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The Triad

The Federalist, Dolly, Trump, and the Gays

Understanding the order of operations for hatred.

Jonathan V. Last's avatar
Jonathan V. Last
Jun 11, 2024
∙ Paid
(Composite / Photos: GettyImages / Shutterstock)

1. McGruff

Yesterday I mentioned that the jobs report beat expectations for May. Today we have data showing violent crime down bigly.

Overall violent crime is down 15.7 percent year-over-year for Q1 of 2024. Murders are down 26.4 percent. Rapes are down 25.7 percent. Property crime is down 15.1 percent.

It’s a massive, across-the-board improvement, which follows the massive, across-the-board improvements in 2023. The story on crime is: During the final year of Donald Trump’s presidency, crime surged for the first time since the late 1990s. During Joe Biden’s presidency, crime rates have gone in reverse. Those are just the facts, Jack.

I know what you’re thinking: But JVL, tell me how the historical drop in crime rates is bad for Biden!

Here’s a story the New York Times ran about crime two weeks ago:

Amazing, isn’t it? They ought to put that headline in the Louvre.

The New York Times thinks its job is to rationalize the irrational feelings of 48 percent of the country.

At The Bulwark, our job is to explain and analyze reality.


One more thing: This was passed along by a reader yesterday.

Imagine having a vacation house like that and believing you are in distress.

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2. Dolly

Last week the Federalist did that thing where they chase hateclicks by publishing a piece in which a writer sets themselves on fire.1

This time it was a piece condemning Dolly Parton as a big ole’ phony Christian.

I can’t summarize the essay any better than Radley Balko did and no, I’m not going to link to this hot garbage.2

But this piece got me wondering . . .

You know who else has been pretty live-and-let-live with the gays? This guy.

Donald Trump holds an LGBT rainbow flag given to him by supporter Max Nowak during a campaign rally on the campus of University of Northern Colorado October 30, 2016. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

So why does the Federalist think Dolly Parton is a heretic, but they can’t stop humping Trump? I think I have the three answers.

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