The Point podcast is back after a long hiatus with an episode about the 2022 midterms. Point editors Jon Baskin and Joey Keegin are joined by the journalist and native Ohioan James Pogue to debrief two key elections—JD Vance in Ohio and Blake Masters in Arizona. What will Vance's victory—and Master's defeat—mean for the National Conservative movement that has embraced them? Jon, James and Joey talk about the emerging fissures in the conservative coalition: In the fight to claim the mantle of Trumpism without Trump, will it be the NatCons or the "chaos agents" that will win out?  Where will the GOP go from here? And what lessons, if any, can Democrats take from the latest election cycle and all of this ferment on the right?

Timestamps:

• What is national conservatism, and who are its political standard-bearers? (03:50)
• What are we to make of the relationship between tech—typically a bastion of seasteading libertarianism—and this ultranationalist, morality-driven politics? (16:52)
• Do voters care about the issues that are motivating Nat Con politicians, or do Vance and Masters have an elitism problem? (28:35)
• Who will be the true inheritors of Trumpism: the Nat Cons or the MAGA “chaos agents”? (30:09)
• What lessons, if any, can Democrats take from the midterms and, more broadly, this increasingly prevalent feeling among the American people that the liberal system as it is currently set up is no longer working for them? (38:23)

Relevant reading:

• “Where Dreams Come True: The national conservatives go to Orlando” by Joey Keegin (The Point)
• “Inside the New Right, where Peter Thiel Is Putting His Big Bets” by James Pogue (Vanity Fair)
• “Going Back to Cincinnati” by James Pogue (American Conservative)
• “Academia’s Holy Warriors” by Jon Baskin (The Chronicle Review)
• “Among the Reality Entrepreneurs” by James Duesterberg (The Point)