2025 Will Be Worse. But Also Better.
The work starts now. Let's do this together.
1. American Cassandra
Just objectively, 2025 is likely to be a worse year than 2024. But part of me is relieved and I want to talk about why that is and what it means for our future.
The last four years were pretty good. We drove a stake through COVIDās heart. The economy was strong. Wages were up, unemployment stayed low. Crime dropped like a stone. Was there bad stuff mixed in there, too? Sure.1 But thatās always the case. We live in a fallen world.
And yet, over the last four years Iāve felt like I was witness to a slow-motion train wreck.
Beginning in the fall of 2020 I started warning people that Donald Trump would run for president again. After January 6 I warned people that Trump would not pay a price and that Republicans would come to embrace the insurrection. I went around telling anyone who would listen that Trump was going to run, he would win the Republican nomination in a walk, and that he well might win the presidency.2
It was always clear to me over this period that we were living not in some glorious āpost-Trumpā future, but in an interregnum. The battle against authoritarianism had not been won. The fight was merely in a ceasefire periodāduring which only one side had ceased firing. We were moving, inexorably, toward another showdown.
My overall feeling during these past four years was anxiety. Watching this ultra-slowmo catastrophe unfold while most of America went about its businessāpretending that all was right with the worldāwas soul-crushing. Maddening. Debilitating.
Perhaps you felt this way, too. At least some of the time.
2. Worse. But Better.
Then the train actually crashed. The slow-motion ended and we started moving in real-time. And since then Iāve felt . . . free?
Thatās not the right word. Itās not a good feeling, looking around you and seeing the carnage. But at least the anxiety of waiting for the worst to happen is over. Iām no longer anticipating the coming of a great conflagration.
The fires are burning and now itās time to get to work. Maybe āfreeā is the right word after all.
Instead of anticipating a great struggle which cannot be avoided, the work has begun and we are engaged. So yes, 2025 will beājust objectivelyāworse than 2024. But from the perspective of our interior lives, it might be less stressful. We are no longer caught in stasis; we are alive.
On the Secret Show today, Sarah and I talked about the various things the forces of liberalism must do in the coming years and one thing she talked about was organizing. Recruiting. Getting in front of more people, persuading them, and converting them to our cause.
Thatās The Bulwarkās mission for 2025. Itās the thing we can do to help. Weāre going to grow this community and this platform. Weāre going to be a rally point for people like you. And weāre going to get in front of people who donāt think about democracy and liberalism and freedom and try to win them over and bring them into the fold.
Iāve heard a lot of people say, āOh, the Democrats need their own Joe Rogan.ā No. Democracy needs its own Joe Rogan. And thatās what weāre doing. Instead of criticizing the media, weāre building the media platform this country needs.3
Thatās why weāve pushed so hard into YouTube. YouTube is television now. If you want to reach new people, you have to be there. So we are.
Itās why more than 90 percent of everything we publish is free, without any ads, even. Because you canāt reach people if youāre sequestered behind a paywall.
Itās why weāve got so many podcastsānot just Timās flagship show, but Sonnyās culture shows, Monaās high-minded productions, and Shield of the Republic, which is the single best podcast about foreign affairs, full-stop.
In the new year weāre bringing in more people and more products. I canāt wait to share them with you. Youāre going to love them. But also: Theyāre going to help us reach new audiences and grow this community. Youāre going to make new friends in the comments because of these hires.
3. Three Asks
I have three asks today.
The first is about the comments section.
Our community comments are the soul of this newsletter and I donāt say that lightly. This is the only space Iāve found on the internet where the comments are value-adds. If you are new around here, I hope you take a moment to come back to a Triad that moved you and give them a read. I think youāll find even if you donāt have something to add that our community and the insights in the comments add value.
Through the link below you can join for free for the next 30-days to see for yourself.
As weāve grown weāve all worked to keep this place special. Comments strive to be engaging, enlightening, and entertaining. I want everyone to post with kindness. To be your best selves. To post intentionally, as if you are trying to build a community. Because thatās what weāre doing. Never lose sight of that.
The second ask is about supporting us. If youāve been on the fence about becoming a Bulwark+ member and you have the resources, I hope youāll consider doing it. You wonāt get a ton of extra stuffāsure, you get the Secret Show and this newsletter, but a Bulwark+ membership isnāt a value-play. Itās building the kind of place that you want to exist in the world.
We only exist because of our members. None of this is possible without them.
The third ask is for people who canāt afford a Bulwark+ membership: Email me.
From the beginning we believed that no real community can be pay-to-play. We have always had the policy that anyone who wants to join us can, regardless of their financial situation. If you canāt afford a Bulwark+ membership, but youāve always wanted to be part of this thing of ours, just hit reply to this email and let me know. Weāll take care of you.
Thatās what a community is.
Whatever comes through the gates of 2025, weāre going to face it together. And weāre not just going to face it. Weāre heading out into the world to rally more people to the cause of liberal democracy. Because thatās how it works. You keep fighting, and maybe something good happens.4
Last thing: Thank you.
Thank you for reading and for listening. For talking with me in comments and over email. Thank you for supporting us. Thanks for being beacons in your own world.
I wish you the happiest Christmas, or Hanukkah, or whatever you celebrate. I wish you joy and warmth and love.
And I hope that come January, youāll be ready to go to work. With us.
In no particular order: Inflation, the invasion of Ukraine, the human tragedy of Afghanistan, the Hamas attack on Israel, the humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip. You get the picture.
At any moment, no matter how well things are going for some people, the world is on fire for others. It has always been thus and all we can do is (1) Make big generalizations based on the top-line data, while (2) Understanding that generalizations may be generally true, but are not universally true and that many people are suffering and they deserve our compassion and our help.
A special shout-out here to the people who said that I was just as obsessed with Trump as his biggest fans. And that I wanted/needed Trump. And that I was hysterical. And that they were building for the āpost-Trump eraā in American politics while I was wallowing in the past.
Not the media platform it deserves.
This is one of Andre Agassiās mantras.
