Steven Spielberg didn’t even give him a real, complete name. In the end credits of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, he’s simply billed as “Fedora.”
But the character, played by Richard Young, was the guy who gave young Indiana Jones his trademark hat — and a few words of wisdom.
You lost today, kid. But that doesn’t mean you have to like it.
Last night, the Republican Party narrowly lost the statewide redistricting war in Virginia, 51.3% to 48.7%. It’ll likely cost the GOP four seats in the House — with Virginia’s congressional delegation going from a 6-5 Democratic majority to a 10-1 Democratic landslide.
But that doesn’t mean we have to like it.
Virginia is a weird, contradictory place: It was explicitly named after virginity, yet its motto is “Virginia is for lovers.” (Good luck reconciling THAT.) Not to mention its NSFW state flag, featuring a topless chick standing barefoot on a dead dude.
And the only reason Virginia became a Democratic stronghold was because of two border-bending historic decisions: In 1847, Virginia absorbed a large hunk of Washington, D.C., at the bequest of local residents. This became the bright blue cities of Arlington and Alexandria in Northern Virginia — high-population centers that are essentially suburbs of our nation’s capital.
For these Virginians, D.C. matters much more than Richmond.
Then, in 1863, West Virginia split from the Commonwealth of Virginia and became America’s the 35th state. (Virginia, of course, was distracted with the Civil War at the time.) Today, the population of West Virginia is about 1.77 million, dwarfing D.C.’s population of 700,000.
So, consider: Yesterday’s redistricting election was excruciatingly close. It went right down to the wire, 51.3% to 48.7%.
But in Northern Virginia, the “yes” vote won in a laugher, 80% to 20%.
And in West Virginia, Donald Trump won 70% of the vote in the 2024 election. The Mountaineer State is nearly as conservative as Northern Virginia is liberal.
So the math isn’t complicated: Virginia carved away juuuust enough right-leaning votes and absorbed juuuust enough left-leaning votes to gerrymander the state into a 10-1 Democratic majority. We lost by 1.3%.
But that doesn’t mean we have to like it.
Right now, we have three options:
Option One: Southwest Virginians could ask West Virginia to annex more of the state and join West Virginia. Hey, Virginia’s borders are already the most malleable in the country. There’s precedent for it.
Since Virginia’s borders have already changed twice… why not a third time?
Clearly, Northern Virginians care more about #ResistingTrump than fair and equal representation of the rest of the Commonwealth. Why should Virginians sit passively by and allow themselves to be disenfranchised?
Option Two: Give Northern Virginia back to Washington, D.C. Tell ‘em it’s defective and you don’t want to keep it. (Maybe it’ll be like Costco with its return policy.)
That way, NoVa residents can focus on the federal government without undermining the state-level democratic process. They have more in common with D.C., anyway. Might as well make the relationship official.
The proper response from Donald Trump to these Virginia shenanigans is to announce that the retrocession of Arlington and Alexandria to Virginia was unconstitutional and that they are and always will be part of the federal district
— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) April 22, 2026
Option Three: The Republican Party could get its head out of its arse and stop shooting itself in the frickin’ foot on Election Day!
Raheem Kassam of The National Pulse wrote a haunting breakdown of Virginia’s math:
A snap analysis by The National Pulse shows the “Yes” (Democrat) side spent $62.3 million, divided by 1,545,736 votes (at the time of publication), which comes to around $40.30 per vote. Meanwhile, the Republican “No” side spent around $20 million, divided by 1,464,548 votes, for an average of $13.66 per vote. Democrats spent three times as much per head — and still only cleared 51.3 percent.
Closing the 81,188-vote gap at the “No” side’s own efficiency rate would have cost around $1.1 million — just over one percent of what the GOP burned on John Cornyn’s primary campaign against Ken Paxton in Texas last month. Even a generous real-world multiplier, accounting for diminishing campaign returns, lands at just $2 million to $4 million.
Which means, for somewhere between $1.1 million and $4 million, the Republicans would’ve won the Virginia election outright.
Frustratingly, the money was on hand:
The Republican National Committee is sitting on roughly $109 million cash on hand — nearly $100 million more than the Democratic National Committee, which has just $15.9 million and is carrying $17.4 million in debt. Trump-aligned super PAC MAGA Inc. entered 2026 with more than $304 million in the bank, by itself. In fact, combining all the major Republican groups leaves the GOP with over $807M cash on hand in total. Which means they’d only have had to spend 0.25% of total funds to salvage Virginia.
Politico ran a similar story, “‘The GOP Should’ve Done More’: Virginia Republicans Point Fingers After Gerrymandering Loss”:
[S]everal Virginia Republicans said their party could have done more to prevent Democrats from edging out a victory Tuesday. Democrats outspent Republicans by a roughly three-to-one margin, putting Republicans at a disadvantage on the airwaves until the late stages of the race. Virginians for Fair Elections — which led the “yes” effort — raised $64 million, according to Virginia Department of Elections data, boosted by nearly $38 million in support from House Majority Forward, a political nonprofit aligned with House Democratic leadership.
Even though Republicans have far more money stacked up in outside groups — including $297 million brought in by the Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. since the start of last year alone — they ultimately never matched Democrats’ investment.
“If they had spent some money, they could have won tonight and someone’s got to own that and explain why that decision was made,” said a second Virginia-based GOP strategist.
In political PR, nothing moves until it’s pushed. It’s not about “right” and “wrong,” but strategy and tactics. With a better game plan, the GOP would’ve won the Virginia election.
But we didn’t — and it’ll cost us four congressional seats.
Snatching defeat in winnable elections from the jaws of victory is bad enough, but at least we’ll get another swing at the bat in a few years. Losing a war would be exponentially worse.
And just like the Virginia election, it certainly seems that our current Iran War strategy isn’t optimizing our chances for victory.
Because, also yesterday, President Trump extended the ceasefire in Iran. He did so, even though Iran declined to participate in peace talks.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday extended the two-week U.S. ceasefire with Iran, saying the extension was warranted due to Tehran’s government being “seriously fractured.”
Trump said the ceasefire, which he earlier had said would end on Wednesday, would continue “until such time as” Iran’s leaders and representatives submit a “unified proposal” to end the war with the U.S. and Israel.
[…]
“Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” Trump said in a statement.
“I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other,” the president said.
Why the hell should we wait for the Iranian government to coalesce, workout its differences, and get back on the same page?!
ATTACK IT WHILE IT’S DIVIDED!
And we know continuing the ceasefire was a bad idea because the United Nations supports it:
.@antonioguterres welcomes the announcement by the United States to extend the ceasefire. This is an important step toward de-escalation and creating critical space for diplomacy & confidence-building between Iran and the United States.
— UN Spokesperson (@UN_Spokesperson) April 21, 2026
Read more: https://t.co/7BCZvvFQe1
As does Virginia’s Democratic senator (and ex-Hillary Clinton running mate) Sen. Tim Kaine:
We announced the ceasefire, that needs to be extended… it’s my hope that, in the negotiations, we would first agree to extend the ceasefire, then we’d talk about this nuclear issue. …It’s much easier to have that discussion if there’s a ceasefire…
—Sen. Kaine (April 20)
When the Democrats and the U.N. are both for something, that’s a bad sign for President Trump.
After all, neither the U.N. nor the Democratic Party want MAGA to succeed. They have a vested interest in the Iran War devolving into a miserable, never-ending quagmire.
Best case scenario for the Dems: Bickering over peace deals, ceasefires, and Schrödinger’s Strait continue all the way through Election Day. Instead of reaching a resolution, the story lingers on… and on… and on.
Extending the ceasefire brings them closer to their goal.
Exclusively for our VIPs: PRedictions, PRojections, PRaise, and PRedators: The Iran War Is Just Like the Federal Debt Because…
Once again, we’re not following the smartest game plan. If the Iranian government is fighting with itself, then it’s the perfect opportunity to give the Persian people the green light to rebel.
Now! Immediately!
Otherwise, what’s the alternative? To wait for the Iranian officials to consolidate power? Why? Because U.S.-Iranian peace negotiations have been going so swimmingly — and we don’t wanna risk messing them up?
That doesn’t make any sense.
Besides, why would we assume Iran’s more-moderate wing will win the power struggle? Isn’t it more probable that the crueler, more violent faction will fill the vacuum?
And if that happens, then what? We go back to war anyway?
Tactics and strategy determine success, not wishes and dreams. Giving Iran’s long-suffering civilians the go-ahead to overthrow the mullahs is the exact right strategy to maximize pressure, hit ‘em when they’re distracted, and optimize our chance at regime change.
It’s our biggest “trump card” (pun intended) that hasn’t been played.
Or, I suppose, we could hold onto that card, wait, and hope for the best — just like the Republican Party did in Virginia, when it foolishly sat on all that money. That certainly seems to be our current trajectory.
But that doesn’t mean we have to like it.
If you play, play to win. No more half-measures. No more stupid game plans.
Let the revolution begin!
One Last Thing: 2026 is a critical year for America First. It began with Mayor Mamdani declaring war on “rugged individualism” and will reach a crescendo with the midterm elections. Nothing less than the fate of the America First movement teeters in the balance.
Never before have the political battle lines been so clearly defined. Win or lose, 2026 will transform our country.
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