His departure laid bare how much the publication centered around his anchoring it. There is a place for center-right anti-Trump media, but we shouldn't idolize them. They all had a hand in his rise
This completely sums up my attitude about the Bulwark lately as well. It seems to have drifted back to what the Weekly Standard was with Kristol in charge. Many of the content creators are Standard orphans from when that collapsed. It just seems so...off. The only one I regularly listen to now is Sarah Longwell, largely because she's a pollster and has some objectivity to it. Everyone else is just, meh. For claiming to be so uber-supportive of Biden and trying to prevent Democracy's collapse, they just spend way too much time criticizing the Dems and Biden. It's pretty off putting.
I will defend Sarah Longwell and her work to the grave and she’s a big part of why I sub to the Bulwark. The new morning thing is terrible, almost as bad as the Dispatch, but they haven’t gone that far just yet.
I I think Charlie is bored. Lol. Slowing down from the schedule he was sustaining is rough. He also had a piece about how stupid GOP voters are in the Daily Beast yesterday.
Last weekend's Focus Group podcast was just horrible. The audience were California dems and from the conversation it is clear that Sarah doesn't talk to many groups like that, because she was flummoxed by their knowledge of the issues.
I do value her reveals of the MAGA population and the center right groups she mostly does, but outside of that Cali dems group, when they get Democrats in other states, they seem to find some hapless uninformed rubes, and then she likes to poke holes at their ignorance, where from the MAGA heavy sessions lead her to castigate the Dems for not listening to these people.
I am tired of the "Midwest Diner" articles and pontification. Yes, we know that the midwest is mostly rural, and heavily MAGA/lean far right. I do not need twenty of those articles every month.
I was referring more to the work she does outside of the Bulwark. The GOP Accountability PAC and the Principles First work. The Focus Group is def hit and miss. I listen when I like the guest and tend not to when she’s got a tool like Ruy Teixeira - who wouldn’t know a Democrat in 2024 if he tripped over one - on the show.
My subscription runs until September. Can’t see extending it. Charlie was definitely the hub. I caught him and Will S on Monday and Ben Wittes every week. As much as I like Tim Miller I haven’t been listening to his much at all. Sykes was in Daily Beast this morning too. Freelancing.
Do like Joe Perticone and if I can get him free once a week. It’ll be almost to the election when I run out anyway. After that we’ll know whether the future is a Hobbesian hellscape or not.
I just subscribed to Rick Wilson recently, too. I don’t care if the LP ads are childish or immature or degrade politics. Give me more!
I was pretty pissed at Chris Cillizza's take on Biden going at Trump. The whole "when they go low, we go high" bullshit. Clearly that no longer is a viable strategy. And in that, I have to nod and smile when I see their responses to the orange idiot. The Bulwark has become like the "Weekly Standard" updated, where they sit in their deep upholstered chairs, smoking (Cuban) cigars, sipping their Remy Martin cognac while discussing what they want the plebe's to do.
From surveying the comments where I can from my "free" tier, it seems that 2 out of 3 or 3 out of 4 of their active subscribers are solid left of center, like I was, glad to have some relatively sane from the other camp to share common cause with, but over and over the staff really seems to poke them in the eye and point out how the Dems should listen to them and swap Biden with Whitmer or Shapiro. That petty scolding is a bad look, and unhelpful.
They have somewhere around 260K subs, and 30-40K paid subs, and if 70ish percent of the people paying your salaries ever get tired en banc of your shit takes, your livelihood might be at risk.
At the end of the day, I don't think they are moving the needle, or growing the never Trump ranks.
The only thing I can is that for the most part, the comment sections were very good for quite a while, too. Reasoned discussions, experts who added important context/contributions to the discourse, etc. However, as more and more voices requested fewer doomcasting articles and more suggestions for action, at least one regular columnist started to get a little snippy about it. (I didn't read them all, so I don't know how widespread it was nor the authors' responses.) That really turned me off. I suspect more people have departed in part because of it.
I forgot to mention that I catch Sykes on MSNBC at least weekly; that's plenty for me.
This completely sums up my attitude about the Bulwark lately as well. It seems to have drifted back to what the Weekly Standard was with Kristol in charge. Many of the content creators are Standard orphans from when that collapsed. It just seems so...off. The only one I regularly listen to now is Sarah Longwell, largely because she's a pollster and has some objectivity to it. Everyone else is just, meh. For claiming to be so uber-supportive of Biden and trying to prevent Democracy's collapse, they just spend way too much time criticizing the Dems and Biden. It's pretty off putting.
Precisely. Perhaps Kristol needs to be retired... I mean he is well past his sell by date.
I will defend Sarah Longwell and her work to the grave and she’s a big part of why I sub to the Bulwark. The new morning thing is terrible, almost as bad as the Dispatch, but they haven’t gone that far just yet.
I I think Charlie is bored. Lol. Slowing down from the schedule he was sustaining is rough. He also had a piece about how stupid GOP voters are in the Daily Beast yesterday.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-voters-dont-care-about-winning-elections-just-owning-libs
Last weekend's Focus Group podcast was just horrible. The audience were California dems and from the conversation it is clear that Sarah doesn't talk to many groups like that, because she was flummoxed by their knowledge of the issues.
I do value her reveals of the MAGA population and the center right groups she mostly does, but outside of that Cali dems group, when they get Democrats in other states, they seem to find some hapless uninformed rubes, and then she likes to poke holes at their ignorance, where from the MAGA heavy sessions lead her to castigate the Dems for not listening to these people.
I am tired of the "Midwest Diner" articles and pontification. Yes, we know that the midwest is mostly rural, and heavily MAGA/lean far right. I do not need twenty of those articles every month.
*gets off soapbox*
I was referring more to the work she does outside of the Bulwark. The GOP Accountability PAC and the Principles First work. The Focus Group is def hit and miss. I listen when I like the guest and tend not to when she’s got a tool like Ruy Teixeira - who wouldn’t know a Democrat in 2024 if he tripped over one - on the show.
Oh yeah, of the crew there, she's the one using her skills to do more than just chin-wag about it.
Ruy seems to be working the center left, anti-Trump circuit to shake consultant $'s, but he's just going full Glenn Greenwald.
I will forward you today’s Triad. It’s pretty good. lol. JVL does a little gloating.
My subscription runs until September. Can’t see extending it. Charlie was definitely the hub. I caught him and Will S on Monday and Ben Wittes every week. As much as I like Tim Miller I haven’t been listening to his much at all. Sykes was in Daily Beast this morning too. Freelancing.
Do like Joe Perticone and if I can get him free once a week. It’ll be almost to the election when I run out anyway. After that we’ll know whether the future is a Hobbesian hellscape or not.
I just subscribed to Rick Wilson recently, too. I don’t care if the LP ads are childish or immature or degrade politics. Give me more!
I was pretty pissed at Chris Cillizza's take on Biden going at Trump. The whole "when they go low, we go high" bullshit. Clearly that no longer is a viable strategy. And in that, I have to nod and smile when I see their responses to the orange idiot. The Bulwark has become like the "Weekly Standard" updated, where they sit in their deep upholstered chairs, smoking (Cuban) cigars, sipping their Remy Martin cognac while discussing what they want the plebe's to do.
From surveying the comments where I can from my "free" tier, it seems that 2 out of 3 or 3 out of 4 of their active subscribers are solid left of center, like I was, glad to have some relatively sane from the other camp to share common cause with, but over and over the staff really seems to poke them in the eye and point out how the Dems should listen to them and swap Biden with Whitmer or Shapiro. That petty scolding is a bad look, and unhelpful.
They have somewhere around 260K subs, and 30-40K paid subs, and if 70ish percent of the people paying your salaries ever get tired en banc of your shit takes, your livelihood might be at risk.
At the end of the day, I don't think they are moving the needle, or growing the never Trump ranks.
Bravo!
The only thing I can is that for the most part, the comment sections were very good for quite a while, too. Reasoned discussions, experts who added important context/contributions to the discourse, etc. However, as more and more voices requested fewer doomcasting articles and more suggestions for action, at least one regular columnist started to get a little snippy about it. (I didn't read them all, so I don't know how widespread it was nor the authors' responses.) That really turned me off. I suspect more people have departed in part because of it.
I forgot to mention that I catch Sykes on MSNBC at least weekly; that's plenty for me.