![\"James](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/joojo.jpg\")
James Talarico speaks onstage during \u201cRaging Moderates\u201d at the Vox Media Podcast Stage at SXSW on March 14, 2026 in Austin, Texas. Getty Images for Vox Media<\/p>\n
Elex desk: Chasing the \u2018Normalcy\u2019 Vote<\/p>\n
\u201cAmericans keep voting for normal and getting something else,\u201d notes The Wall Street Journal\u2019s Gerard Baker<\/a>, as \u201cpartisans on both sides always think the moment is ripe for radicalism.\u201d Voters in 2020 saw Joe Biden as an \u201cunthreatening old man who had done essentially nothing in a 50-year political career,\u201d then got \u201ca president out of a radical Hollywood screenwriter\u2019s fever dream.\u201d In 2024, \u201cDonald Trump was the more normal one.\u201d But Trump\u2019s \u201cmethod of implementation\u201d and affect are not normal. \u201cNo surprise then, that Mr. Trump\u2019s approval rating is almost exactly where President Biden\u2019s was.\u201d It\u2019s becoming increasingly clear that we \u201clive in an age of radical politics, increasing polarization and a steady centrifugal momentum in both major parties.\u201d<\/p>\n From the right: The \u2018America First\u2019 Left<\/p>\n The \u201csimple explanation\u201d for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s new \u201copposition to Iron Dome,\u201d argues Commentary\u2019s Seth Mandel<\/a>, is that \u201cshe changed her mind\u201d because \u201cthe Democratic Socialists of America, one of the leading Hamas-aligned hate groups in the country, told her to.\u201d AOC says, \u201cI believe the Israeli government is well able to fund the Iron Dome system.\u201d Hmm, counters Mandel: When America sends aid for systems like that, the money ends up \u201cspent on the U.S. economy and in fortifying American manufacturing\u201d \u2014 and the Israelis share their new tech with us as well. Turns out \u201cthe America First left\u201d is just as bad as \u201cthe America First right.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost Editorial Board<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Virginia beat: Why Spanberger\u2019s Sinking<\/p>\n She won last November as a moderate, but Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger has since turned her 15-point landslide victory \u201cinto a rating of 47 percent approval and 46 percent disapproval,\u201d snarks The Federalist\u2019s Breecan F. Thies<\/a>, as \u201cher moderate promises deteriorate into radical reality.\u201d She\u2019s letting the legislature push tax hikes and pro-criminal \u201cjustice reforms\u201d and has blocked ICE from deporting illegal-migrant criminals. Plus, she\u2019s embraced a Democratic gerrymander that \u201cslinks multiple congressional districts\u201d from the DC suburbs into the rest of the state, \u201ceffectively disenfranchising huge swaths of Republicans\u201d and setting up rural voters \u201cto have a congressman who will likely be a professional bureaucrat or lobbyist of the D.C. swamp variety.\u201d No wonder she \u201chas the worst approval rating of any Virginia governor\u201d in the last three decades.<\/p>\n Woke watch: History Wins at President\u2019s House<\/p>\n