Liberal Democracies Deserve a League of Our Own
Plus, a dispatch from The Big Country.
🏒 FACEOFF 🏒
Greetings from The Big Country. At least that’s what they call it around here. I’m in a little suburb that gave the NFL Colt McCoy and a few minutes away from a de-activated Atlas Missile silo. They were about a dozen of them in this area, surrounding Dyess AFB, which during the height of the Cold War, was a base for nuclear bombers.
One guy here turned one of the silos into a bachelor pad. I love visiting sites like these, but didn’t want to bother the guy just to check a goal off of my bucket list.
The nukes are long gone, but they may actually be coming back. It’s been a restful few days, enjoying good food and the company of family, and not living online, but I’m eager to get back to the dogs and the grind.
Leading The Bulwark…
Liberal Democracies Deserve a League of Our Own
SHAY KHATIRI: The idea of an organization of representative, rule-of-law states has never been more appealing.
🎧 On the Pods… 🎧
THE FOCUS GROUP: Malaise 2.0: Democrats grade Biden
JVL joins Sarah to discuss a focus group with progressive and moderate Democrats in Pennsylvania. They voted for Biden in 2020, but how do they think he is doing as President nine months in?
Larry Sabato: Our Divided America
Americans hate the other side so much, they want to bust up the country, censor media they don't like, and allow "their"president to act without checks and balances.
A FRENCH VILLAGE: Season 5 Finale! (Season 5, Episodes 11 & 12)
Sarah and Ben discuss the final two episodes of Season 5.
For Bulwark+ Members… 🔐
MORNING SHOTS: Six Reasons To Be Alarmed 🔐
CHARLIE SYKES: Biden's malaise?
THE TRIAD: Joe Biden Is in a World of Trouble 🔓
JVL: Even Democrats don't like him.
NEWSLETTER OF NEWSLETTERS: All hail the great one 🔓
WEEKEND MAILBAG: How Alarmed Should We Be? 🔓
From The Bulwark Aggregator…
COVID Scammer Who Faked His Own Suicide Gets Prison Time - Justin Rohrlich, The Daily Beast
Joe Biden’s FDR Dream Hits the Rocks - Gabriel Debenedetti, Intelligencer
Secret Money, Swanky Real Estate, and a Monte Carlo Mystery - Paul Sonne and Greg Miller, The Washington Post
Masks Are Changing How Kids Interact - Emily Dreyfuss, The Atlantic
Bill Kristol and Scott Horton Debate U.S. Interventionism at the Soho Forum - Reason Magazine
New Yorkers are biking, scootering, and jogging to New Jersey to bet on sports games - Juliana Kaplan, Business Insider
Millennials Team Up to Fulfill the Dream of Homeownership - Alex Janin, The Wall Street Journal
In Today’s Bulwark...
Are You Ready for Some Good Old-Fashioned Unionized College Football!
DANIEL MCGRAW: How long will it be until college football players are recognized as employees with the right to organize?
🚨OVERTIME 🚨
A Monte Carlo mystery… Is this woman Vladimir Putin’s secret daughter? The Washington Post and other journalists went to great length to find out.
Healthcare costs are escalating… My friend Thomas Campanella at Baldwin Wallace University just wrote a white paper identifying why this is, and what we can do to address them before they get worse. Will Congress and the administration work together to get this done? Given the debt ceiling fight, this seems unlikely, but nobody can say that we weren’t warned.
“Don’t look at is as being fired for refusing to get vaccinated…” A perfect cartoon for the anti-vaccination types among us. Sadly, legislators and conservative thought “leaders” are cheering on people walking off the job to protest vaccine mandates with a “Let’s Go Brandon” (don’t google it, trust me) rallying cry. Including people like Ted Cruz and Chip Roy, who are now actively rooting against <checks note> Texas-based Southwest Airlines? Identity politics and Trumpism does strange things to people.
John Cusack, professional killer… The actor reprised his role as hitman Martin Blank outside of an MLB playoff game, and it’s glorious.
🚨New Labash!🚨Our buddy Matt Labash has a new post up today, and it’s about how, as a skeptic of comments sections, a recent interaction between two commenters on his inaugural post gave him some hope. Read it and sign up.
Is American Democracy in Decline? Listen to Kim Wehle with our friends Lawrence Eppard and Alison Dagnes at the Utterly Moderate podcast.
And speaking of podcasts… Our friend Stephen Gutowski, editor The Reload, and one of America’s best firearms journalists, has Adam Serwer from The Atlantic on to discuss guns and race in America. Tune in!
I regret to inform you… There is a video where TFG is honoring insurrectionist Ashli Babbit.
Allahpundit 1, Marco Rubio 0
That’s it for me for today. We’ll see you back here tomorrow. Tech support questions? Email support@substack.com. Questions for me? Drop me a line: swift@thebulwark.com
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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.