Kansas fired a senator over the price of gas. Israelis, after three years of war, voted to keep fighting. The jihadists noticed the difference.
In April, with America at war with Iran and the Strait of Hormuz shut, Republican Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas went on Newsmax and said something American politicians rarely say anymore. “I’m sorry the gas prices are going up. But your national security, yes, is even more important than your pocketbook.” Pressed on how long Americans would tolerate the prices, he invoked his grandparents’ generation: Could you imagine telling the president he only had so many days to defeat Hitler?
Then came June. President Trump signed a deal with Iran to stop the fighting and reopen the strait, and the same Roger Marshall told CNN, “Americans are done with forever wars. Americans deserve affordable gas and groceries.”
On November 3, Marshall lost his seat. He lost it in Kansas, a state that hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1932 and that Trump won by 16 points two years ago. A Democrat Methodist pastor beat him by almost seven points.
Hitler couldn’t break the generation that stormed Normandy. Iran just broke their grandchildren with a gas bill.
And the lesson Washington drew the next morning was even worse.
“The reason we lost is the war”
The day after Democrats captured both the House and the Senate, Vice President JD Vance wrote on X: “The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night.” Among his prescriptions: end the war with Iran and “change our relationship to Israel.”
Iran was racing toward nuclear weapons and closed the world’s most important oil route, and the vice president concluded the problem was Israel.
President Trump called Vance’s post “largely true” but insisted, “If I had it to do again, I’d have to do it again because long term, it’s the only answer. You can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon.” Still, both men agree on the basic fact: Americans punished the Republican Party over gasoline. In October, 73% of Americans told Pew they were very concerned about higher gas prices caused by the war.
The Iranian regime, still standing, was watching. On November 3, Tehran got a clear answer to the most important question in any war: Who can take more pain? (Read More)
