Why "No Tacos For Tyrants"? 🤔
Hello Taco Nation! 👋
Since you’re reading this, I probably don’t need to tell you that I’m starting a newsletter—but there you have it. My well-honed talent for stating the obvious is clearly in full effect!
This newsletter will go out once a week(ish). It won’t just be a rehash of my podcast—though it’ll likely touch on some of the same subjects. I can’t share things like graphs and images on the pod (I don’t do video pods—yet?), so I’ll be doing some of that here.
Why No Tacos For Tyrants?
Simple: Tacos 🌮—I’m sure we can all agree—represent some kind of Platonic ideal of perfection. They’re delicious, versatile, full of diverse flavors, and require no cutlery. They are, simply put, fantastic. Not just among the world’s great foods, but among the world’s best things, period.
Tyrants, on the other hand, are filthy, power-swollen maggots we’d all be better off without. 🤮 The very least we can do is deny them tacos.
So say it with me: No Tacos For Tyrants!
I started the NTFT podcast the week after last fall’s horrendous election because it was either channel my rage or check out entirely. And I’m not a checking-out kind of guy. So here you are, reading this.
If you’re here without knowing me, I’m Matt Mihaly: long-time game entrepreneur, traveler and adventurer, investor, and a voracious consumer of news and politics.
Until I was about 21, I was a Republican—probably because I was born in Ripon, WI (where the GOP was founded) and had Republican parents. But let’s be real: today’s GOP has no real connection to the one of 1854—or even 1984. (Same goes for the Dems, to be fair.)
While studying for a degree in government, I interned for a Republican Congressman in D.C. one summer. It was... an experience. So much so that I left the GOP that fall and started drifting toward more reasonable positions.
Bush’s absurd invasion of Iraq in 2001 🤬 cemented my new and continuing identity as a solid liberal—and I’m not afraid to use that word. I’m proudly liberal. I think the liberal tradition—especially in its global sense—is worth upholding.
I’m also a capitalist. Not a proud one—capitalism has a long trail of externalities that too many capitalists refuse to own up to (environmental, social, etc.). But I do think capitalism has been a net positive force for lifting much of humanity, even if the benefits are wildly uneven and often come with violence and suffering. Of course, the colossal environmental bill for that "progress" is only just starting to come due… But, regardless, it’d be hypocritical of me, having started multiple companies and run my first one for almost 30 years now, to pretend I’m not a capitalist.
However, capitalism is like salt: you want some, but too much and it’s a disaster—for the body or, in this case, the body politic. (And yes, capitalism requires real income redistribution. Trickle-down economics is mostly nonsense.) And we have got to somehow rescue our American politics from the scourge of unlimited money.
Anyway. After college, I became a stockbroker, hated it with every fiber of my being, quit, taught myself to code (badly), and started an online games company at 23. Started another one a decade later. Sold that one. Still have the first.
I’ve been married to an amazing woman for 13 years, have three tiny chihuahua mutts (they total less than 20 pounds combined), and I love to travel and play in the outdoors—skiing, mountain biking, surfing, whitewater rafting, scuba diving, hiking, photography, you name it.
I also read and listen to a ton of podcasts, and I’m really pissed off about the malevolent idiot steering our country into banana republic authoritarianism while treating the executive branch like a license to grift. 😡
But enough about me.
This newsletter—and the podcast—aren’t about me, though I’ll occasionally share personal experiences.
Now, let’s talk about something I can’t show you on the podcast: a graphic from today’s New York Times showing just how thoroughly the aforementioned malevolent idiot has captured much of America.
The red lines at the top show how places across the country have moved toward Trump over the last three elections. The blue lines at the bottom show movement toward Democrats.
It’s... stark.
In my last episode, I talked about some of the wounds the Dems have inflicted on themselves:
Their gerontocracy—governance by the old, actively suppressing younger leaders.
Corruption (much smaller than Trump’s, but still real), which feeds the “they’re all crooks” both-sides narrative.
Biden’s catastrophic delay in dropping out, or running at all for a 2nd term.
Back in January, I predicted a new political party would form in response to MAGA madness and the Democrats’ ruined brand. That hasn’t happened yet, but these things take time.
However, what Democrats—and America—need is a revolution from within, led by younger leaders. We need a coalition to form within the bloated husk of the Democratic party and eat it alive from within, until it is effectively a new party, but one capable of using the machinery and money of the old.
Pelosi and Schumer? They’ve got to go. Not because they’re incompetent legislators—they’re not—but because under Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer, the Democratic brand has hit rock bottom. It’s polling around 27% approval.
That’s not a one-cycle problem. That’s a structural crisis for the party.
I’ll be exploring efforts to revitalize the party here in this newsletter and on the pod. Because as much fun as it is dunking on the tangerine tyrant, I won’t spare the Dems legitimate criticism either—though yes, I’m absolutely biased in their direction.
That’s enough for now. I won’t fill your inbox with too many words (today).
I’ll just leave you with the meme that made me laugh the hardest recently.
Stay spicy, friends! 🌶️
