A morning roundup of worthy pundit and news reads, brought to you by Daily Kos. Click here to read the full web version.

The Vibes Are Off With the Republican Party
The Vibes Are Off With the Republican Party, Daniel Lee Thomson, Politico
CPAC's lackluster energy points to a GOP that has lost its pulse on America.

Steve Bannon was the host of the invite-only party held Saturday night at an overcrowded pub in National Harbor. Bannon, who dubbed the party the first annual “Warrior’s Ball,” insisted that despite the lackluster conference, the GOP and its right flank were still strong — and pointed to his two special guests in the room as proof: “Look at what our movement is made of. Kari Lake and James O’Keefe! Is there any political movement in this country as strong as this, with warriors like this?”

Warriors like a failed gubernatorial candidate who won’t admit she lost and a media provocateur who was effectively ousted by his own board?

Vish Burra, who worked for Bannon’s “War Room” podcast and is now an aide to another lightning rod, Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), once told me about the MAGA movement, “We don’t have an ideology, we have vibes.”

As I saw firsthand over the last few days while mingling with MAGA fans wearing over-the-top merch, the vibes were off at CPAC this year — a worrisome thing for a party built on vibes.
How is Fox News Different From All Other Media?
How is Fox News Different From All Other Media?, Daniel Drezner, Drezner’s World
All news outlets have their biases. This is something different.

Real media outlets screw up too — the difference is that they usually try to self-correct. If one thinks the mainstream media tilts to the left, then there need to be good, rigorous right-leaning outlets to report on inconvenient truths. Unfortunately, what the Dominion lawsuit and New York Times reporting reveals is that Fox News is not a real media outlet. Worse, it turns out that in a polarized political environment (which Fox helped midwife into existence) its financial incentive is to ignore large swathes of reality. I don’t know how one can trust a single thing they report ever again.
2023 has gotten off to a rough financial start for Daily Kos. Our revenue is down and we need to lean more and more on our readers and activists to cover our expenses. Can you help by donating $3 right now?
Republicans’ Lost Youth
Republicans’ Lost Youth, Kristen Soltis Anderson, The National Review
The GOP can’t write off a generation

The night after the polls closed in this midterm, when it was increasingly clear that a bold Republican victory would not be in the offing, I joined a few friends for some dinner and commiseration. As we discussed the question of what to do next, I was asked what one concrete thing I’d want everyone around the table to do that might make a difference for the future of the ideas we care about.

I pondered for a moment, not wanting to assign “homework” that would be too daunting, labor-intensive, or, worse, forgettable. So I asked for something simple.

“If you ever hear someone claiming to quote Winston Churchill saying ‘If you’re young and conservative you have no heart; if you’re old and liberal, you have no brain,’ please let them know that everything they’ve just said is incorrect.” Churchill is not on record as ever having said it, and there’s not a shred of data to support the claim that young people are naturally progressives. Yet in a decade and a half of studying young voters, I hear this quote and its underlying sentiment constantly from those on the right.

I can think of no misconception more damaging to the future of conservatism than the idea that young people are a lost cause and we must just passively wait for them to awaken to our way of seeing the world.
CPAC: Taste the Sadness
CPAC: Taste the Sadness, Tim Miller, xxxxxx
Go ahead and laugh. They deserve it.

For all the familiar flashbacks, this year’s CPAC felt . . . different and a little sad. You might even say, low energy. Rick Wilson put it well on Charlie’s podcast this weekend, comparing the event to a “collapsing neutron star . . . it’s smaller. It’s hotter. It’s more intensely crazy.” A reporter at the event had a different sad-sack metaphor, describing the energy in the building as “what it feels like when the Apple Store leaves a dying mall.”

It’s funny, in a laugh-out-loud sort of way. Because we’re not laughing with CPAC. We’re laughing at it. But cheap laughs aside, there are some consequential questions about CPAC’s decline.
Enjoy the Daily Kos Recommended email with a cup of coffee from a Daily Kos mug. Click here to get yours now
This is the dynamic that could decide the 2024 GOP race
This is the dynamic that could decide the 2024 GOP race, Ronald Brownstein, CNN
Though the early 2024 polls have varied in whether they place Trump or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the lead overall (with the latest round tilting mostly toward Trump), that same overriding pattern of educational polarization is appearing in virtually all of those surveys, a review of public and private polling data reveals.

“Trump does seem to have a special ability to make this sort of populist appeal [to non-college voters] and also have a special ability to make college-educated conservatives start thinking about alternatives,” GOP pollster Chris Wilson said in an email. “I think we’ll continue to see a big education divide in his support in 2024.”

The stark educational split in attitudes toward Trump frames the strategic challenge for his potential rivals in the 2024 race.
How Not to Predict the 2024 Election
How Not to Predict the 2024 Election, Walter Shapiro, The New Republic
A guide to common misconceptions you’ll read about the GOP primary.

Once again, political reporters and campaign analysts are making their traditional quadrennial mistake—getting too far ahead of the story in their eagerness to handicap the presidential race. As Tom Rath, a former New Hampshire attorney general who has been advising GOP presidential candidates since the 1980s, said to me, “Reporters want to run the horserace before the horses are even in the starting gate. There’s a lot more to unfold here. That’s why polling is worthless.”

ICYMI: Popular stories from the past week you won't want to miss:

Want even more Daily Kos? Check out our podcasts:

Want to write your own stories? Log in or sign up to post articles and comments on Daily Kos, the nation's largest progressive community.

Follow Daily Kos on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Thanks for all you do,
The Daily Kos team