Thank you for this exceptional piece Tim. I signed up for the Bulwark just so I could keep reading it. I am grateful that I did. I can't tell you how many times I have heard the phrase "It just doesn't matter anymore." Even from my own grown children. If people in their 20s and 30s are giving up we are in serious trouble. I guess it's up to us older folks to show them the way back!
Thank you Tim. I really needed this article. It perfectly describes the internal conflict I am going through trying to protect my sanity. Thank you for the encouragement. Everything I once thought was important doesn’t seem to matter to a lot of the country. So what it still matters to me.
I’m trying but it’s so hard. It’s one reason I hate this/him so much — he has made me think thoughts and feel feelings that I never imagined I would. I’m trying to get back to the person I was pre-Trump but don’t know if it’s possible in my lifetime.
There is never ever anything corny about believing integrity matters. It is one of the things that matters most, along with love and honesty. Trump and his followers will never understand that, and it's their loss.
Such a great article and reinforces what we should be striving for at this time: be kind, live life according to your values, act with integrity, be brave. Thanks Tim!
Well written and well said Tim! We all have our own moral codes, and to those inner codes we should be true. Although, the feelings, impulses to say “fuck it – nothing matters” is strong and understandable, we need to resist it. By giving into those nihilist urges we willingly surrender our souls. And then, what else is there to lose? We must not give Trump and his odious MAGA movement our integrity and our souls.
I totally agree with you. Thanks for bringing some stability to this madness. Since Nov 5 I have been living in a state of anger and frustration. My husband and his side of the family are all Trump supporters. Our daughters are Harris supporters and voters so the Christmas dinner will be interesting. I have made a rule in our household not to discuss politics at the dinner table.....we will see what happens now. Your article calmed me down and I realized I cannot remain upset over this election because then Trump truly has won. I will not allow this horrible man into my home and certainly not near my granddaughter.
Thank you for the reminder that all we can control are the things we can control. I have been struggling with this since November 5 when my mind spirals thinking about all the terrible things that are coming. I also had an emotional reaction to your podcast episode with Jon Lovett. As someone who has two degrees in Political Science, lives in DC, and works in policy, I think I have just been in mourning since 2020 about the truth of our country and the ways we just continue to fall short on the promises this country was created on. These evil buffoons' that are about to be in power and the horrible people that support them have taken away my joy for politics and the career path I chose. They have robbed me of my joy but I won't let them rob me of my soul too.
Thanks for going dark on this JVL. I keep coming back to the same repeated refrain that Trump made to his supporters while on the stump: “If I get elected, you won’t have to vote again.” It was an uncharacteristically honest admission of his intended endgame. What we now see happening is endemic to that objective, using the same strategies that have been observed with autocracies for the past 100 years.
One clarifying point I would add is the transactional nature of such actions and the impact of greed in addition to fear. A number of these individuals and companies intend such actions and behavior to simply serve as a pathway to enormous wealth and prosperity through new government contracts, favorable legislation and the elimination of costly regulations (many of which mandate and enforce ethical business practices that prevent uncompetitive consolidations of market power and provide environmental, financial and consumer protections for American citizens).
The Federal government will be purged of independent career civil servants and replaced with Trump loyalists. Truth, data, facts and transparency will be obliterated. The Trump Administration will feel free to spin its own reality from moment to moment, always with the intention of serving its own best interests. With the recent and ongoing political compromises being made by major media across all platforms, self-funded independent investigative journalism will remain our best hope of uncovering the truth and holding accountable those who are responsible.
Americans need to wake up and realistically assess what now is transpiring in the midst of the Trump transition. Now that he’s won, Trump no longer has any accountability to his supporters – their votes provided the only value he ever needed or cared about. Any expectation that we will free ourselves in four years is flawed if based on any assumption that there definitely will be free and fair elections. GOP-controlled state election boards and the incoming Vice President have explicitly stated as much. As we now see, Trump 2.0 is far more dangerous than Trump 1.0. This time around, he has an organized playbook that is being carried out by competent team of legal and business advisors.
Yes. That’s my answer, Tim. Except for the part about Joe Biden. In protecting his son (as much as he could, anyway) from evil people who will stop at nothing to single him out for injustice at the hands of our government, I think he did the right thing, the moral thing, the only thing he could do. And no one else could do it. I’m pro-Joe on that one.
All we really have is our selves, our souls. To give yourself up is soul suicide. There is nothing worse.
Thank you for this exceptional piece Tim. I signed up for the Bulwark just so I could keep reading it. I am grateful that I did. I can't tell you how many times I have heard the phrase "It just doesn't matter anymore." Even from my own grown children. If people in their 20s and 30s are giving up we are in serious trouble. I guess it's up to us older folks to show them the way back!
I love you, Tim Miller. Thank you. Not corny at all.
Tim, keep inspiring. Thank you
Thank you Tim. I really needed this article. It perfectly describes the internal conflict I am going through trying to protect my sanity. Thank you for the encouragement. Everything I once thought was important doesn’t seem to matter to a lot of the country. So what it still matters to me.
Thank you.
I’m trying but it’s so hard. It’s one reason I hate this/him so much — he has made me think thoughts and feel feelings that I never imagined I would. I’m trying to get back to the person I was pre-Trump but don’t know if it’s possible in my lifetime.
Thanks for the encouragement.
Thank you Tim, for helping lift me out of the depths of despair ever since the election.
This is why we love you.
There is never ever anything corny about believing integrity matters. It is one of the things that matters most, along with love and honesty. Trump and his followers will never understand that, and it's their loss.
Such a great article and reinforces what we should be striving for at this time: be kind, live life according to your values, act with integrity, be brave. Thanks Tim!
Well written and well said Tim! We all have our own moral codes, and to those inner codes we should be true. Although, the feelings, impulses to say “fuck it – nothing matters” is strong and understandable, we need to resist it. By giving into those nihilist urges we willingly surrender our souls. And then, what else is there to lose? We must not give Trump and his odious MAGA movement our integrity and our souls.
I totally agree with you. Thanks for bringing some stability to this madness. Since Nov 5 I have been living in a state of anger and frustration. My husband and his side of the family are all Trump supporters. Our daughters are Harris supporters and voters so the Christmas dinner will be interesting. I have made a rule in our household not to discuss politics at the dinner table.....we will see what happens now. Your article calmed me down and I realized I cannot remain upset over this election because then Trump truly has won. I will not allow this horrible man into my home and certainly not near my granddaughter.
Thank you for the reminder that all we can control are the things we can control. I have been struggling with this since November 5 when my mind spirals thinking about all the terrible things that are coming. I also had an emotional reaction to your podcast episode with Jon Lovett. As someone who has two degrees in Political Science, lives in DC, and works in policy, I think I have just been in mourning since 2020 about the truth of our country and the ways we just continue to fall short on the promises this country was created on. These evil buffoons' that are about to be in power and the horrible people that support them have taken away my joy for politics and the career path I chose. They have robbed me of my joy but I won't let them rob me of my soul too.
Thanks for going dark on this JVL. I keep coming back to the same repeated refrain that Trump made to his supporters while on the stump: “If I get elected, you won’t have to vote again.” It was an uncharacteristically honest admission of his intended endgame. What we now see happening is endemic to that objective, using the same strategies that have been observed with autocracies for the past 100 years.
One clarifying point I would add is the transactional nature of such actions and the impact of greed in addition to fear. A number of these individuals and companies intend such actions and behavior to simply serve as a pathway to enormous wealth and prosperity through new government contracts, favorable legislation and the elimination of costly regulations (many of which mandate and enforce ethical business practices that prevent uncompetitive consolidations of market power and provide environmental, financial and consumer protections for American citizens).
The Federal government will be purged of independent career civil servants and replaced with Trump loyalists. Truth, data, facts and transparency will be obliterated. The Trump Administration will feel free to spin its own reality from moment to moment, always with the intention of serving its own best interests. With the recent and ongoing political compromises being made by major media across all platforms, self-funded independent investigative journalism will remain our best hope of uncovering the truth and holding accountable those who are responsible.
Americans need to wake up and realistically assess what now is transpiring in the midst of the Trump transition. Now that he’s won, Trump no longer has any accountability to his supporters – their votes provided the only value he ever needed or cared about. Any expectation that we will free ourselves in four years is flawed if based on any assumption that there definitely will be free and fair elections. GOP-controlled state election boards and the incoming Vice President have explicitly stated as much. As we now see, Trump 2.0 is far more dangerous than Trump 1.0. This time around, he has an organized playbook that is being carried out by competent team of legal and business advisors.
Yes. That’s my answer, Tim. Except for the part about Joe Biden. In protecting his son (as much as he could, anyway) from evil people who will stop at nothing to single him out for injustice at the hands of our government, I think he did the right thing, the moral thing, the only thing he could do. And no one else could do it. I’m pro-Joe on that one.