On today’s ‘To the Contrary” Podcast I’m joined by Brian Rosenwald, a political historian who specializes in the role of media in shaping — and distorting — our political culture.
A while back Rosenwald wrote: “The Left Needs to Abandon Hysteria & Scolding if it Wants to Stop Trump.”
I AGREE with the people making these critiques on the substance of what Trump is doing. I’m horrified by it.
But issuing hysterical warnings non-stop and fighting indiscriminately won’t stop Trump. If anything, they’ll backfire. I actually think the tendency of people to melt down over everything Trump does was one reason that many voters ignored the warnings about the threat he posed during the campaign. For eight years, huge chunks of the left have been sounding the alarm nonstop. Every single thing Trump does that is bad—and that’s a lot of things—is a five alarm fire.
After a while, people tune out hyperbolic warnings. The people issuing them lose credibility and look like they just hate Trump so much that they have no perspective.
Maybe more importantly: when Trump actually does set five alarm fires, there’s no way for Americans who pay casual attention to politics (or less than casual) to know that it’s different from all of the other bad stuff that people lost their minds over. They can’t decipher the bad from the truly dangerous — the cringey from the constitutional threat. So they just evaluate Trump by this metric: has what he’s done negatively impacted my life? If not, they dismiss the criticisms.
But how do we sift the noise from the genuinely alarming stuff? Brian and I take a deepish dive…. And it’s well worth your time. You can listen/watch right here, or: Watch on YouTube / Listen (and subscribe) on Apple/ Spotify / iHeart / RSS Feed.
Happy Tuesday.
No billionaires. No oligarches. Just smart, straight, sober analysis. With a touch of snark. And dogs. Always dogs. To the Contrary is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Some highlights of our conversation…
The throughline from George Wallace/Spiro Agnew to Trump’s populist conservativism.
Bannon’s warning on Medicaid cuts.
The danger of Trump’s echo chambers.
Meanwhile…
Elon comes for social security; and what could possibly go wrong? Via the Wapo:
The acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration left her job this weekend after a clash with billionaire Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service over its attempts to access sensitive government records, three people familiar with her departure said Monday.
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Elon is also coming for the FAA. And we know what could go wrong: “CNN's Pete Muntean Sounds Alarm on Trump's FAA Firings.”
“FAA staff fired over the weekend included personnel that worked radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance, among others. Hundreds were fired, just weeks after a fatal mid-air collision in DC killed 67. One employee said they were harassed on Facebook by DOGE prior to being fired.”
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Elon is also coming for… Wisconsin. Via WPR:
A political action committee backed by billionaire Elon Musk has scheduled hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of TV ads in Wisconsin this week with the state Supreme Court election fast approaching.
The ads are expected to aid conservative Brad Schimel who is running against liberal Susan Crawford in a race that will determine the ideological balance of the court.
The ads from the Musk-backed Building America’s Future will start running on stations around Wisconsin Thursday and will continue through early March.
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WSJ Editorial Board: This doesn’t have to keep happening:
The Senate voted 52-48 last week to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the nation’s health secretary. In other news, 13 people in Texas were hospitalized for measles amid an outbreak of 48 cases, almost all in children whose vaccination status is negative or unknown. That was as of Friday morning. “Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease,” the Texas health department said, “additional cases are likely.”
The tragedy is that this doesn’t have to keep happening. In 2000 measles was declared eliminated from the U.S., meaning 12 months with no continuous spread. Immunization has saved millions of lives around the world since the vaccine became available in 1963. The peril isn’t small. “About 1 in 5 unvaccinated people in the U.S. who get measles is hospitalized,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Nearly 1 to 3 of every 1,000 children who become infected with measles will die.”
Yet for some people, the reality of measles feels like a sepia-toned history lesson, whereas the antivax hooey featured on podcasts these days sounds current. RFK Jr., an environmental lawyer by trade, has long been part of the problem, and at his Senate confirmation hearings he presented himself as just asking questions, man. That undersells his role in spreading doubt and confusion.
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The surrenders keep coming: Via the Financial Times: “European officials believe Trump is likely to agree to withdraw US troops from the Baltics and perhaps further west, leaving the EU vulnerable to a Russian army that Nato governments warn is preparing for a larger conflict beyond Ukraine." -The Financial Times
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The cognitive dissonance. It burns.
And… ICYMI. Trump doubles down on Napoleon and explicitly links the quote to a ruling by a judge that he was “defying” a court order. Not subtle.
Tuesday dogs
Flashback: Moses shepherding the turkeys. (No, they do not have an adversarial relationship.)
Baby Auggie.
Zeke stands guard over his girl.
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