Do we want to win, or not?
Dad used to recycle the same few quotes on repeat. I, predictably, would sigh in exhaustion as a youngster, but looking back, it is impossible to ignore what it is he was trying to convey.
“The game is never over until the last man is out.” That one was originally uttered after I told him a team had a game in the bag, only to lose it in the ninth with a massive collapse. It applies aptly to life, primarily as an admonition not to give up despite the circumstances.
“Your attitude is your altitude.” Always imparted to me when I had a negative attitude, and learned by the old man leading soldiers in combat when stakes were high.
There were many others, particularly centered around world history and military strategy. One of his favorites is one I’ve repeated in these virtual pages many times, including just last week.
I had a flurry of quotes running through my mind this morning as I was slinging iron in a downtown Nashville gym, making men half my age wonder what they’re doing wrong. One of them is an all time classic, which I’ve shared in these virtual pages many times:
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
That is Napoleon Bonaparte’s timeless wisdom and most important quote, for all of posterity (of all nations!) to use if they have the trigger discipline to wield its might effectively.
What we are witnessing in 2026 is a breakdown of message discipline on the part of campaigns and the lure of ad revenues and on-demand content generation on the part of those who have figured out how to throw around significant clout on the internet. Because of this breakdown in execution, the American right is handing the lunatic left reprieves and potential victories on a silver platter.
Before we go any further, please understand why the emergence of the DSA as a major player in Democrat politics is a good thing for Republicans, and something that will potentially usher in a level of GOP dominance not seen since the window between Reconstruction and the New Deal.
Now, on to the criticism prompted by last night’s shocking Wisconsin Democrat establishment defeat of the communist, Francesca Hong:
A legitimate analyst can make many deductions from last night’s outcome in the Wisconsin Democrat Gubernatorial Primary, which looks like this with just about everything but the shouting done:
Takeaway One: Polling is a scam. I am now convinced that 90% of pollsters who land a result within their margin of error are lucky, and crafted their numbers to miraculously fall within standard benchmarks (like a Democrat getting 43% of the vote in Texas, which can be pulled from many past results). Look how bad it was in the Crowley-Hong race:
“Last 5 Wisconsin Governor Democratic Primary Polls — State Navigate: Hong +22; Public Policy Polling: Hong +18; Marquette University: Hong +25; State Navigate: Hong +29; Public Policy Polling: Hong +20. Results (88% Reporting): Crowley +0.5” — OSZ (@OpenSourceZone), August 12, 2026
Those polls average Hong +22.8%. Collectively, they only missed by 23.3%. Polls naturally influence the betting markets, which favored Hong heavily, and I think present natural avenues for corruption and collusion between polling outfits and mega gamblers willing to put big money on the table.
Takeaway Two: Milwaukee County, despite numerous examples of rampant electoral corruption since 2018, when they stole Scott Walker’s race on a late absentee dump, continues to put itself in position to have the final say. Last night, they had an absolute shitshow of a performance by somehow botching standard operating procedures.
Oh, a deadlocked race that somehow finds itself in the hands of the dominant Democrat-run county? What could go wrong in the wee hours of the morning? Electoral corruption appears likely from my view, along the lines of the Wayne County machine somehow giving the loser of the Democrat Senate race a margin greater than 50% in mail-in balloting despite running about dead-even in Election Day voting.
Hong posed an existential threat to the moderate facade Democrats in the Midwest are desperate to maintain, given the substantial coalition shift against them in the Trump era. She was widely expected to get clobbered by Republican Tom Tiffany, a ho-hum conservative unlikely to shake up the system in DeSantis fashion. Now, thanks to the victory of David Crowley, the current Executive of Milwaukee County and a former member of the State Assembly, the GOP is going to have to make an adjustment and embrace a substantially lower likelihood of victory than the layup against Hong, who is one of the dumbest people to ever appear behind a microphone.
All of this is because of…
Takeaway Three: Republicans rushing to condemn Hong’s brand of socialism/communism and prematurely highlighting how much she hates Thanksgiving, what she thinks about hunting and guns, how she wants to handle education, or any other ridiculous ideological positions have created this problem. I do believe there is obvious mail-in ballot fraud from Milwaukee County, and almost certainly Dane County, the other Democrat heavy hitter in the state; however, I do not believe there is 23 points worth of mail-in balloting fraud, or 20, or even 10.
In the last contested Democrat gubernatorial primary (2018), the outgoing Tony Evers had 225,082 votes. Both candidates have cleared Evers by over 86,000 votes, and the total vote count is about to hit 800,000 – almost a 50% leap from total votes in 2018, which featured major Democrat enthusiasm. I wouldn’t be surprised if Crowley has 100,000 more votes than he should have, but the point remains:
Republicans dropping so much ordnance on Hong for the past few months created enough fear within the Democrat operation to elevate an alternative candidate – just as we saw with Haley Stevens in Michigan and as we saw with the Oystergruppenfuhrer, Graham Platner, getting run off the stage in Maine never to be heard from again.
Here’s Tiffany himself, yesterday, before polls closed:
“Extreme Madison socialism. That’s where she comes from. That’s what she believes in… Abolish prisons, abolish police, the highest income tax rates in the United States, and she doesn’t even like Thanksgiving.” — Tiffany War Room (@TiffanyWarRoom), quoting Tom Tiffany, August 11, 2026
How about the day before?
“Crazy: Abolish police. Empty prisons. Raise income taxes to the highest in America. Common sense: Lock up criminals. Cut taxes. Create more opportunity. Wisconsin will be the firewall against socialism this November.” — Tom Tiffany (@TomTiffanyWI), August 10, 2026
I’m still scrolling, and I’ve only made it back three days.
“In January, @FrancescaHongWI was endorsed by the Wisconsin Electoral Socialists for her ‘commitment to police and prison abolition.’ She completed a questionnaire and interview to earn the endorsement. This isn’t from six years ago. It’s her position THIS YEAR, and it’s CRAZY.” — Tom Tiffany (@TomTiffanyWI), August 9, 2026
Tom – what are you doing? Did you want to face someone who will run on the title of “Executive of Milwaukee County” when a similar blowhard almost beat Ron Johnson for a Senate seat in a Republican favorable year? Look around the right-wing commentary sphere and you’ll see as much Hong content as we did when AOC was a new thing back in 2018.
So scary!
So radical!
What is happening to America?
The Democrats know their DSA wing is going to destroy the party brand forever. I’m not even kidding you, the Democrats may literally go extinct if the DSA takes over the direction of the party as the Tea Party and (later) the MAGA movement did. Like out-of-business erased from Wikipedia kind of extinct.
The Moral of the Story
STOP being so afraid of these whackjobs in the DSA. Look at the stats – this woman was favored by over 20 points in polling and the betting markets considered her a near-lock, and she lost to a guy with very little name recognition nationally because of mail-in ballot games and the efforts of Republicans who benefited greatly from her campaign. The Democrats know the DSA brand can’t win in the Midwest, and they are running out of options to stop what has become a runaway train.
That’s why they need moronic Republicans to blow it all up for them, as they did in Maine with Platner’s disastrous losing campaign, and as they almost did in Michigan, where Mike Rogers is now the favorite for a seat the GOP has no business winning in a Trump midterm. The cost here is grave:
“I can’t even begin to quantify how stupid Republicans are for dropping so many bombs on Hong before she was nominated. She gave the GOP a guaranteed gubernatorial win to move past eight years of Tony Evers.” — Seth Keshel (@RealSKeshel), August 12, 2026
Governor Tom Tiffany would have signed GOP-sponsored election reforms. He was a lock with Hong as presumptive nominee. Now, this is anyone’s game and I can’t say I consider him the favorite. Message discipline matters far more than anyone can account for in the Information Age, and the GOP is massively unprepared and insufficient for that fight.
Seth Keshel, MBA is a Senior Fellow at the Gold Institute for International Strategy and a retired Army Captain. He publishes Captain K’s Corner on Substack.
