Terminally Online: Live from Crooked Con (Subscription Preview)

November 28, 2025

26 min episode · 2 min read

Terminally Online

Episode

26 min

Read time

2 min

AI-Generated Summary

Published Jan 23, 2026

Key Takeaways

✓Online politician criteria: Being truly online requires both posting and replying to others, not just broadcasting. Trump ranks only third despite constant posting because he operates solely in his Truth Social sandbox without engaging in replies, while JD Vance earns top ranking by actively replying to critics and calling people names like dipshit on social media platforms.
✓Nancy Mace airport incident: The South Carolina congresswoman demonstrates peak online behavior by posting hundreds of times about a Charleston Airport police escort dispute, triggering bipartisan criticism from Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham. Her response exemplifies main character energy and the Streisand effect, where attempting to control narrative only amplifies negative attention through obsessive posting.
✓Campaign digital strategy evolution: Zoran Mamdani represents a new generation of digitally native campaigns that understand online discourse without being defensive or reactive. However, being well-adjusted and non-defensive actually disqualifies someone from being truly online, as genuine online behavior requires a specific personality disorder characterized by constant engagement and defensiveness about criticism.
✓Platform-specific analysis: Evaluating online presence requires looking beyond Twitter to include TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit. Politicians like Gavin Newsom operate primarily through staff-managed accounts rather than personal posting, while figures like Graham Plattner demonstrate that Reddit posting represents a particularly deep form of online behavior due to the platform's anonymous, discussion-focused nature.
✓Crooked Con straw poll methodology: Live audience polling at political events faces significant participation challenges, with only thirteen initial votes collected from hundreds of attendees. Pete Buttigieg won the 2028 candidate preference poll at 31 percent, followed by Andy Beshear at 22 percent, though improved QR code placement and voter outreach could dramatically increase sample sizes for future events.

What It Covers

Pod Save America hosts present a live recording of their subscription show Terminally Online from Crooked Con, ranking the most online politicians of 2025. JD Vance tops the list, followed by Nancy Mace, Donald Trump, Zoran Mamdani, and Gavin Newsom, with analysis of their social media behavior and online presence.

Key Questions Answered

•Online politician criteria: Being truly online requires both posting and replying to others, not just broadcasting. Trump ranks only third despite constant posting because he operates solely in his Truth Social sandbox without engaging in replies, while JD Vance earns top ranking by actively replying to critics and calling people names like dipshit on social media platforms.
•Nancy Mace airport incident: The South Carolina congresswoman demonstrates peak online behavior by posting hundreds of times about a Charleston Airport police escort dispute, triggering bipartisan criticism from Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham. Her response exemplifies main character energy and the Streisand effect, where attempting to control narrative only amplifies negative attention through obsessive posting.
•Campaign digital strategy evolution: Zoran Mamdani represents a new generation of digitally native campaigns that understand online discourse without being defensive or reactive. However, being well-adjusted and non-defensive actually disqualifies someone from being truly online, as genuine online behavior requires a specific personality disorder characterized by constant engagement and defensiveness about criticism.
•Platform-specific analysis: Evaluating online presence requires looking beyond Twitter to include TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit. Politicians like Gavin Newsom operate primarily through staff-managed accounts rather than personal posting, while figures like Graham Plattner demonstrate that Reddit posting represents a particularly deep form of online behavior due to the platform's anonymous, discussion-focused nature.
•Crooked Con straw poll methodology: Live audience polling at political events faces significant participation challenges, with only thirteen initial votes collected from hundreds of attendees. Pete Buttigieg won the 2028 candidate preference poll at 31 percent, followed by Andy Beshear at 22 percent, though improved QR code placement and voter outreach could dramatically increase sample sizes for future events.

Notable Moment

The hosts reveal that Mike Lee would rank above both Trump and several other politicians on the online scale due to his pattern of posting confidently incorrect information, then doubling down when corrected. His behavior mirrors someone who might accidentally respond to a text message with their Social Security number, demonstrating a particular type of addled online energy.

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