The midterms sent a message that Washington will try to bury: foreign wars can still wreck political coalitions at home. We sit down with Dan McAdams, co host of the Liberty Report and director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, to unpack why the Iran war became a major factor in the Republican collapse and why the usual DC operators seem incapable of genuine accountability.

We dig into the post election spin cycle from the top down, including J D Vance’s attempt to distance himself while keeping his future intact and Donald Trump’s instinct to reframe a costly decision as patriotic strength. Along the way we call out the familiar cast of neoconservative commentators who insist there was “no downside” to escalation, then pivot to the same excuse when reality hits: we just didn’t go far enough. If you want a clearer view of how lobby pressure, media incentives, and careerism shape US foreign policy, this conversation connects the dots.

The discussion also turns to the Ukraine war’s trajectory, the danger of leaders flirting with the nuclear threshold, and why a “tactical” strike would not magically create a path to victory against Iran. Finally, we look ahead to the 2028 landscape, including what Thomas Massey’s rising influence could mean and what it would take to build a narrow, cross partisan coalition around restraint, war powers, and real oversight.

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