This exchange between former Trump spokesmodel turned Bulwark employee, Sarah
Matthews, and Tim Miller made me check my blogroll and archives to make sure the entire history of the Liberal blogosphere/ podcast universe really existed. Or had I hit my head on a low-slung door casing in 1998 and just
dreamed it all up.
Matthews: Don't get me wrong like of course there's a little
part of me that thinks internally of course it feels good to be right but
like I didn't want to be right about all of this.
Tim Miller:I did and that's one way that we're different.
And I don't want to be immodest or anything, but it does feel like as I survey the news that we're going to go to this
morning, like that the most extreme cringe version of
Never Trumpism uh seems like it was it was correct. Like,
whatever person you have in your mind, you're like, "This person like hates
Trump so much that some of their takes are even a little bit like, you know,
make you wince a little bit because they've gone so far around the bend."
Like that person, whoever that person is in your mind, was like
way more right than any anybody who tried to say like,
"Let's call it balls and strikes." Like, let's see, you know, he's he had
some good points on this or that.
Matthews: And now obviously like you know five years of being the
on the anti-Trump side and yeah feels feels good to know that we were right.
Sure she did all the things and enjoyed all the perks and told all the lies
and backed all the madness, but she reassures Tim, in her hip-hop heart (tm
New York Times Pitchbot) she was never really down to clown. She
was never really bought in to all the MAGA stuff. Deep down she
knew things weren't right.
(So lemme understand. Back then, when she worked for Donald Trump, on a
day-to-day, hour-to-hour basis she was just lying about what she truly
believed. And doing it so expertly that no one could tell that she never
believed the things that were coming out of her mouth.
But now she's telling the unvarnished truth? And you can trust that
because...? C'mon people. It's like no one has ever seen Double Indemnity. The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. The File on Thelma Jordon. Or No Man of Her Own, )
Well none of those questions were on the table. Instead Tim did the
podcast equivalent of chucking her under the chin and telling her, it's OK
kiddo. As the official brand-ambassador for the "pro-democracy
coalition", I can assure you, all is forgiven. You're on
The Bulwark payroll now, and we absolve everybody.
Everybody?
Well --- not everybody. There are two groups whose transgressions are so
grievous that they can never be excused.
The first group is one guy. Tucker Carlson. Who has always been lying, skeevy con man
who'll say anything to advance his personal and political fortunes.
All his "apology" amounts to is another MAGA rat scurrying down the-rat line
of a sinking ship. Never trust this guy.
The second group are... Liberals. Especially Liberal bloggers and
podcasters who had the poor taste to have been. inconveniently, 100% right about
the Right since long before there was ever such a thing as The Bulwark or a
Never Trumper. Since long before Trump was even a thing.
If the
Bulwark crew had it within their power to wish all of us with long memories
and detailed files ...
... all into the cornfield, they'd do it before close of business.
But since that is beyond their abilities, they settle for pretending we never existed, except as straw men whose imaginary follies prompt endless eye-rolling from the savvy set.
Now that Never Trumpers have been handed control over gatekeeping and
party-discipline duties for the Democratic Party, I try very hard to be
a good Liberal and never question any of the decisions our Never Trump
supervisors hand down.
I got mah mind right, boss!
For example, I understand that we're no longer the "Democratic Party".
Now our brand is the "pro-democracy coalition" which is supposed to make it
easier for people who despise us and everything we hold dear to join our
"coalition" without having to worry that they might get some of that icky
"woke" stuff on them.
So every day I get up and turn portraits of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and
JFK to the wall to remind myself that "Democratic Party" is oldspeak
now. Maybe even crimethink!
And having been sternly lectured on the Never Trump Iron Clad Rule of
Alliances no less than 10,000 times over the past ten years (including from
people whose MAGA derangement has since metastasized and swallowed
them whole) I try to toe the line and do as I'm told.
But, to quote Captain Terrell from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan:
Sir, that is difficult. I... try to obey, but...
For example, without guidance from my Never Trump handlers I'm all at sea
about what I should do with this new information about Tucker Carlson.
Tucker Carlson ‘sorry for misleading people’ with Trump support
Pundit Tucker Carlson is expressing regret for voicing support for
President Trump.
Carlson, who has been a sharp critic of Trump’s war in Iran, said during
a recent episode of his podcast and online show that prominent people on
the right who backed Trump ahead of the 2024 election are “implicated” in
what’s going on in the Middle East.
“So I do think it’s like a moment to wrestle with our own consciences.
You know, we’ll be tormented by it for a long time. I will be,” he said.
“And I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people and it was not
intentional. That’s all I’ll say.”
You can see why my simple, Liberal brain is all fuzzy and confused. Because a plain-text reading of the fine print of the Never Trump Iron Clad Rule of Alliances makes it very clear that Carlson cannot be welcomed into the "pro-democracy coalition" as a mere Adam Kinzinger-grade ally. No, no. According to established precedent, given that he is a high-status Person of Influence among the MAGA meatbags, he is to be automatically field-promoted to Liz Cheney Super-Ally status!
A class of ally whose most transparently ridiculous and self-serving excuses -- "I wuz fooled!" -- are to be treated like the Letters of Transit in Casablanca. They cannot be rescinded. Not even questioned.
So where does that leave me? I mean, I certainly don't want to run afoul
of the new protocols, so are my old Carlson graphics now potential thoughtcrimes?
Is it enough if I just burn them in my back yard, or will special depots for
their disposal be set up and supervised by Never Trumpers?
Also, does this automatically move Carlson to the front of the pack in the
2028 Democratic pro-democracy coalition presidential race, or does he need to appear on both Rogan and
The Bulwark before that decision is made? Is there a fund I should be
contributing to? And until then does Carlson's status exist in some indeterminate quantum state? A Schrödinger's alliance?
Again, please extend a thousand pardons to my Never Trump supervisors for all
of this. Clearly my opinion is worth something or I never would have merited 10,000 lectures on what a danger to democracy I was for not trusting the honorable intentions of Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Michael Cohen and so forth. And since no less than the fate of democracy hangs in the balance, I want to make sure that I'm on firm, Never Trump-approved footing, and at the moment I have no idea where firm footing lies.
In
fact, when it comes to reconciling our Never Trumpers' wise Rule of Alliances
with what I know of Tucker Carlson, my confusion is such that you could say
I'm having a Star Trek "Norman" moment.
There's only one thing wrong with the title of this post. It's the word "return", because Magic Ruralism never left.
In case you are unfamiliar with the term:
Magic Ruralism: Noun: a literary or artistic genre in which realistic narrative and
naturalistic technique are combined with surreal elements of political
fantasy.
As I have mentioned once or twice before, after Trump slithered
down the escalator and into the hearts of Americas bigots and imbeciles, Magic
Ruralism became the Beltway media's
favorite new genre of fiction:
...just as Thrilling Detective and Detective Fiction Weekly were in the business of cranking out hard-boiled crime genre fiction
for the titillation of their readers, so have The New York Times and the
Washington Post gone into the business of cranking out True Tales Of
Rust-Belt Trump Murricans! for the titillation of their readers.
And at this point, we as a country have already run enough versions of the
"Just reach out humbly and respectfully to Republican base voters with
policies that will materially benefit them and they'll see reason and
stop voting for lunatics, grifters and fascists"
experiment to understand that it never fucking works and never will.
This strategy was the sum and substance of the entire Obama administration,
which had to immediately set to work cleaning up after the various
catastrophes Bush and the Republicans had left behind. The Right reacted
with an eight-year-long racist primal scream followed by the nomination and
election of the King of the Birthers.
The coastal media remained positively obsessed with that goddamn Ohio diner,
because rich city folks live a million social and economic miles from the
actual Middle America and their lives were substantially untouched
in any material way by the Republican madness abroad in the land, they were
free to savor hair-raising tales (from TheWashington Post July 30, 2018) --
White, and in the minority
She speaks English. Her co-workers don’t. Inside a rural chicken plant,
whites struggle to fit in.
-- of rural Murrican pity and terror (the New York Times also from July 30, 2018) --
How to Talk to a Racist
White liberals, you’re doing it all wrong.
-- from a safe distance.
After the disaster of Trump 1.0, the Biden administration's policy of reaching out to people
whose lives have gotten worse under Republican administrations and yet still
fucking hate Democrats and always vote for the party that screws them was
directionally the same as the Obama administration: focus on manufacturing in
red states, infrastructure, raising the standard of living for the working
class, and lifting poor children out of poverty.
Once again the Right reacted by ignoring reality, obsessing over the lies and
slanders being cranked out all day, every day by Conservative media,
nominating the King of the Birthers for the third time, and electing him
again.
As has been proven time and time again, the whole notion
that ignorant ofay "Ohio diner" voters are driven by
"economic anxiety" is bullshit. They are driven by fear, paranoia, rage
and racism and no matter how genteel your language or calm you approach, it
doesn't work and it's never gonna work.
The author's case for wasting time and energy pursuing the same
outreach to the unreachable strategy that has already failed more often than
Trump Mortgage, Trump University, Trump Steaks, and Trump Vodka combined is
based entirely on her conversation with one woman and her brother-in-law, six years ago.
Roxanne lived in a double-wide trailer with her husband, plus her
parents-in-law and brother-in-law. It was during the Covid-19 pandemic, so
we sat distanced on her porch to talk.
Because of the garbage she'd read online, Roxanne was very confused about
Joe Biden.
Some of them said Biden was the worst thing that could happen to America,
while others said they were relieved at the outcome of the election because
Trump was evil and had to go. She was open to talking with me because she
was trying to sort through all of it for herself, to figure out what she
believed. “Regardless, I don’t plan on voting in the runoff election,” she
told me. “I don’t think it makes much of a difference.”
At least one of the presumably many reasons Roxanne was worried about Joe
Biden was based on some absolute bullshit which she had picked up from
somewhere and had apparently never bothered to find out the truth of it.
Roxanne had voted for Trump in the general because she had been told Biden
would take away their disability. Now that Biden had won, fear of losing
their benefits kept her up at night. “I don’t know how we’d live without
it,” she said.
And here comes her brother-in-law Jeremy who is also full of stupid opinions.
While we were talking, her brother-in-law, Jeremy, came outside. He had
splurged and gotten his nails done, and they looked fantastic, which I was
sure to compliment him on. They were long purple stiletto-shaped acrylic
nails. Roxanne told him I was there to talk about the runoff elections, and
he quickly told me of his distrust of the Democratic candidates, especially
Jon Ossoff. “For someone that young to be that successful, they had to do
something crooked.”
Then Astral Projection David Brooks entered the chat...
“Hold on now,” Roxanne told him. “She’s here to talk about voting for
them. Let’s be polite.”
“Well, I don’t hate them,” he said, “but I don’t like any of them —
neither side. I won’t vote for any of them anyway.”
Because Both Sides... Both Sides... Both Sides...
You can practically hear a generation of legacy media Both Siderism and
Republican excuse-making pinging around Jeremy's head like a BB in a rain
barrel.
As they talked, I listened for what was underneath their distrust of the
political process. They were afraid of losing their health care, their
disability benefits and their home. They were worried about losing their
family members who were sick. Roxanne grieved the loss of her health. They
worried about their neighbors who didn’t have heat in the winter. These
problems had only gotten worse over the years, never better, no matter who
was in office. “It hasn’t mattered if there was an R or a D after their
name,” Roxanne said.
Both Sides... Both Sides... Both Sides...
And rather than perhaps, y'know, gently pointing
out the many Democratic policies that already have materially improved
Roxanne's life and would have improved it even more had it not been for
Republican obstruction, sabotage, slander, and gutting, the author opts instead
to...
I affirmed their experiences, validated their feelings and pointed out the
very real injustices in their lives, the very real failure of either
political party to help...
Again, Both Sides... Both Sides... Both Sides...
In the words of BlueSky user Always Jae...
Ohhh...that's what kept them voting for all this? They weren't
"welcomed" enough? Seriously? The interference that the media
continuously runs for white people in the sticks is almost pathological at
this point.
To which I would only add that, when it comes to the way legacy media runs
cover for these people, we no longer need to modify the word "pathological"
with the word "almost".
Deaths of migrants in ICE custody hit record high under Trump
The number of immigrants who have died while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody has reached an all-time high this fiscal year.
Twenty-nine people have died in ICE custody since October, the start of the federal government's fiscal year, already surpassing 2004's toll of 28, the previous record, according to government data.
However bad you think it is, you know that, under this fascist regime, the truth is so much worse
