The Year of the Exhausted Majority

Steve makes enemies with sci-fi fans.

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Sarah, Steve, Jonah, and David (who heroically dragged himself from bed at the crack of the Tennessee dawn) discuss some of the best and worst stories of 2022. What will make the list? The Russian invasion? The Artemis launch? Asteroid nudging? The Ye-Fuentes summit? The resurgence of COVID in China? The unveiling of Donald Trump’s NFT? Come for the review of a wild year, stay for the wild(?) predictions for 2023.

Plus: a gut-check update on the Sarah-Steve bet.

Show Notes:

–The Morning Dispatch on Zelensky’s speech

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Comments (33)
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  1. Avatar photo
    Mike

    I have a question that I think can only be best answered by the folks here and the brains at the Dispatch. On this house majority leader vote eve, is it possible for the Democrats to nominate a sane, moderate Republican and get the handful of Republican votes they’d need to elect a Speaker who will actually work across the aisle? Or is that simply not possible in a partisan, bicameral system? I worry about a prolonged period of seized-up government.

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  2. Avatar photo
    Dave IL

    I want to second Mr. Bekman's opinion of the tiny step taken toward fusion energy. I would add that there is virtually no chance that nuclear fusion will be producing electricity before 2050, (unless you count solar, of course).
    In calculating Q > 1, the lab divided the output energy by the energy actually delivered to the target. The lasers, unfortunately, only delivered 1% of the energy required to operate them.
    Nuclear fission is the safest form of energy currently available. The high cost of the Vogtle plant reflects a lack of experience among construction crews, a lack of standardized designs, and an NRC which has always been staffed with anti-nuclear zealots.

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  3. Btmattson

    Nudging an asteroid, bad MAGA elections, Artemis launch, nudging an asteroid? Nobody thought maybe Dobbs v. Jackson Health was the best thing that happened longterm for America in 2022? That was a disappointing silence. :/

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  4. Avatar photo
    James Spiller

    On Ukraine, quibbles that mildly obscure my enthusiasm: Firstly, I agree that no one is calling for a blank check, but I was disappointed to hear Steve say that he opposed it. If we’d given the Ukrainians a blank check in February and they’d been able to equip themselves promptly rather than having supplies constantly dragged out, they’d have had air superiority by April and the war would have been done by May, perhaps outside of the Crimean theater. Vast amounts of suffering would have been saved both in Ukraine and in the broader world (including in Russia), we would have less risk of a nuclear war, and Biden would be treated in Ukraine the way they do Boris Johnson and other full throated allies.

    Secondly, I agree that it’s important to disclaim that the trivial fringe aren’t the “right position” or “the GOP”. But it doesn’t seem enough when after that disclaimer the fringe are the only views discussed. Most of the party is to the right of Biden, condemning him for not sending enough and for not sending it sooner, but those voices aren’t heard. The Dispatch is among the institutions that isn’t covering the majority voices. Where are the interviews with Jim Risch, head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and committed hawk, James Inhofe, his teammate at the head of Armed Services? Surely their voices are at least as important as rando backbench representatives, but we keep hearing the disclaimed voices of the fringe without ever hearing the important office holding voices of the GOP mainstream.

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  5. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    Best moments of 2022:

    1. Steve kicks off a Dispatch Live by answering the question I emailed him.
    2. Chris answers questions I emailed him (twice) in Stirewaltisms.
    3. Charlotte and Declan answer my mailbag questions.
    4. Kevin Williamson joins the Dispatch. And Klon Kitchen. And Nick and everyone else.

    Worst Moments of 2022:

    1. The website change! Now everything looks different! I still miss things!

    (Just kidding, haha. Although I do miss some articles now.)

    Actually, the worst moment was probably Rusty Reno’s stupid comment about drafting rich people, or maybe the Federalist taking another idiotic shot at David.

    2. Mad Dogs and Englishmen going away!

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  6. Leonard Goodnight

    Sarah, I know a few notable stereotypes about the Dutch:

    1) They are, on average, the world’s tallest people. (That’s not even really a stereotype, just a statistical reality).

    2) They were great soccer players in the 70s. Check out Johan Cruyff and the Ajax teams from back then. Cruyff especially is one of the great towering figures in soccer history, as a player, manager, and personality; like soccer’s Yogi Berra.

    3) Alcohol is sometimes called “Dutch Courage”, so…maybe they’re all cowards, normally?

    4) Big fans of tulips.

    5) Their ovens are really well known.

    6) They have defied Poseidon and stolen land from the sea. One can only wonder when he will take his vengeance.

    7) They more or less co-invented capitalism, for which we should all be grateful.

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  7. Avatar photo
    Mike B

    Best Dispatch Podcast of the year!

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  8. TallCon

    I almost posted this before listening to the ENTIRE podcast. I was expecting David's best to be Henry Cavill's appearance in Black Adam.

    Then I heard the outtake. God bless you, Mr. French.

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  9. Dhsavidge1

    I know you all think that the hypocrisy of Dem dollars going to the likes of Keri Lake, etc. should be the takeaway from that story. Something along the lines of "how can you say democracy is in peril, then contribute money to the "worst" GOP actors?" (Insert clip of woman clutching her pearls.)

    I beg to differ. First, I've seen no evidence that the money in question had any effect at all, though that is singularly difficult to show. Second, these "worst" actors are in fact Republicans. You cannot distance the party from them. Indeed, the GOP has embraced them all, as they did with Trump, with gusto. Sure the Dem money was intended to promote the weaker candidates. However, I think that the most important effect of the money was to highlight that these "worst" actors promote precisely what the GOP now stands for (and which has been simmering just below the surface since the America First movement of the 30s): violence, authoritarianism (if not outright dictatorship), anti-semitism, racism, censorship, elimination of social safety net, what have you... . If they elected them, then so be it; the red states would have shown how truly devolved they are.

    As it turned out, most of these elections were squeakers, which had the salient effect of simultaneously barring these bad actors from office while still showing that the GOP remains just as devolved as we thought they were.

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  10. Molly.Palmer

    I was just explaining steak tartare to my kids the other day. Made in Wisconsin by my grandmother at Christmastime.

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