15 Aug Seth Keshel Obliterates a “Republican” Turncoat
Seth Keshel is a friend of ACWT; a brilliant election data analyst; and a growing ‘influencer’.
In every election cycle, media in search of clicks put out stories of the lifelong partisan [‘R’] or [‘D’] who after a profound struggle of conscience, has found the light and will courageously be voting the opposite of what s/he has done in the past. The pattern is so old and the content so predictable it’s hard to believe any of the stories get any traction.
But Seth Keshel has taken one such story from the 2024 cycle from a so-called “Republican” mayor of Mesa, Arizona, and rebutted it with a powerful and timely rebuke of this mayor’s utterly misguided and ignorant thinking. Keshel has produced a clinic on what MAGA is about (and on some of the reasons for the resentment millions of Americans feel about the stolen 2020 election)…and it is ultimately about the policies, not the personality, of Donald Trump.
Worth noting.
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A Captain’s Response to Mesa Mayor John Giles
Dear Mayor Giles,
I hope you have enjoyed your brief fifteen minutes of fame now that you’ve waited all this time to formally and publicly come out against the Republican nominee for President, Donald Trump. I find it fitting, even though you don’t know me, to respond to your position to establish my contempt for you, address your purported values and principles the Republican wing of the Uniparty loves to tout, and ridicule your desperate admonition of Republican voters to choose “country over party,” which is exactly what I would expect subversives to say if they wanted to message that a change agent within the party, one who threatens to break up the grift and controlled opposition, is a threat to our institutions.
As l shred your PSYOP point by point, I will be referencing your pathetic op-ed for The Arizona Republic, found here.
The time has come for my fellow Arizona Republicans to return to the core foundations of the Grand Old Party.
Our party used to stand for the belief that every Arizonan, no matter their background or circumstances, should have the freedom, opportunity and security to live out their American Dream.
But since Donald Trump refused to accept the outcome of the 2020 election, Republicans have yet to course correct. The Republican Party with Trump at its helm continues down the path of political extremism, away from focusing on our fundamental freedoms.
Now more than ever, we need leaders who will put country over party.
I’ll start out with spoilers – you will be referencing John McCain shortly in your letter. It is no secret that, in Arizona, a Civil War has been raging for nearly a decade between Bush-McCain Republicans and the new populist leaders led by figures such as Donald Trump and Kari Lake. I see that you graduated from Brigham Young University in 1984, which must put you in your early to mid-sixties. I am 39 and came of political age in the shadow of a Republican wasteland so-called leaders like you created by fumbling all gains made by Ronald Reagan and plunging the party into incompetence and near extinction by rejecting the needs of America’s working class with insidious trade deals, failing to secure our borders, and throwing the nation into senseless conflicts that come at the cost of American lives.
Those of us who support the America First agenda are very reasonable in our expectations of the Republican Party. We want the borders shut, we want elections fair, we want trade to favor us, and we want other nations to fight their own wars. If you foundational Grand Old Party cocktail club professional bureaucrats can manage to keep grown ass men out of our girls’ locker rooms and stop trying to recreate every failed Californian initiative in Arizona, then maybe we can find some common ground. Until then, let it be known that you have lost all mandate to govern, and it is obvious based on the direction of the grassroots that you have been rejected by all except for the mainstream media, who use your need for acceptance and admiration to have you beclown yourselves in print.
Furthermore, Donald Trump has no mandate to accept the results of an uncertifiable election, especially in Arizona. You mean to tell me Trump won Arizona and Maricopa County in 2016, having fewer votes than Romney in the latter, and then went on to set all-time records in 2020 for net new votes gained statewide and in Maricopa, only to lose Arizona for the GOP for the second time presidentially since 1952, and Maricopa for the first time since 1948? You expect people to believe that Joe Biden, who barely campaigned and rarely even showed his face in Arizona, who is now unable to attempt reelection (which casts doubt on getting 81 million lawful votes, but maybe that’s just me), increased the Democrat vote total by more than double its previous record for growth, which came in a landslide defeat for John Kerry in 2004? I don’t accept it either, and the only reason it stood is because Uniparty GOP mainstays like you in that textbook example of urban corruption littered the state with McCain diehards who have no loyalty except that belonging to their big club, which none of us on the outside are in.
Finally, the phrase “country over party” came to prominence in 2016, when CIA agent Evan McMullin was stood up to hoodwink Mormon voters in Utah with the same nonsense you are spilling today. You don’t side with the people. You side with federal agencies, and you prove it by spouting their ridiculous taglines. You are playing to the misinformed and easily manipulated, and sound like more blackmailed controlled opposition.
In Arizona, we have faced the brunt of misinformation, election denialism and an erosion of trust in our justice system.
The Grand Canyon State is ground zero in the fight against repeated false claims to disrupt our electoral process — from fake presidential electors attempting to undermine Arizona’s election, to a sham “audit” by Arizona Senate Republicans that was spurred by conspiracy theories.
Significant reforms to immigration and border policies that would have addressed the crisis at our southern border were blocked by Trump because he didn’t want the problem solved. He wanted to exploit it for personal political gain.
Arizona is highly influenced by the cartels and run by lobbyists, poisoned by the expansion of mail-in balloting and the gradual takeover of urban centers by Democrats, and of course, home to insufferable blowhards like yourself who try to justify the endorsement of a radical leftist by claiming years of loyalty to a party that has accomplished almost nothing in three decades since the Contract with America.
Not only was the 2020 election one of the most embarrassing displays of election rigging in world history, with the state being called with almost none of the vote counted, the 2022 midterms followed it up and created even more conspiracy theorists for you to shake your hands at. You lack the right to criticize your own constituents when you turn your head the other way as the Maricopa County government ensured voting machines failed in exclusively Republican-heavy voting centers, a third-party vendor controlled the flow of ballots and the count, and a 3:1 Election Day Republican turnout ended in top of the ticket Democrat wins, with an historically unpopular Democrat president in the White House. Perhaps you should brush up on midterm political science – but then again, who am I kidding? You know all of this and are speaking up for someone else.
Donald Trump wanted physical barriers at the southern border that the Uniparty Congress was unwilling to approve and fund. Check the record for decades of spending heavy for new surveillance equipment and agents, and explain to me why border intrusions and migrant-crime are at record highs and then tell me how Kamala Harris, a radical left-wing former Attorney General of perhaps the most lawless state in America, will discourage future border incursions and combat cartels when she has been the second most powerful political figure in the nation and second in command in an administration known for allowing the invasion of America. You can’t.
Since 2014, I have had the honor of being mayor of Mesa, the nation’s 36th-largest city and one of the most conservative. Under Trump, American cities didn’t get the support they deserved. Infrastructure week was made into a joke.
But under the Biden-Harris administration, Mesa has seen historic federal funding for the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, along with investments to make sure our streets and public transit systems benefit from modern technology.
With the CHIPS Act, Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden are delivering thousands of new jobs to Arizonans and helping us grow critical industries.
Congratulations, John. Your moment in the sun is nearly over. There is nothing conservative about stumping for a far-left candidate who dropped out of her own party’s primary before voting began because she had absolutely no connection to its historic base, which used to be working-class Americans. Your logic is to claim Mesa, a suburban enclave run by quisling moderates beholden to the McCainite wing of the GOP, is conservative because they rely on the federal government to send pork their way, which of course is in the form of tax revenues confiscated from your constituents, many of whom are sick of the never-ending urbanization invited by politicians like you. Strange, because I could care less about fiscal conservatism now that our money, detached from any meaningful backing, has no real value other than that assigned to it on a day-to-day basis, but I’m pretty sure muh principles Republicanism justifies itself by claiming some degree of fiscal discretion, self-reliance, and responsibility.
You don’t seem to understand why the Republican base, which you hate, wants medieval solutions on the border since modern ones don’t work, why we are sick of deliberately complicated elections, and why we consider your precious globalism a failure, and you’ve made it clear with your own agenda that you don’t even have the classical con of fiscal conservatism, perfectly underscored by your colleagues in Congress greenlighting endless billions to Ukraine and others who should take care of their own defense needs, under control. When will you be switching parties formally?
Trump poses a serious threat to our nation. We can’t have a felon representing us on the national stage, let alone one who would threaten to abandon NATO and ruin our standing abroad.
We are in a moment that only happens once every few generations, when we have to defend democracy, and stand up for the right to vote and our civil rights. It is essential that we proceed in a manner that strengthens, rather than diminishes, public confidence in our democratic institutions.
What kind of country do we want to live in?
Vice President Harris is fighting to make sure Americans can get ahead and be safe from gun violence and to restore and protect the rights of women. Donald Trump, on the other hand, could enact the extreme and dangerous Project 2025 agenda if elected, which would roll back our rights and freedoms.
· George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and all the signers of the Declaration of Independence, along with everyone who took up arms against the King of England were felons facing charges of treason. You live and govern within the framework of the country those felons created. Your open support of judicial tyranny and enemy lawfare removes all doubt of where your loyalties lie, so thank you for stating it clearly.
· America is not a democracy, but a Constitutional Republic. With nearly 3.4 million ballots certified in Arizona’s 2020 election, and only about 2.6 million just four years before, I’m not exactly sure who you are thinking was deprived of the right to vote. It looks to me, just on the back of a napkin, with the U.S. Census reporting the lowest growth to the state and Maricopa County in decades, that just about every corpse, illegal alien, homeless person, and phantom registration had a ballot turned in if a non-campaigning, senile political retread overcame Republican turnout records in the most loyal Republican state since 1952.
· Wait, I thought the LDS church was pro-life and pro-freedom? What happened to that, or are your loyalties placed elsewhere?
We can choose a future for our children and grandchildren based on decency, respect and morality — or succumb to the crudeness and vulgarity of Trump and J.D. Vance and the far-right agenda they would champion.
Arizona leaders like McCain and Sen. Mark Kelly have embodied the commitment to country over party. And it’s that same high caliber of character and leadership I see in Vice President Harris.
That’s why I’m standing with her. Kamala Harris is the competent, just and fair leader our country deserves. This year too much is at stake to vote Republican at the top of the ticket.
It will take Arizona Republicans, independents and Democrats standing together against a far-right agenda. Let us put country over party by voting to stop Trump and protect our democracy.
I’m struggling to respond to your conclusion without recycling everything I’ve already put out against you – that is how much your nonsense is coming in on repeat. I am struggling to decide if you are under hypnosis, or under a massive bribe or control operation. Kamala Harris is the opposite of competent – she is one of the least liked Vice Presidents in history, ran on becoming the first Indian-American Senator but in cringeworthy fashion tried to sound like a southern black woman when visiting Atlanta, selected a running mate who offers some of the worst examples of stolen valor ever seen, and is in fact America’s number one DEI employee. Go ahead, try and say I’m a racist. I don’t give a rat’s ass what you think – but everyone knows Joe Biden picked her for her skin color and gender – which means competence was not considered at all, and only skin color (or race) and gender were.
Rather than seeking to remain relevant as your political career comes to a close, you should explain to your constituents why you would wish another four to eight years of what we have lived through since 2021 on them:
· Why you wish to see the city overrun with more criminal illegal aliens and even non-violent types who impoverish the minority working class.
· Why you wish to see the impact of left-wing political leadership on crime in your city, which has a violent crime rate 16% over the national average, and climbing as tyrants like you scratch one another’s backs.
· Why you represent yourself as a Republican and conservative but grovel for federal dollars, which require higher taxation to exist in the first place since the government is incapable of producing revenue on its own (see, I used to be a good little conservative), and fleece your constituents with lies about party allegiance.
· Why you remain loyal to John McCain, who never saw a war he didn’t think Americans should die in and who lied to the country about being willing to repeal Obamacare, only to vote to enshrine it just so he could stick it to Trump.
You own this albatross, John. You and your Republican establishment cronies know how to do nothing well but lose, and by coming out in support of a radical left-winger with no accomplishments and a track record of failure, you’ve overplayed your hand and shown exactly why Americans look at our entrenched political class with utter disgust.
Future historians will ridicule you in ways not fit for print.
Seth Keshel, MBA, is a former Army Captain of Military Intelligence and Afghanistan veteran. His analytical method of election forecasting and analytics is known worldwide, and he has been commended by President Donald J. Trump for his work in the field.