A quick note for all the newbies here at The Bulwark. I’m glad to have you and I hope you’ll stick around for a while. I’m unlocking this edition of The Triad to give you a flavor of what I do here every day and to remind you of one of the benefits of being a Bulwark+ member. We’re running a little promotion just now that gives you a year of Bulwark+ for just $8 per month (less if you choose an annual term). It’s our little fork you to Elon and Twitter, obviously. This offer is expires today. I hope to see you in the comments soon. —JVL Projection Is the Sincerest Form of TrumpismThey believe everyone must be as craven and corrupt as they are.Hey fam: I’m still under the weather, so no TNB tonight. But in case you missed it, The Next Level YouTube edition this week was epic in my absence. Sonny Bunch joined Tim and Sarah. Good show, long show. You should go watch it. 1. Do Democrats Want Trump To Win?I asked this question last week and we did a poll on it—put a pin in that. In the meantime, the Hill ran this piece: “Democrats pine for Trump as GOP nominee.” I was interested to see some of this Democratic pining people keep talking about. So what evidence does the Hill provide?
That sounds bad of Democrats! Let’s get to the examples!
Finally. We finally found a Democrat (singular) pining for Trump to win. Surely there are more, right? Well . . . not really. The Hill then moves on to these examples:
Neither Sanders nor Longabaugh are saying that they want Trump to be the nominee. Sanders explicitly says that Trump’s candidacy would be a “horror show” for American democracy. Longabaugh is analyzing the situation without making any value judgment. Further down in the piece, the Hill finds one other Democrat pining for Trump:
Mission accomplished? McAuliffe isn’t saying he wants Trump to win the nomination, just that he wants him to run. But at least this gets the Hill to be able to use the plural Democrat(s). But doesn’t reality seem to be precisely the opposite of the Hill’s headline: Because if Democrats as a general matter were “pining” for Trump to win the nomination, they’d be able to find more—many more—examples. Anyway, last week I asked Bulwark+ members two questions:
Here’s what you said: So among Bulwark+ members, a slim majority think Trump would be easier to defeat and even so, the overwhelming majority do not want him to win the Republican nomination. In other words: These are people putting country over party. So why are conservative types so invested in the idea that Democrats must be “pining” for Trump to win? Like everything else about Trumpism, it’s projection. They’ve spent so long putting party over country that they cannot countenance the reality that not everyone is so craven. 2. Who/WhomDo you remember that time the Republican governor of Florida passed a law and the CEO of Disney said he didn’t like the law and the Republican governor of Florida used the power of his state government to financially retaliate against the Disney corporation? Here’s what Disney said at the time:
That’s a severely limited statement. It’s not an attack on “Republicans.” It’s not a condemnation of Gov. Ron DeSantis. It’s not electioneering around a candidate or a party. It’s a specific corporate goal announcing that it is in the company’s business interests for this one law to be removed from the books, either by the legislature itself or the courts. In response, Republicans lost their shit and decided to revoke a 50-year-old law designed to promote Disney’s business (and thus increase Florida’s tax base). DeSantis explained: “Disney thought they ruled Florida. They even tried to attack me to advance their woke agenda.” And: “Disney has gotten over its skis on this.…When you are trying to impose a woke ideology on our state, we view that as a significant threat." Rep. Mike Waltz said, "these corporations need to stay out of politics." State Rep. Randy Fine explained, “You kick the hornet’s nest, things come up.” Yesterday was the 2nd meeting in a week w/fellow legislators to discuss a repeal of the 1967 Reedy Creek Improvement Act, which allows Disney to act as its own government. If Disney wants to embrace woke ideology, it seems fitting that they should be regulated by Orange County. Newsmax host Eric Bolling: "Is there an opportunity for Disney to change their mind and say we will disregard this whole 'woke' agenda...and would the governor then say, 'fine, you can keep your status but we're gonna keep an eye on you now'?" Florida Lt. Gov: "Sure!" (Please note that last phrase: “keep an eye on you.”) Anyway, there was lots and lots and lots of this. Perhaps you remember. Fast forward to Elon Musk, who has been taking much broader and more assertive political positions in his role as owner and CEO of Twitter:
In response the Biden administration has done . . . nothing? Let me check: Yup, nothing. And yet here’s Kevin McCarthy crying about the possibility of the Biden administration using the power of the government to punish Elon: Here’s the exchange. A reporter asked McCarthy:
McCarthy responded:
A serious question: Does Republican hypocrisy ever just push you into tilt? Because that’s how I feel right about now. What’s happening is not that the Dems are doing something the R’s do all the time and the R’s are waving their hands and getting upset about it. No. The Democrats pointedly are not doing what the R’s do. And in response the R’s are (1) pretending that they are, while (2) waving their hands getting upset about it. Again: It’s projection. It’s always, always projection. 3. Old Folks HomeThis is an extraordinary essay and it will hit you like a freight train:
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