2024: Stopping Trump, Renewing Democracy
2024: Stopping Trump, Renewing Democracy
Plus: The Joys of Regional Christmas Music
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CHARLIE SYKES: Deplorables of the Year, Part I
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NICHOLAS GROSSMAN: 2024: Stopping Trump, Renewing Democracy.
THE 2024 ELECTION WILL EFFECTIVELY BE an up or down vote on American democracy. Donald Trump tried to overthrow the Constitution in 2020, failed, and spent the next three years lying about elections, getting indicted for his coup attempt (among other things), plotting to remove the barriers that stopped him, and vowing to turn the federal government into a tool of personal revenge. A majority of Republicans are apparently into it, and a plurality of Americans aren’t opposed. Unless Trump unexpectedly dies, he will be the Republican nominee, and he will either be defeated next Election Day or re-elected to the White House to break the system.
The stakes could not be higher, and major media outlets have finally started acting that way. Dropping the usual sanitizing euphemisms and forced “both sides” framing, the New York Times and Axios straightforwardly reported the likelihood that returning Trump to the White House would end American democracy.
WILL SALETAN: How Many Young Americans Support Hamas?
IN THE TWO MONTHS SINCE HAMAS massacred more than one thousand Israelis, there’s been a lot of fear, anger, and debate about anti-Israel demonstrations, pro-Hamas statements, and threats against Jews in the United States. Much of the outcry has focused on college campuses, culminating a few days ago in the resignation of the president of the University of Pennsylvania.
But how broad—and how dangerous—are the anti-Israel sentiments shared by many young Americans? How many sympathize with Hamas or its violence? How many are hostile to Jews, as opposed to the Israeli government? Here’s what we can glean from polls taken since October 7.
🎥 PODCASTS AND VIDEOS 🎧
Bulwark Podcast with Charlie Sykes: Jack Smith Calls Trump's Bluff [Ad-free 🔐]
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ADDISON DEL MASTRO: The Joys of Regional Christmas Music.
WHEN IT COMES TO CHRISTMASTIME, everybody knows two things: a turkey and some mistletoe help to keep the season bright, and “Christmas music” means the same twenty or so mostly midcentury tunes played over and over and over again. But the broadly palatable and somewhat placeless-feeling national canon of holiday music can obscure another, less familiar catalogue of seasonal numbers that are unlikely to make it into Walmart’s national in-store December playlist. I’m talking about regionally specific Christmas songs—the ones that come from, and are still mostly played in, a single state or region.
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Thursday… And congratulations to the best art director in the business!
Five years… Time flies, as five years ago The Weekly Standard was shuttered, and some of us got to work on starting The Bulwark. So while it’s a bittersweet anniversary for me, I’m glad we’re here, and that you’re here.
The NDAA passed… Despite concerns about its future in the House. Ukraine aid, however…
Murder in D.C… A elder marital murder. Over pancakes?
There's Shameless Demagoguery... And Then There's J.D. Vance
Cut the bull… A loose bull caused delays for NY/NJ-area commuters.
Did the NYT lose its way? The much discussed item by James Bennet, who resigned in the wake of publishing an op-ed by Tom Cotton, has dropped in The Economist.
The cable news kayfabe… is dead, argues Ben Collins at Nieman Lab.
The Georgia Apology letters… Of Chesebro and Powell. Read the story behind them.
Axel Foley is back… Save the date.
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