The debate is raging on the plugged-in right, including on NR‘s pages, over whether Republicans’ midterm obliteration was mostly precipitated by the tariffs or the Iran war. Were voters more upset by rising prices for everyday goods, or by a sudden spike in fuel and diesel prices with no end in sight? Which policy had the greater aura of chaos and self-immolation on the world stage?
To me, this intra-league dispute is akin to arguing whether Hiroshima or Nagasaki hurt imperial Japan more in World War II.
Why can’t it be both? The punch to the face, then the gut? Based on all kinds of data, from the trajectory of Trump’s approval rating to Tuesday’s exit polls, that’s exactly what seems to have happened.