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[Awsi Dooger]

116. My Republican friends don't know much of anything

They do know the name Nancy Pelosi. It's never the first thing they mention but the script seldom changes much. When we are arguing and they've run out of ammo, which is always fairly early, they summon the name Nancy Pelosi and rant about her for a few sentences. Likewise with my sister the registered Republican. It obviously sourced from her ex-husband because I used to hear him use Pelosi's name while flailing his arms. My departed dad was so dismayed she married that guy: "Can you believe this is what she is subjected to at home?" My sister and I have never been close but she wasn't a simpleton ranting hateful Republican until that marriage. She wasn't a Republican at all.

Something happened in the past 5 years. Unmistakable. We lost those white populist and working class males long before Trump became the nominee. I've known those tunnel vision conservatives since moving to Las Vegas and the sportsbook scene in 1984. I don't see them as much anymore but when I am in town for a month or two they make sure to seek me out and denounce Democrats as even more despicable than ever. I'm convinced it has something to do with Obamacare and perceived impact on small business but I'd like to see polling on that.

One thing for sure...we don't do a good job of saving a half percent here and half percent there. I imagine that's what geek tragedy is getting at. In Las Vegas I can easily dump by win likelihood from let's say 56% to below the break even point simply by using idiotic tactics like always settling for the worst point spread or money line available, instead of the best. Democratic politicians and strategists seem to have perfected that type of masochism in their own field. Can you imagine a Republican nominee essentially forfeiting the presidency by campaigning in the wrong states? Taking some for granted? We seemingly use the machines and Russia as deflections while preferring to ignore how moronic our strategy was.

During the '80s and '90s I didn't hear those simplistic angry friends of mine ranting about Foley or Gephardt. I will make it about gender. White males respect white males. We would be saving a percent or so without doing anything else. Just my instincts. It has nothing to do with how I feel about Pelosi or how she does her job. This is a bottom line venture. In the meantime our commercial campaigns are terrible, we throw out words like "Meaner" with seemingly no clue how lame it is, and every other decision is designed to steady grind toward failure. The other side relies on fake news and we say nothing about it, as if we're terrified of backlash and everything except the status quo.