Remember, you are not the crazy ones. For those of you who’ve been thinking about coming aboard The Bulwark, now’s the time.
Catching up:
Happy Monday Let’s start with a few words about Mike Pence, who bowed to reality this weekend, and dropped out of the race: In the new book by McKay Coppins, Mitt Romney described the former vice president. “No one had been more loyal, more willing to smile when he saw absurdities, more willing to ascribe God’s will to things that were ungodly, than Mike Pence.” All true. But that’s not what did him in, was it? ** Pence was an artifact of the GOP Before Trump. He built his campaign around a nostalgic appeal to a conservativism that no longer exists. In September, as his campaign sputtered for oxygen, Pence delivered a speech that he intended as a manifesto for a conservative restoration. But, as I wrote then, “it reads instead like a eulogy for a bygone era.”
This weekend, Pence chose to quit. ** Of course, Pence never had a chance. As a former vice president, he was a formidable candidate on paper, but he had committed an unpardonable sin in this GOP. He refused to go along with Donald Trump’s attempts to overthrow the 2020 election. His refusal to go along with Trump’s coup may have been his finest moment; but it also meant that he would never be president. That should speak volumes about the state of his party, but we have already read this book over and over. Just last week Tom Emmer’s candidacy for House Speaker was crushed for the same reason: He defied Trump’s lies and voted to certify the winner of the election. In his place, every last Republican member of the house voted for a full-throated election denier.
You can read the whole thing on the MSNBC website. Horror showsTwo scary reads, just in time for Halloween: Via Axios: “Biden’s dual horror shows threaten his re-election campaign.”
** Via Jonathan Martin in Politico: “Joe Biden’s Big New Hampshire Blunder.”
Moral Depravity UpdateThe anti-anti-Putin right edged toward becoming anti-anti-Hamas. On cue, Elon Musk is now peddling Iranian disinformation: The whole thing is, of course, rank bullshit:
** Meanwhile, in the Ivy League: Columbia University faculty members signed an open letter “that situated the military action begun on October 7th within the larger context of the occupation of Palestine by Israel.” The phrase “military operations,” to describe the terrorist atrocities of October 7 was not inadvertent. The professors repeated the phrase:
Yascha Mounk comments: ** BONUS: “Nothing prepared me for antisemitism on college campuses” - Los Angeles Times
The Pro-Hamas LeftOn our weekend podcast, Josh Kraushaar and I discussed the very loud, younger segment pf the left that is lending its support to the terrorist group Hamas—with marches on university campuses, extremist slogans, and outright hatred toward Jews. You can listen to the whole thing here. Quick Hits1. Adam Kinzinger: Rebel in the RanksBill Lueders reviews Kinzinger’s new book, Renegade: Defending Democracy and Liberty in Our Divided Country.
2. Mike Johnson, Polite ExtremistMatthew D. Taylor in today’s Bulwark:
3. Time to Consolidate Around Nikki
Cheap ShotsSpoiler alert. This won’t even cause a ripple in the GOP. You’re a free subscriber to Bulwark+. For unfettered access to all our newsletters and ad-free and member-only podcasts, become a paying subscriber. Did you know? You can update your newsletter preferences as often as you like. To update the list of newsletter or alerts you received from The Bulwark, click here. |
Down Goes Pence
October 30, 2023
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