Here’s Why This Seditious Conspiracy Verdict Matters
Plus, If Only Someone Could Have Warned Them
Recently at The Bulwark:
CHARLIE SYKES: It Was a Conspiracy. And It Was Sedition.
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PHILIP ROTNER: Here’s Why This Seditious Conspiracy Verdict Matters.
A jury in Federal District Court in Washington delivered a reassuring—but somewhat puzzling—split decision on Tuesday convicting Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and one of his codefendants of seditious conspiracy to oppose by force the authority of the government of the United States while, at the same time, acquitting Rhodes on charges that he attempted to disrupt the election certification in advance of January 6th, and that he planned to stop members of Congress from discharging their duties on that day.
THEODORE R. JOHNSON: No, the U.S. Military Is Not Being Weakened by “Wokeness”.
The right’s typical flanking maneuver in the culture wars these days is to charge anything it finds distasteful with being woke. Nothing is immune, not even the institutions it glorifies.
The partisan champions of the free market, business, and free speech get upset when corporations express opinions about voting laws or equal protection for LGBTQ rights, lamenting that “parts of the private sector keep dabbling in behaving like a woke parallel government.” The party of choice for white evangelicals attacks churches practicing a love-thy-neighbor theology for preaching a woke religion that’s insufficiently traditionalist. And then there’s Senator Ted Cruz’s Twitter feed—McCarthyesque in its accusations of everything being woke: the CIA, media, Hollywood, women’s collegiate swimming, cartoons, and the list goes on.
January 6 was not merely a conspiracy to break windows and storm the Capitol — for some, it was a conspiracy to resist the lawful authority of the United States. Plus, Musk’s vandalism of Twitter is destroying something precious. Ben Wittes joins Charlie Sykes.
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ROBERT TRACINSKI: If Only Someone Could Have Warned Them.
If you were a Republican hoping that Donald Trump would either quietly fade away or become muted and “presidential” in the run-up to 2024, you didn’t have much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving. Right before Turkey Day, Trump celebrated by hosting a dinner for two rabid antisemites: Ye (né Kanye West) and Nick Fuentes.
And I mean rabid. Ye has been in the news a lot recently for going off the rails with a string of antisemitic statements complaining that Jews control the media and are somehow persecuting him. His new friend Fuentes launched his career at the infamous 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville. He is the leader of the “Groyper” faction of white nationalists and is one of those guys who alternates between denying the Holocaust was real and threatening to do it all over again. Fuentes once promised to deliver “the most racist, sexist, antisemitic, Holocaust-denying speech in all of Dallas this weekend!” Even many MAGA types can’t stand him. If he weren’t an incredibly pathetic incel, he would be the worst of the worst.
LAKSHYA JAIN AND DAN GUILD: The (Nonpartisan) Polls Were Fine, Actually
Heading into the 2022 election, the conventional wisdom suggested that the Republican party was going to have a good night. Traditional midterm indicators (such as Biden’s approval ratings) looked good for Republicans, and over the last few weeks of the cycle, the GOP’s poll numbers had improved in a number of races. But at the end, Democrats held the Senate and came within a whisker of winning the House.
So were the polls wrong? Sort of, but also, not really.
🚨OVERTIME 🚨
Happy Wednesday! We’re past Cyber Monday. We’re past Giving Tuesday. And today is just… Wednesday. So enjoy it and all the days without themes until we get to… Advent! (If that’s your thing.)
It’s Trump tax return day! After a lengthy legal battle, the House Democrats now have the former guy’s tax returns. What they’ll do with them in a month is TBD. But one thing is for sure, even in the minority, they’ll still have the documents.
Step inside the restoration hangar… At the Air and Space Museum.
Good News! Mar-a-Lago is upping is security procedures. Curious! Maybe the new people can Google: Is this person a White Nationalist? Only the best people.
Mitt Romney ends No Shave November early… RIP the Romney Beard.
Penance… Trolls Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman were ordered to do community service for their felonies they committed in Ohio in 2020.
Whit Ayres and the road to 2024… A conversation with Bill Kristol.
That’s it for me. Tech support questions? Email members@thebulwark.com. Questions for me? Respond to this message.
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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.
