I will take a moment to revisit the argument I had with Charlie Cooke back in August and note that I was right: The biased and often embarrassing mainstream American press is not remotely “decisive” in our elections.

For the first half of 2024, the American press tried to gaslight the American people into believing that Joe Biden was entirely fit for duty. It didn’t matter.

For the second half of 2024, the unified voice of American journalism and the media tried to convince the public that Kamala Harris was somehow more than a vapid nonentity. Hers was a candidacy of joy! The American people saw through it.

In the stretch run of the campaign, the entire press corps and its allies in the business, entertainment, and government establishments spent weeks calling Donald Trump a fascist. It didn’t matter.

I was not then — and I am not now — arguing that a biased press has no effect on political campaigns. I am arguing that several decades’ worth of Republican excuse-making about a biased press has been shown to be an overwrought, exaggerated, and non-decisive factor.

What is decisive?

Better candidates, better messaging, better grassroots organizing, and a better and more communicable political philosophy that totally normal, not-terribly-political people can identify with and want to buy into by voting for it. That’s what’s decisive.

Tuesday night proved that I was right about all that. I was right that CNN and ABC News and CBS and NPR and the Washington Post couldn’t convince a critical mass of Americans to accept a presidential candidate or a political philosophy that they didn’t believe in and didn’t prefer. The press couldn’t even convince Americans that Donald Trump was unacceptable or beyond the pale.

There’s good news and bad news here. The good news is that smart, winsome, genuine conservatives can indeed win national races despite the press.

The bad news for Republican politicians is that, after Trump’s victory, their future excuses will sound pretty empty.

So — enough with excuses already.