To those who haven’t been scared away by some of his less reverent takes, Nick Fuentes has been very vocal about what he wants to happen in this election, and why. He recently told his audience the Republican Party has to be burned "to the ground," "immolated by a purifying fire," so that "we will take over their post and we will rebuild it," presumably with his army of Groypers, the nickname for his followers. What are their politics? America First, obviously. Likely, while Nick was delivering his monologue, Peggy Noonan was typing her latest WSJ op-ed, hoping Tuesday brings "a clear and obvious rebuke—a rejection, a rebellion, a rout," because a new Republican Party can only begin forming "in the trauma of major loss."
The patriarch of America First and Ronald Reagan's speechwriter, both cheering for the destruction of the current iteration of the Republican Party. And this is happening essentially on the eve of a midterm election characterized by most voices on the right as an existential fight for the future of our country against a party intent on destroying it.
This was NOT on my 2026 bingo card, especially considering how inevitable the MAGA future of the Republican Party seemed in November 2024. But here we are, with the entire conservative media apparatus having spent months telling you this is the most important election of your lifetime to “stop socialism,” and two of the most influential voices on the right openly rooting for their own team to get wrecked. What has gone awry, and why are we talking about it now, and not Wednesday?
Now, they're actually both extremely right: the voters don't come first. Trumpism, though novelty and personality definitely played a part, succeeded in eclipsing "traditional Republicanism" because the latter was disdainfully out of alignment with the voters needed to win in 2016 and 2024. And now, objectively, with Trump at 38% approval overall and 33% on the increasingly dispositive economy issue (RCP issues tracking), it's time to talk about how Republicans got themselves 180 degrees out of alignment on the economy, AGAIN (whether or not they somehow, miraculously, maintain control of either legislative body by the skin of their teeth). We know the why: donor capture. I’ve talked about how to prevent it in the future, but let’s look at what Nick and Peggy have planned.
Both of them have seen enough to know this is a conversation worth having (to be fair, Nick has been talking about this since 2024). And that's the answer to "why now." Neither one of them is a shill. Neither is on a campaign payroll or angling for a cabinet job, so neither has to pretend the wave isn't coming. Be careful who you trust, people! They can see where this is going, and they're saying it out loud before the consultants get to spin it on Wednesday. Noonan writes that the old GOP establishment "destroyed the party by detaching from the legitimate needs and pleas of its base and by secretly regarding that base as stupid nobodies." Nick calls the whole thing "irredeemable." Style of prose aside, the main theme is the same: the voters don't come first. And there is a massive body of polling to back it up. My own polling found 64% of Americans say the economy works for the wealthy, not everyday people, including half of Republicans. That's one data point of many, and it makes it exhausting to watch the Republican consultant class blow a billion dollars trying to make this election about anything other than the primary needs and concerns of their voters. What's even more exhausting is watching any voice who raises this critical feedback get isolated, ostracized or attacked by a new class of pundits working overtime to keep voters on "the plantation" by any means necessary. The whole thing reeks of establishment consulting nonsense, and it's certainly not helpful when 2024 was an election about authenticity.
They both, essentially, want the GOP burned down. But as you can imagine, there's a disagreement over which direction it needs to go… let’s call it “manners vs. muscle.” Nick has one edge over Peggy, though: he realizes political parties don't fix themselves. They get TAKEN.
Peggy says the new party "will have a chance at being born." "Room will be created." Put the good of MAGA and the good of the old establishment "in the shaker, shake it up, pour it out." She seems to be saying: lose, wait, and hope a mature, adult process of introspection incubates the perfect ideal of halcyon principles. The party hits rock bottom, gets sober, and a better one magically shows up on the doorstep. No prime movers?
Nick, on the other hand, HAS prime movers: an army of Groypers who show up, organize, and are becoming increasingly hard to ignore in Washington. Ted Cruz just went whinging to Peggy’s own newspaper about it last month! Peggy only has a column, while Nick has foot soldiers. And he has one other edge: ideas that don’t idealize the vibes of the past but instead appeal to younger voters’ pragmatic passion for accountability, justice, reform, and most importantly, results. If you were going to measure their competing visions, Nick is clearly winning from the standpoint of “people equals policy.”
And that's where Peggy misses the real story. In her telling, it's all Trump, the "bumbler" who's "out of his depth." The establishment? "Discredited and over. Also they're 80."
I wish. The establishment isn't over. It survived Trump, and in a lot of ways it got stronger. As I wrote last month, Trump changed who votes Republican much faster than he changed who funds, staffs and operates Republican politics. In fact, he kind of poured jet fuel onto the fire. How else do you get the White House's top economic adviser declaring "the affordability crisis — it's a myth!" or a Republican senator in a tight race calling this "one of the best economies I've ever seen in my lifetime"? America is in a silent economic crisis, and the Wall Street/DC economist dashboard is still how Republicans steer the ship.
Trump is obviously mostly responsible, as the head of the party, since he picked and elevated these people. But Peggy found the all-too-convenient culprit and ended the conversation right there. Her cure, the old establishment's "professionalism" and "an understanding of the economic facts," is laughable. Manners didn't cause this, and manners won't fix it. And the old establishment was never populist.
But the reason I’m writing this is that, of course, the party losing does offer the silver lining of change. Unfortunately, Peggy just “doesn't know what time it is.” Sixty-one percent of Republicans want to break up dominant corporations. Taxing billionaires is almost a 3-to-1 position among Republicans. Gallup had Republicans up 14 as the party of prosperity in 2023. Today Democrats are up 14. Voters now trust Democrats more on the issue of government corruption. It’s all a mess, and Republicans are now hemorrhaging voters in a way they may find irreversible in the near term. Meanwhile, Peggy is writing about a country that doesn't exist anymore, and that's exactly why she won't be part of whatever gets built next. Who else out there will be?
There will be a lot to talk about Wednesday morning. The main question in my mind is who gets to pick up the pieces of the Republican Party. We’ve already seen a LOT of evidence that the party of W plans to viciously reassert itself. They may win the struggle, but electorally, they will lose. Meanwhile, those interests will blame the online right, bad candidates, turnout, EVERYTHING except the fact that they told struggling Americans their struggle was a myth.
But who will challenge them? Right now it seems like Nick Fuentes is the only one who's even on the playing field.
