An old man is selling watermelons by the side of the road.
His sign reads:
1 for $3
3 for $10
A young man stops and buys one watermelon.
“That’ll be $3,” says the old man.
The young man then buys a second watermelon. And then a third.
After paying another $3 each time, the young man picks up his watermelons and starts to walk away.
Then he turns back, grinning proudly.
“Hey old man,” he says, “you realize I just bought three watermelons for $9 instead of $10? Maybe business isn’t your thing.”
The old man smiles and shakes his head.
“Funny… every time somebody comes by, they buy three watermelons instead of one… and then try to teach me business.”
Why did Massie lose tonight?
Massie went from principled libertarian during COVID, to GOP leadership lapdog under McCarthy, to anti-Trump Epstein obsessive in 2025 after tweeting about that issue a whopping three (3) times in the decade prior. The nail in the coffin for him was voting against OBBB in 2025 because, according to Massie, it did too much to secure the border.
Trump mercilessly trashed Massie in 2020–calling him a “disaster” for America and Kentucky and saying he should be thrown out of the GOP entirely—but Massie easily swatted that away and won 81-19, so you can’t say he only lost because of Trump. He went toe-to-toe with Trump on COVID in 2020 and won overwhelmingly.
Massie lost because he went from being perceived as a quirky but lovable nerd who seemed to genuinely believe everything he said, to looking like a clout-chasing influencer who cared more about getting TV time with Democrats on an issue he clearly never cared about until five minutes ago than he did about representing his voters.
We’ll never know what caused the apparent personality change—maybe it was the death of his wife, maybe it was the McCarthy race followed by McCarthy’s ouster, or maybe it was a desire for notoriety or media acclaim and a lucrative podcasting career outside of Congress—but the drastic change was undeniable, as was the seeming lack of interest in much of anything happening in Kentucky.
Blame Trump, blame Israel, blame Epstein, blame the tragic death of a spouse, I don’t care. But you cannot just wave away 2020 Massie going face-to-face with the Trump machine and winning in a rout only to get smoked six years later.
Massie’s voters didn’t really change all that much, but he did, and they noticed.
Every Republican that supported releasing the Epstein files has now been voted out of office. Let that sink in, MAGAts. You belong to the #Rapeublican Party. Own it you sick fucks
The fact that Thomas Massie is fighting for his political life in a Republican primary because he wants pedophiles to face justice is not a good look for the Republican party.
@ENTROPYGNRTR@SCOTUSblog Only a racist could see completely disenfranchising minorities returning representation back to prior to the equal rights act as perfectly not racist.
JFC