The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - November 11, 2026


PREVIEW LIVE： Realpolitik #72 ｜ After the Mid-Terms with Auron Macintyre

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters #1546 The Importance of Beautiful Things

Episode Stats


Length

20 minutes

Words per minute

156.83

Word count

3,218

Sentence count

140

Harmful content

Toxicity

4

sentences flagged

Hate speech

27

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00 Hello, and welcome to another episode of RealPolitik. I am your host, Firas Maudad.
00:00:05 And today I'm joined by a very special guest. I'm joined by Oren McIntyre of The Blaze.
00:00:11 And he is going to be, well, telling us a little bit about the U.S. midterm elections
00:00:17 and what is the future of the Republican Party look like?
00:00:21 And where does the Trump presidency go from here and what comes afterwards?
00:00:27 Oren, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining me.
00:00:30 Thanks for having me.
00:00:32 My pleasure. My pleasure.
00:00:35 I thought I'd start by talking about something that is a bit...
00:00:38 I saw the clip by Dave Chappelle saying that he was happy over Charlie Kirk's murder.
00:00:48 I saw what's going on with Vivek Ramaswamy and all of that stuff.
00:00:52 and his selection as someone who's deeply seemingly very resentful of normal Americans 0.64
00:01:00 and the rise of the Islamic bloc in the United States with Al-Sayed. 0.82
00:01:07 And I thought I'd ask you about race relations in the United States
00:01:12 and what does the midterm say about them and what do election results say about them
00:01:19 and where do you see this whole thing going?
00:01:21 I mean, officially, people acknowledge the failure of multiculturalism. Angela Merkel said it in Germany in 2015, I think, or even earlier. Even the conservatives said that multiculturalism is a failure. But you guys seem wedded to it in a particular way.
00:01:42 there's of course the story that has been told about the united states to the past past few
00:01:51 generations and that story is that america is a nation of immigrants of course jfk uh john f
00:01:59 kennedy uh first wrote this book and introduced this idea into the united states in league with
00:02:05 the adl uh there was a worry that there was a large amount of anti-immigrant sentiment and
00:02:10 that this affected many groups, including both Catholics and Jews. And so that there would be
00:02:16 more of an acceptance of these growing minorities. I mean, you know, there had been Catholics in the
00:02:21 United States, and to some extent, Jews, almost since the founding, there had been a smattering
00:02:26 of Jews and, you know, different colonies, different areas of Catholics. But the numbers,
00:02:31 especially post Hartzellar, exploded after JFK's death. And so we saw the rise of these groups.
00:02:38 And the idea was that if we understood America as a nation of immigrants, something that was forming at the time, rather than something that had an established identity, that that would somehow ease this transition.
00:02:50 And it's not the first time this has been sold.
00:02:52 Teddy Roosevelt had to grapple with this question.
00:02:55 This is when the phrase the melting pot was introduced into popular American understandings.
00:03:01 Now, at that time, even though Teddy Roosevelt kind of toyed with this popular idea, he ultimately rejected it for the more classic Anglo-American assimilationist view where America is an Anglo-Protestant country that other groups, especially European groups, can eventually assimilate to over time.
00:03:23 But the assimilation to that Anglo-Protestant understanding was critical.
00:03:27 So again, this wasn't the first time that we had really took a swing at kind of mixing up that identity
00:03:33 However, that really took hold in the 50s and 60s and has been what everybody was raised on today
00:03:40 And so you have this difficult moment where conservatives can see the reality
00:03:44 They're looking at the poll numbers
00:03:45 You can see that Muslims and Indians and Blacks and Jews and all of these other groups, Hispanics to a decent degree
00:03:54 pretty much all vote Democrat. And so you have to address the fact that all these groups are
00:04:02 pretty consistently Democrat voters, as where your white evangelicals tend to be the most
00:04:08 stalwart supporters of the Republican Party of the right wing of the GOP. And so we're now in
00:04:14 this very difficult situation where the electoral realities are staring us in the face, but they're
00:04:19 clashing with the narrative that we were told that ultimately these groups would assimilate,
00:04:24 they would evaluate candidates based on ideology and adherence to the American system and not to
00:04:30 their own sub-interest, not to their own ethnic groups. And that just simply has not occurred.
00:04:35 And so we're watching the importation of two new groups, the Indians and the Muslims, 0.99
00:04:40 and we're being told the Muslims are bad because they are anti-Christian and anti-Jewish, 1.00
00:04:46 which is true, of course, and I don't want Islam to be in the United States. 1.00
00:04:50 But we're being told simultaneously that the importation of Hindus is fine, 1.00
00:04:55 even though they also have a different religion that does not intend to assimilate with the United States,
00:05:00 that clashes directly with our culture, and that they ultimately vote overwhelmingly Democrat,
00:05:05 second actually only to black Americans.
00:05:08 And so there's just this cognitive dissidence in the conservative American mind
00:05:12 where they want to believe the propaganda that they were sold,
00:05:15 that America is this nation of immigrants that was actually a Democrat talking point.
00:05:20 They want to believe that, but the electoral realities keep hitting them in the face,
00:05:24 and they really don't know what to do.
00:05:25 They're very uncomfortable addressing that issue.
00:05:29 I mean, is it just the blind belief in blanks latism that's leading them to this conclusion,
00:05:36 to just ignore reality in this way? 0.84
00:05:38 Indians voted 70% Democrat, even though, you know, Harmeet Dillon was supposed to be a champion of
00:05:46 the right. Vivek Ramaswamy was supposed to be a champion of the right. None of this actually
00:05:51 materialized. Dinesh D'Souza, supposed to be a champion of the right. You just don't see that
00:05:56 translating electorally. Why does the GOP refuse to see where its power base actually is? And why
00:06:06 does it feel constantly compelled to be subservient to these foreign ethnic groups that are inherently
00:06:15 hostile to it well because uh ultimately the gop is fundamentally controlled opposition uh not to
00:06:24 say that there aren't republicans or uh you know people who even elected republicans who are
00:06:31 genuinely right-wing, genuinely conservative, genuinely nationalist. I do think there are
00:06:36 people working hard inside different institutions in the conservative movement that really do believe
00:06:41 in a nationalist American understanding of politics. But the GOP apparatus as such,
00:06:49 the party as we know it now, even though it may have good actors inside of it, is itself
00:06:54 constructed basically to be the guys who lose to the Harlem Globetrotters. They're designed
00:07:02 to lose on purpose. And a lot of this also comes from the fact that the GOP leadership and the GOP
00:07:10 voters are just radically, radically different. Most of the GOP representatives become very
00:07:16 cosmopolitan. They become very uninterested in the people that they're supposed to represent,
00:07:21 and they want so desperately to be adopted into the elite circles of the united states i mean
00:07:28 they are by definition at some level elite being inside the political ruling class but they know 0.96
00:07:33 that the popular opinions inside the ruling class are that well white votes are icky and embarrassing
00:07:38 uh kind of the the heritage population of the united states is something that uh needs to be
00:07:44 fixed in some way uh so you might have to ask for their support during an election but in general
00:07:50 you kind of treat them as, you know, kind of a necessary evil. And the best thing to do would be
00:07:57 to acquire the votes of holier, you know, more elite groups like foreigners. That is where 1.00
00:08:04 one truly acquires status. And so much of the GOP is not there to represent the right, but to
00:08:09 contain it, to manage it. They are the temporarily embarrassed, you know, hands that watch over the
00:08:17 field. That's really what the GOP represents to most people. And so when they look at their
00:08:22 current votership, frankly, they're disgusted and they just wish they could replace them
00:08:26 as much as any Democrat. Yeah. I mean, when you say these things, what comes to mind is
00:08:32 Angela Merkel taking away the German flag from one of her ministers after he was waving it when
00:08:39 they won an election. She literally went to him, took away the flag from his hand and handed it
00:08:45 to somebody off stage because no flag waving permitted around here uh the conservatives here
00:08:51 in britain same kind of disdain same kind of contempt jacob reese mogg saying that the english
00:08:57 are a mongrel race that doesn't actually it basically isn't real more or less um same with
00:09:06 reform largely they they run indians and boris wavers in elections which is just crazy but it 0.50
00:09:17 is this attitude of contempt towards their own people that deeply animates every mainstream
00:09:27 right-wing party in the West. Is it just a question of status, that they are seeking
00:09:36 status by having approved opinions? I find that difficult to understand. I mean, in the
00:09:44 worst Middle Eastern dictatorships, you still see a strong sense of the leadership having
00:09:50 some regard for its public,
00:09:54 which doesn't seem to exist
00:09:57 in the West right now.
00:10:00 Mubarak in Egypt, Assad in Syria,
00:10:04 the Saudis,
00:10:05 they speak quite fondly about their people.
00:10:09 Very lovingly.
00:10:11 You just don't see that in the West.
00:10:16 Well, I think there are a couple
00:10:18 of different incentives
00:10:19 working simultaneously here uh so the first one is a simple one of political uh strategy even
00:10:28 though i don't think that most of these people would announce it out loud uh one of the classic
00:10:34 political strategies is bertrand de juveniles high and low versus middle uh where you where
00:10:39 the ruling class brings in a dependent underclass which they can then exploit to extract wealth and
00:10:46 power from the middle and also destroy any rival political factions, because the middle class are
00:10:52 the only ones who have enough time, leisure or money to organize and prepare to oppose the elites. 0.94
00:11:01 And so I think that there is a natural incentive inside these countries to import these peoples, 0.72
00:11:07 thinking that ultimately it will allow you to destroy any rivals and gain a firmer grasp and 0.79
00:11:12 consolidate power. Another fact is that the increase in multiculturalism also requires an
00:11:19 increase in government power to maintain order. The higher the level of chaos inside the society, 1.00
00:11:25 the higher the factionalism, the more you need a strong government to put a hard hand over these
00:11:30 people. If you look at places like Singapore with Lee Kuan Yew, he made it very clear that in order
00:11:36 to govern his multicultural,
00:11:38 multi-racial,
00:11:39 and multi-religious society.
00:11:42 He needed a very firm hand 0.90
00:11:43 and a very limited,
00:11:45 if non-existent at all, democracy.
00:11:48 And so I think those two factor in.
00:11:51 But finally, I think there really is
00:11:53 just this post-World War II story
00:11:55 about the idea that cohesive nations
00:11:58 for people of European descent
00:12:00 will bring you Hitler. 1.00
00:12:02 This is R.O. Reno's 0.87
00:12:03 Return of the Strong Gods. 0.77
00:12:04 The idea that you could have a European country and the people could identify itself and be proud of itself and organize around its own interests, that will trigger another Holocaust, another world war, another great band who will sweep across the world and kill millions of people. 0.84
00:12:21 And so, therefore, all these Western countries must be diversified in order to avoid this inevitable outcome. 0.86
00:12:28 Yeah. No, I mean, definitely rings true.
00:12:34 I mean, with the midterms, let's sort of pivot to that a little bit. 0.99
00:12:44 Is it unfair to diagnose the problem as being Israel, starting with the Epstein files, ending with the Iran war?
00:12:55 Is it unfair to characterize that as the main problem with the Trump presidency?
00:12:59 or is there how did we end up with trump doing what he's doing
00:13:05 well i i think israel is a huge factor uh but i think treating anything as monocausal
00:13:12 is a mistake and i also think that it lets us off the hook too easily right just saying oh look
00:13:19 it's israel um look israel is a country fighting for its own interests that's not itself a problem
00:13:26 The problem is when people in the United States conflate Israel's interests with our interests, which is why George Washington ultimately said, do not have these type of alliances, do not have these extended alliances, do not have favored countries because it will produce exactly this result.
00:13:42 it will create factionalism it will increase foreign influence people will act as if loyalty
00:13:47 to the favored nation is loyalty to america do not do this he warns this emphatically in his
00:13:53 farewell address something that every american school child used to have to read we don't read
00:13:56 it anymore that's not a not a surprise and it's not a it's not a mistake yes uh so so in some ways
00:14:03 yes it is israel uh israel has too much influence in the united states i know this personally
00:14:07 There's a lot of money moving around. There's a lot of pressure inside the country to conform to this, especially in the political sphere. If you want to maintain professional relationships, if you want to have influence, you need to play ball with the Israeli lobby. You need to not notice that it is having an outside influence.
00:14:26 But at the end of the day, these are America's leaders. And so the fault lies on them. If they are listening to a foreign country, if they are taking foreign money, if they are acquiescing to foreign desires, well, that's ultimately their decision. Right. And so whether or not, you know, Israel's our relationship with Israel is healthy, you should ultimately be able to rely on your leaders to make a decision to cut it off if it is not.
00:14:50 And we obviously cannot do that. So I would say, again, contributing factor, even J.D. Vance said this very directly. Obviously, Donald Trump announced the day of the election, we will not be sending any more aid to Israel, which I don't think is going to happen. But he did say that on the day of the election. So clearly, both the president and the vice president understand the nature of the problem. Whether or not something will change is the real question. 0.75
00:15:14 Yeah, I mean, I saw AIPAC posting that they have that as of the 5th of November, they had 245 candidates that they backed that had won the election. I saw some other assessments that said that actually the number of candidates that have taken AIPAC money is even higher than that. I haven't properly looked into it myself.
00:15:37 It just seems that with the Shapiro faction, with the Levin faction of the Republican Party, there is a real crisis.
00:15:50 There is a real, I don't know if the word is turning point, but there's a real choice.
00:15:58 Because I don't understand how either that faction dominates the GOP or it's kicked out of the GOP.
00:16:07 I, I'm struggling to see a middle ground and I was wondering if you could see one. 0.51
00:16:14 Yeah, I mean, so there are, I think there are people who disagree with perhaps some of some people like us with the level of problem that the current relationship with Israel represents that we could ultimately work with. 0.79
00:16:31 I think there are people who are who are simply evaluating the relationship between the United States and Israel and for some reason see that as a positive because, you know, it's not Islamic or, you know, something like that. 0.98
00:16:43 I think there are some people like that who can be convinced. 0.91
00:16:46 But the truly hard line neocons, the Ben Shapiros, the Mark Levins, these kind of guys. 0.56
00:16:51 Yeah, it's very clear that ultimately Israel is the only issue.
00:16:55 It is it is a it is their only issue. 0.84
00:16:57 It is the only thing that matters to them.
00:16:59 It is the only thing that moves their opinion one way or another.
00:17:02 And so for them, the Republican Party is just it's a binary.
00:17:06 Either you're pro-Israel or you need to be expelled.
00:17:10 And obviously, there's simply no way we can continue to coexist inside the same party for long.
00:17:15 Someone's going to win this one and someone's going to lose.
00:17:18 And honestly, my bet is going to be on the Israeli skeptical part losing or winning over time.
00:17:25 I think that you will see the last gasp of the neocons here, but they have poisoned their brand so thoroughly. I mean, anyone who is not literally paid to ignore this can look at the last election and realize that it was the neocons that lost this election for the Republican Party, them and their priorities and the pressure that they apply on the president and others very clearly.
00:17:46 And again, this is not to, you know, give an excuse to Trump or anyone else who made
00:17:51 these decisions, but it's very clear that they are the main drivers of this war, that
00:17:55 they were the main drivers of this line of thinking.
00:17:58 They were the people who decided that, and this is really important, maybe we want to
00:18:02 talk about this a little bit, the siloing of the conservative audience when it came
00:18:07 to the realities of the war and the political fallout.
00:18:11 There was a very hard effort pushed by the neocons on every level to make this
00:18:16 war happen absolutely no matter what and obviously they're still pushing it you're still seeing mark
00:18:20 levin talk about arming uh you know the persians uh after this so uh they're they're not going to
00:18:26 slow down they're not going to stop they're not going to be introspective and so i don't i like
00:18:29 you i do not see a future where the hardliners you know the the true neocons can exist in the
00:18:35 party i think there are you could probably still have people who have some differing opinions on
00:18:39 israel you know work things out ultimately and decide that you know just putting space between
00:18:43 us in this country is the right move for the good of the United States. But I certainly don't think 0.87
00:18:48 you continue to have a Ben Shapiro or a Mark Levin leading the policy discussion. That's simply
00:18:53 untenable going forward. Fair enough. I mean, part of the question that I have is that,
00:19:00 you know, if you look at Fuentes' assessment of this whole thing, of what Trump was going to do,
00:19:08 to transgenderism with parental consent, no new wars except with Iran, tax cuts for corporations,
00:19:20 abandoning pretty much the entire agenda. This seems to have been largely fulfilled. And the
00:19:28 question that keeps coming to mind is that, was the decision to go to war made before Trump won
00:19:37 the presidency or in 2025 and in 2026? This is the question that I'm genuinely struggling with.
00:19:48 And I say that because, you know, the answer to that question is pretty consequential.
00:19:55 If it was always intended to be some kind of deception, with Trump and Vance mentioning
00:20:03 during the campaign, things that people didn't pick up on about Iran and what was going to happen
00:20:11 to Iran. Was this the plan or was this the result of immediate pressure during the Trump presidency
00:20:23 that led to this war? If you enjoyed this preview, please consider subscribing to
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