A good piece overall, if you give, in the footnote, too much credit to Taibbi. I read Insane Clown President, his collection of Trump columns, a few years back, and many of them are filled with predictions of Trump collapsing or imploding, if my memory serves. It was a pretty mediocre collection overall. Sullivan was legitimately prescient.
Thanks, Ross. I read that collection as well. He began to take Trump seriously down the stretch, whereas the articles that book drew from were written mostly during the primaries if I recall. But that's a fair criticism, he was did not outright predict a Trump win like Sullivan did.
It seems almost a truism to say that, whatever degree of "reckoning" there may be, that trickle or flood is presently being contained by the shame-levee that is the orange man.
As for myself, I'm a progressive Republican, and so far this year my pick of the field has been Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, & now Joe Biden. (Unless you live in Florida -- then vote Taylor Swift.) Do you like me better than them?
This article assumes good faith on the part of those actors concern-trolling the Democratic Party.
A more cynical view would be that these journalists and news outlets want Trump to win, and always have wanted Trump to win, but can't say so explicitly because their whole shtick is to be "bold truth tellers" who aren't loyal to either party rather than craven, cynical, Republican opportunists. In this view, it is their job to demoralize enough Democratic voters to ensure a Trump victory, thus making their "predictions" a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I used to believe the former, but now tend to believe the latter. Every time Biden has moved left or adopted one of their pet policies, they have not softened their rhetoric one iota, but doubled down on their antipathy towards the Democratic Party.
They castigated Biden for not withdrawing from Afghanistan ("he's a warmonger"), not supporting unions, not adopting an industrial policy, being too hard on immigrants ("kids in cages!"), not cancelling student loan debt, not legalizing marijuana, and not being hard enough on Israel (Genocide Joe!")
And what happened? Biden withdrew from Afghanistan, passed the CHIPS Act and Build Back Better, cancelled student loan debt, made cannabis schedule one, pressured Israel on a ceasefire, eschewed austerity, and presided over an expansion that raised wages for people at the bottom for the first time in over twenty years even while unemployment fell to all-time lows.
Did these "heterodox" leftists change their opinion at all? Nope. They just hated Biden and the Democrats all the more. Do you really think these are good faith actors? And the fact that nearly all these journalists constantly broadcasted Russian propaganda after the Ukraine invasion makes me even more suspicious.
A good piece overall, if you give, in the footnote, too much credit to Taibbi. I read Insane Clown President, his collection of Trump columns, a few years back, and many of them are filled with predictions of Trump collapsing or imploding, if my memory serves. It was a pretty mediocre collection overall. Sullivan was legitimately prescient.
Thanks, Ross. I read that collection as well. He began to take Trump seriously down the stretch, whereas the articles that book drew from were written mostly during the primaries if I recall. But that's a fair criticism, he was did not outright predict a Trump win like Sullivan did.
It seems almost a truism to say that, whatever degree of "reckoning" there may be, that trickle or flood is presently being contained by the shame-levee that is the orange man.
As for myself, I'm a progressive Republican, and so far this year my pick of the field has been Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, & now Joe Biden. (Unless you live in Florida -- then vote Taylor Swift.) Do you like me better than them?
This article assumes good faith on the part of those actors concern-trolling the Democratic Party.
A more cynical view would be that these journalists and news outlets want Trump to win, and always have wanted Trump to win, but can't say so explicitly because their whole shtick is to be "bold truth tellers" who aren't loyal to either party rather than craven, cynical, Republican opportunists. In this view, it is their job to demoralize enough Democratic voters to ensure a Trump victory, thus making their "predictions" a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I used to believe the former, but now tend to believe the latter. Every time Biden has moved left or adopted one of their pet policies, they have not softened their rhetoric one iota, but doubled down on their antipathy towards the Democratic Party.
They castigated Biden for not withdrawing from Afghanistan ("he's a warmonger"), not supporting unions, not adopting an industrial policy, being too hard on immigrants ("kids in cages!"), not cancelling student loan debt, not legalizing marijuana, and not being hard enough on Israel (Genocide Joe!")
And what happened? Biden withdrew from Afghanistan, passed the CHIPS Act and Build Back Better, cancelled student loan debt, made cannabis schedule one, pressured Israel on a ceasefire, eschewed austerity, and presided over an expansion that raised wages for people at the bottom for the first time in over twenty years even while unemployment fell to all-time lows.
Did these "heterodox" leftists change their opinion at all? Nope. They just hated Biden and the Democrats all the more. Do you really think these are good faith actors? And the fact that nearly all these journalists constantly broadcasted Russian propaganda after the Ukraine invasion makes me even more suspicious.
Terrible article posted absolutely everywhere without any care