Love ‘em or hate ‘em, The Bulwark matters. We value and respect their prominent position in the pro-democracy movement. Yet despite their success, the Bulwark advises on politics from a point of view so ideologically blinkered that it puts the entire movement at risk.
Across Republican and Democratic administrations, American foreign policy has produced a sequence of disasters abroad. The anti-Trump conservative analysis attempts to reckon with these failed policies but often falls short of metabolizing the political impacts of neoconservative disasters past and present. The cardinal misstep – treating President Trump as a departure from American imperial tradition rather than another expression of it – continues to taint otherwise thoughtful review.
In a March 9 episode of the flagship Bulwark Podcast, Tim Miller and Sarah Longwell reveal some of the early political influences and cultural propaganda that shaped their worldviews – a self-examination we respect and admire. Credit where credit is due, yet Miller and Longwell still fail to appreciate some of the tectonic drivers of these policies – and more crucially, how unpopular policies have galvanized public opinion and redrawn the political landscape.
Steward Beckham and I took some time to dig deep into this episode, Sarah Longwell: No One Should Trust this Government, which exemplifies this anti-Trump conservative phenomenon when applied to the current war on Iran and Lebanon. Enjoy.
The next episode of Reality Checking The Bulwark will air today at 2 PM EST/11 PM PST on Substack Live!
Previously on Stew On This:
