Vindman revisitedhttps://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/08/vindman-revisited.phpByron York’s current Examiner column is “Voters reject Resistance stars.” He takes up the cases of George Conway and Alexander Vindman. Vindman’s case really rings my chimes. This is how Byron tells it in the column after he disposes of Conway (whose primary also involved the defeat of Jack Schlossberg)(I have added the links to the books Byron cites):
The other Resistance star to face-plant was Alexander Vindman, who in 2019, as an active-duty Army lieutenant colonel on the staff of the National Security Council, set in motion the first impeachment of Trump. Vindman, who was privy to some of the president’s calls with world leaders, felt that Trump had committed some sort of unspecified violation in a conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Vindman relayed secret information to a friend in the CIA, who came up with a “whistleblower” complaint against the president.
...
The impeachment failed, of course. Under pressure from the Trump administration, Vindman retired from the military and began trading on his notoriety. He wrote a memoir called Here, Right Matters, with the title based on his congressional testimony. ...
The next step would be politics. Vindman moved to Florida and ran for the Senate as a Democrat. When he jumped into the race in January, his announcement video began with news clips from his role in the Trump impeachment. A moment later, Vindman said, as pictures of his congressional testimony played: “The last time you saw me was here, swearing an oath to tell the truth about a president who broke his. ... And I sure as hell was not going to bow down to some wannabe tyrant. This president unleashed a reign of terror and retribution, not just against me and my family, but against all of us.”
No subtlety there; the Hero of the Resistance had arrived to take on Donald Trump! Vindman raised $16 million for his campaign, while his socialist opponent, Angie Nixon, raised a little less than $1 million. Vindman immediately became a heavy favorite to win the Democratic nomination. He remained the favorite until Election Day, when Nixon shocked the political world by trouncing Vindman, 56% to 44%.
York's column is behind a paywal. Conway and Vindman demonstrated that with Dem voters, "I hate Trump more than my opponent does," is not a guaranteed-winner message.
Hopefully, R candidates realize that, "I am not a socialist," may not, of itself, be a winning message. "I am
Policies," needs to be as or more prominent.
