – and what would otherwise be a mundane soap opera gets picked up as a series.
It’s not based upon a real story.
Real stories are just mundane soap operas, without lenses that can be drafted on them by enterprising Washington Post authors or other journalism degree wielding interlopers.
That’s what the Beltway will always get wrong about politics – it’s far more boring and also more interesting than you can ever imagine.
To win, you either need to hit one of two buttons –
You can be boring, mundane, predictable to a fault, and rubber stamp things you think your constituents like.
They’ll elect you until you die in your seat, and sometimes after.
Or you can be interesting – you can have a compelling story, a flair for the dramatic, a way of capturing the wishes of the everyday with a flourish.
That’s how Donald Trump won small, rural counties – he was a fist to the face of the establishment, and behind that fist was a Brioni suit.
He couldn’t have been a bigger drag queen if he was performing at Roscoe’s between mimosas.
Unfortunately, you have candidates trying to be Trump and Trump-endorsed candidates who have too much going on to be boring and aren’t entertaining enough to be interesting.
Two examples of the Trump-endorsed are Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin of Idaho and Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina.
They’re both fine people and I would’ve happily maxed out my donation and voted for them if I was their constituent.
The bad part is they ran afoul of the media – not in a way that made them interesting, but in a way that made them non-boring enough to lose the vote of the older folks who turn out in off-season primaries.
McGeachin spoke at an America First Political Action Committee conference – which was enough to earn her a spot on the media’s radar and their respecting ire.
Even though she did nothing wrong – she became a toxic quantity to older voters who probably agree with her on 95% of the issues – all because she was smeared as a white supremacist.
Madison Cawthorn was slammed in the media in recent weeks for various meaningless scandals leaked by a scorned campaign staffer – silly college videos and Venmo messages.
It was enough for “conservative” media outlets to act like he didn’t exist – enough for older voters in his district to support a more “tried and true” local representative in the primary.
The media walks away from the Tuesday May 17 primary with two scalps – elected Republicans who have served faithfully in their roles left unsupported by the Republican parties at large, most of conservative media, and beaten and bloodied due to relentless media attacks.
It just so happens that both of those candidates were Trump-endorsed, and ran in primaries where a handful of votes could’ve made the difference.
The smallest quantity of suspected arsenic could poison the entire well.
Conservative media was busy fighting over a primary in Pennsylvania, pointing attacks over populism at each other.
It was enough to scare the old folks, who are based on the fundamentals but generally scared of the media telling them someone they might support is some kind of evil white supremacist monster.
What lessons can we learn?
1) Your relatives, no matter what age, are depending upon you to know who to vote for.
The media is unreliable and most people work or are otherwise busy. You do the research and help people who aren’t 24/7 twitter degenerates like you understand which box to check.
2) Conservative media won’t save you.
The lone voice on the entire right wing media sphere who supported Janice McGeachin was Michelle Malkin. She’s a one woman force of nature, but general apathy across the board and unwillingness to defend who could’ve been a tremendous candidate led to a defeat over a dumb smear. No one stepped up to defend Cawthorn other than a couple folks on Twitter. What’s the point of subscription media outlets on the right if they’re not getting people who align with their values elected?
3) Contested primaries are a joke
Leave primary fights to the Left.
In an increasing number of districts, the Left is fractured between socialist, Critical Race Theory candidates and otherwise middle-of-the-road Democrats.
Let them fight.
The Right does not need knockdown, drag out fights between two people who would serve similarly in office.
With no party leadership (and by that – an RNC unsupportive of Trump and a Trump skeptical of RNC leadership) we have way too many factions competing for the same ground.
It’s silly and an overall waste of money.
Focus resources where needed and try to get as many W’s as possible.
Failure to learn these lessons will mean boring or unelectable candidates in races that should otherwise be wins.
But why does it matter?
It’s not like vital legislation that our country’s quality of life hangs upon or court appointments who affect the next few decades of our daily lives are in the balance.
The Right gets primaries wrong.
And they leave many little fires to put out.
