Newsletter
Now that the hilariously inept Ron DeSantis campaign has come to a merciful end, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on what it meant for him and for us. For the candidate himself, the collapse of his presidential campaign represents a reversion to the mean. He never possessed
Newsletter
For decades now, conservatives have insisted that Martin Luther King Jr. had Only One True Quote and argued that “color-blind” conservatives were therefore the true defenders of his legacy. But it looks like they might be starting to give up the charade, with Charlie Kirk announcing today his sudden discovery
Newsletter
It’s no secret that the Republican Party has become a cult of personality during the Trump era. While the GOP has had its share of hero worship in the past, celebrating leaders ranging from Abraham Lincoln to Ronald Reagan, the party’s prostration before Donald Trump is in a
Newsletter
In wake of the courts in Colorado and the secretary of state in Maine each ruling that Donald Trump should be disqualified from their state ballots due to his considerable role in the insurrection effort after his defeat in the 2020 election, a lot of commentators on the right are
Newsletter
Happy New Year! In the time since my last post, I’ve been busy trying to find a new home for Campaign Trails, but it’s proved much harder than I’d been led to believe. I’ve spent much of the last two weeks sorting through the alternatives, and
Newsletter
The Substack folks have shrugged off our concerns about the Nazis here, which means I’ll be looking for a new home in the near future. I’m with family for the holidays now, so I can’t write much more, but Ken White’s post speaks for me: Substack
Newsletter
As things wind down on an exceptionally tiring year, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who’s subscribed to this newsletter. As you can see, we crossed the 10k mark for overall subscriptions and, as promised, Henry Kissinger died not long thereafter. (That’s a clear case of
Newsletter
Apologies for the interruption in our regular programming, but I’m joining with a number of other Substackers today in asking the leadership of Substack to do something about the white nationalist outlets that use this place. I only regret that “(Web) Surf(ing) Nazis Must Die” couldn’t be
Newsletter
Sad to see that the legendary TV producer and liberal activist Norman Lear has passed away at the age of 101. You’ll see lots of terrific tributes today from those who knew him well and worked with him — here’s Rob Reiner, for instance — but I wanted to share
Newsletter
For all of George Santos’s incredible accomplishments — first man on the moon, inventor of the microchip, twelve-time People’s Sexiest Man of the Year, etc. etc. — it looks like he’s about to pull of his most impressive accomplishment yet: being so comically corrupt that even Republicans feel he
Newsletter
The annual tradition of Thanksgiving began with Abraham Lincoln, but its specific date is due to Franklin D. Roosevelt. For decades after Lincoln, presidents followed his example of declaring the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving. But in 1939, the calendar worked out so that the fifth
Newsletter
In recent weeks, the New York Times has been completely embarrassing itself by using some incredibly watered-down, mealy-mouthed headlines for articles that describe acts of alarming political extremism. For instance, when former president Donald Trump denounced his political opponents as “vermin” who would suffer brutal retribution during his second term