The Problem With ‘Guarding’ the Vote
Plus: The Color of Music
Recently in The Bulwark:
TIM MILLER: The Matt Gaetz GOP Future
JVL: The Broken Windows Theory of Journalism: Unpacking a Tiny Fox Lie
JOE PERTICONE: Republicans on the Border Crisis: It Can Wait
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BILL LUEDERS: The Problem With ‘Guarding’ the Vote
DURING A MARATHON SESSION of a Wisconsin legislative committee last week, Jeff Smith, a Democratic state senator, had a pointed question for one of the speakers, Chad Ennis of the Honest Elections Project.
“Where did you fly in from today?” Smith asked. Ennis replied that he flew in the day before, from Austin, Texas. “There we go,” Smith said. “I’m just curious, and I know you’re paid to be here, you’re paid to do this. I’ve got your group up here on my computer right now, and all the things that Honest Elections Project does.” He continued: “What is the benefit of someone from Texas flying into Wisconsin, or someone from Maine flying into Wisconsin, or anyone else, to interfere with how we manage our elections?” Was it because Wisconsin is considered a battleground state?
🎥 PODCASTS AND VIDEOS 🎧
Bulwark Podcast with Mona Charen: Anne Applebaum: The Irreparable Damage of a Second Term
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.
CATHY YOUNG: The Color of Music.
A FEW MONTHS AGO, I wrote about Chevalier, a heavily fictionalized biopic about the eighteenth-century violinist, composer, swordsman, and soldier Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the biracial son of a French plantation owner and an enslaved African woman. I noted that while Saint-Georges’s story is certainly worth telling and Kevin Harrison is mesmerizing in the lead role, the film ultimately fails because it tries to turn its hero’s complicated eighteenth-century life into twenty-first-century racial melodrama. (The film, directed by Stephen Williams, is available for streaming on Hulu.)
A recent review of the movie in City Journal by Heather Mac Donald, a forceful critic of progressive racial politics, is worth scrutiny as a striking example of how “anti-woke” culture criticism can be as blinkered and heavy-handed as its opposite.
ROBERT ZUBRIN: Time to Bow Out, Chris Christie.
FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE played a key role in helping to secure the 2016 GOP nomination for Donald Trump. Most famously, at a debate in New Hampshire three days before that state’s Republican primary, Christie attacked Marco Rubio, depicting the Florida senator as inauthentic. Christie’s mockery contributed to Rubio, who had been ranking second in most polls before the debate, coming in fifth in the actual vote. Christie then followed up that wrecking operation by boosting Trump with his own endorsement two weeks later. He backed Trump in speeches on the campaign trail and led his presidential transition.
The fact that Trump proved to be ungrateful, firing Christie and throwing away his transition plans, does not negate the fact that Christie helped Trump win the presidency.
The question for today is: Will Christie deliver for Trump again?
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Tuesday! We took the kids to the city1 for a few days, and I gotta say, the Empty Sky Memorial in New Jersey hits you right in the feels. As did Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. We’re having a blast. As such, Overtime might be a little shorter than usual this holiday week.
A Muppety Holiday Yule Log… Bookmark this if your kids (or somebody else’s) are getting unruly.
Matt Labash is having a Christmas sale! Hard to say no to 30% off. Treat yourself! (Or a friend.)
We also have gift memberships, too…
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Yes, the one where JVL lives. I can’t believe he gets to see this every day.