The Great Realignment: Fetterman, Reform UK, and the Midterm Map
Monday, May 11, 2026
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You're listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for May 8, 2026.
We open with a story that cuts to the heart of public trust in American institutions — a Utah Supreme Court justice has resigned after it was revealed she was romantically involved with a leftist redistricting attorney whose litigation she ruled on, helping Democrats gain a congressional seat in deep red Utah. We ask the question every American should be asking — is anything sacred anymore? We talk about why courts derive their entire authority from public trust and nothing else, why the founders understood this better than modern elites do, and why if a conservative judge had done the same thing in a case benefiting Republicans, the national media would have run wall-to-wall coverage for weeks. How many times had you heard this story before today? That's the answer.
In our Top 3 Things You Need to Know, the Virginia State Supreme Court struck down the Democrat redistricting plan that would have flipped the state's congressional delegation from a 6-5 Democrat advantage to a 10-1 advantage — ruling the legislature didn't follow the state constitution's requirement of two separate legislative sessions with an election in between before putting constitutional changes to voters. The whole measure is null and void. Then the U.S. economy added 115,000 jobs in April — nearly double what economists expected — with March numbers revised upward by 10,000, and first-time unemployment claims remaining at historic lows. And in Britain, Keir Starmer's Labour Party lost more than 1,000 seats in local elections across England, Scotland, and Wales while the new Reform UK party picked up more than 1,500 seats — one of the largest losses by a ruling party in British electoral history.
We dig into Senator John Fetterman's Washington Post op-ed titled "I Haven't Changed. Here's What Has" — and we give him credit for saying things no other Democrat in Washington will say out loud. Fetterman says his party cannot simply be the opposite of whatever Donald Trump says. He says Democrats used to want a secure border. They used to believe shutting the government down was wrong. They used to support Israel. He's right on all three. We also note that Fetterman would make a terrible Republican — he's still pro-choice, pro-weed, pro-LGBT, and pro-SNAP — but we make the case that the party Fetterman signed up for no longer exists, and that there is currently no political party in America for people who are pro-abortion and pro-Israel, or pro-social spending and pro-law and order. That used to be the Democrat Party. It isn't anymore.
We also weigh in on the decision to allow cameras in the courtroom for the trial of the man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk — debating whether transparency and public accountability outweigh the risk of turning a murder trial into a TikTok content machine, and why the O.J. Simpson trial is still the cautionary tale that haunts every conversation about cameras in high-profile courtrooms.
Then it's Fake News Friday — real news, fake news, or really fake news — including whether Republicans are stealing a Black Democrat's seat in Tennessee (they're not — it's Stephen Cohen, who is white), a publicly funded water park in Plano, Texas holding a Muslim-only day, a South Carolina judge ruling that a convicted murderer can't be executed because he believes he's a god, Washington state making it illegal for daycare workers to peel a banana without a food prep license, Barack Obama blaming Donald Trump for his marital problems with Michelle, and more.
We also cover the Pentagon's first release of UFO files at President Trump's direction — and settle the question of whether this is a distraction from Iran. It's not. Donald Trump can walk and chew gum at the same time.
And we close with a comprehensive look at the redistricting scoreboard heading into the midterms — Republicans picking up seats in Texas, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, Missouri, Ohio, Louisiana, Mississippi, and more, while Virginia's 10-to-1 gerrymander got thrown out. The most likely net outcome, according to the compilation of pundits, is Republicans gaining 11 seats in the House. That's a historic reversal of the typical midterm pattern — and it could change everything.
For our Bright Spot, 17-year-old Avant Williams took his grandmother Svala to prom — because she grew up in Iceland watching American movies about prom her whole life and always dreamed of going. He wore a tux. She wore a fancy dress. They went to dinner and took pictures. He said, I've only been looking forward to this moment since I was about two years old. May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy.
Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!
