Tom Bevan, the publisher of the conservative RealClearPolitics, made an objectively true and noncontroversial post on X: “22 days from the election and this morning’s headlines could hardly be worse for GOP.” Those headlines included Senate Republicans dumping $8 million into saving the party’s Nebraska Senate seat, as well as polls showing Republicans cratering in party preference and among Latinos.

The responses to Bevan were hysterical.

“What media should be doing but won’t do is why a 38 year old named James Talarico was off campaign trail for 2 weeks?” read one response, pretending that conservatives’ hilariously debunked conspiracy theory had even an inkling of relevancy. “That would require investigative reporting of a Democrat by a corrupt media”

“The polls are doing their job, forcing R’s to waste money on races that really aren’t in any danger,” read another reply, as if Republicans were basing their spending decisions on random media polls, as opposed to their own internal research.

“Maybe if Congress had actually supported the Trump agenda and the Save America Act they might have better poll,” argued yet another. “The election is a referendum on them Not Pres Trump or MAGA.” Expect this one to be a popular excuse in what should be an epic post-election blame game.

“Yeah because these are voter suppression headlines,” cried another MAGA nut. “The media and pundits are rooting for the GOP to lose.”

Assuming this were true—and given the condition of our nation, I wish it were—what does that have to do with Republicans dumping $8 million into Nebraska, among other recent shocking developments?

“If you actually looked at the early vote data, doesn’t jibe with the leftist polls you harp on every day,” replied another X user. (I will admit, however, that I am sympathetic to this one because we had this exact same cope in 2024.)

The problem with taking solace in the early vote is two-fold. One, the early vote doesn’t count any more than the late vote. We had liberals voting early in 2024, only to get swamped by the Election Day vote. This year, likely given the Trump administration’s efforts to mess with the U.S. Postal Service and mail ballots, liberals seem to be shifting back to in-person voting. In the end, early-vote numbers give us very little insight into the eventual outcome.

Furthermore, there is no way to know how independents are voting, nor, for that matter, how rural Republicans in Ohio facing a data center in their backyard might vote.

But for sure, this is one of the most popular copes, like this X user: “Hahahahahhahaha and yet despite all the MSM propaganda, further amplified by you of course, GOP voters are turning out!! Mail + early voting gives us a picture of NO blue wave & barely a blue trickle! Senate will stay in GOP hands & house will be very narrowly won by Dems.”

n the real world, Republicans have had to spend over $200 million to try and save a Senate seat in Texas, of all places, not to mention all the millions going into Iowa, Ohio, Nebraska, etc. In a blue trickle, Republicans would still be competing in the reddish-purple states of Georgia and North Carolina. And they aren’t.

Conservatives being conservatives, they do dip into some weird conspiracy stuff, like, “Uniparty RHINO’s are holdouts for the globalist left.” Does anyone want to venture a guess on what the “H” could stand for? “Republican H___ In Name Only.”

They can always pretend that those dire headlines are just ho-hum: “i’m not sure how ‘The GOP should have started spending money earlier, but they’re spending it now’ is that big of a crisis.”

It’s where they are spending it, of course. Also, the fact that they’re largely not spending it in Georgia or North Carolina is part of that big crisis.

How else can they cope? With insults, of course!

“If you believe media headlines you have far worse problems than republicans- like being gullible,” wrote one replier. “[A]s the old saying goes ‘There’s a sucker born every minute.’”

Ironically...

Bevan ended up incredulous at the cope since it flies in the face of all reality.

“So much cope in the responses,” he responded. “Even if you hate the media & don’t believe the polls, it’s inarguable the GOP is spending the vast majority of its 2 most precious resources (time & money) in the final weeks of the campaign defending deep red areas: $8M in NE, $5M in SC, $5M in KS, $17M in Iowa, $127M in TX, $144M in OH.”

He concluded: “Trump isn’t traveling to OH, AK, TX and NE because of bullshit polls or media bias. He’s … trying to activate MAGA voters to stave off a blue wave. Maybe he’ll be successful. But the WH and the GOP are very concerned about a worst-case scenario—and they have every right to be.”

You truly have to stick your head in the sand to pretend that the worst, for Republicans, isn’t yet to come.

Markos Moulitsas is founder and editor of the blogging website Daily Kos and author of three books.