Do Voters Care the GOP Broke the House?
Plus: the ordeal one of our Afghan allies went through to become an asylum seeker.
Recently in The Bulwark:
ANDREW EGGER & WILL SALETAN: Republicans Are Lying About Biden’s Big-Bomb Freeze
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A.B. STODDARD: Republicans Broke the House—Will Voters Care?
FIFTEEN ROUNDS OF VOTING to make Kevin McCarthy speaker in January of last year was not enough of an international embarrassment. Just nine months later, McCarthy was toppled, and the House of Representatives ground to a halt as the Republicans scrounged around for someone to serve third in line to the presidency. They needed an election denier who would meet with approval from Matt Gaetz, the fourth-term congressman who had led both revolts against McCarthy in January and September. It took three weeks.
🎥 PODCASTS AND VIDEOS 🎧
Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller: Will Saletan: Trolls and Liars
The Dark Side: Americans Deserve Trump
The Focus Group: Larry Hogan: The Most Democratic Republican (with Michael Steele)
Bulwark Goes to Hollywood: On the Great Albert Brooks
Shield of the Republic: A Resurgence of Antiliberalism (with Robert Kagan)
Did you know? Bulwark+ members can listen to an ad-free version of these podcasts on the player of their choice.
Learn more at Bulwark+ Podcast FAQ.
JILL D. LAWRENCE: We Can’t Let Trump Run America Like His Business
THE SCHOLARS AND DOOMSAYERS ARE RIGHT: Autocracy is the correct word for what Donald Trump has in mind for a second presidency, should our nation be accursed enough for him to get one.
I don’t say this lightly. It seemed to me, going back to the 2016 campaign, that some Trump critics used the word loosely. I have avoided characterizing Trump as an aspiring autocrat with dreams of controlling his very own autocracy.
WILL SELBER: ‘Do You Remember Me?’
I DON’T REMEMBER THE LAST TIME I texted Nazir. My memories from the fall of Kabul are a haze of trauma. It was madness in every direction. Everyone was scrambling to get their trusted Afghan allies inside those walls.
But while my memories from those horrible days are elusive, I remember Nazir.
How could I not?
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend, and if you’re northerly, an opportunity to see aurora borealis. I missed out due to light pollution and clouds, but I did get to see part of the Presidential entourage coming or going from the President’s travels.
It’s Webby day! Congratulations to Will Saletan and the team that helped edit and produce The Corruption of Lindsey Graham. Here’s Will’s “5 word speech.”
Heck yes… I am going to watch the Reading Rainbow documentary.
Three Whole Onions… Author and vlogger John Green interviews Secretary Pete, and maybe he just has this effect on people.
Could the RSS feed help save the internet? Check out On Discourse on the archaic, yet valuable tool. Also, this Wednesday afternoon, they’re having a webinar called The Internet 2025 Download that is worth checking out. (I’ll be busy preparing for our event here in D.C., but I plan to check it out afterwards.)
The future of translation… Is looking pretty neat! Who needs Esperanto when technology is going to be this good? Fun fact: Probably the most-known word from that language is Movado, which happens to be the name of a watch company.
I regret to inform you… That Senator Katie Britt learned absolutely nothing from her cringe SOTU response.
DJTJ is doing prison visits… To keep the faith for Peter Navarro (ABC).
UPCOMING EVENTS
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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.