Take a Deep Breath

Presidents don't matter.

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Jonah reassures listeners on today’s Ruminant that this election is not a Flight 93 election and America as we know it will not end come January 2025. He then turns to comment on the Supreme Court ruling that Colorado can’t disqualify Trump from their ballots and the growing treatment of presidents as monarchs. And just as you thought you avoided more State of the Union rank punditry…

Show Notes:
—G-File: Apocalypse Not
—The Dispatch editorial: The American People Should Demand Better
—Advisory Opinions on the Colorado SCOTUS decision
—The Dispatch’s new newsletter Techne
—The Skiff on Dune: Part Two

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Comments (71)
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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    Jonah, I know I’m late to comment and I know you don’t read the comments, but I hope you read this one. Maybe Guy or Adaam will bring it to your attention if you don’t see it.

    You’re doing the right thing. The Dispatch is doing the right thing. I’ve been as surprised as you at the vitriol you have received over that G-File and the staff editorial. It might seem right now that you’ve ticked off large chunks of your audience, but I wholeheartedly agreed with both that particular G-File and that staff editorial. And I know I’m not alone among Dispatch readers. Frankly, both the G-File and the editorial were what I expected. I subscribe to the Dispatch because of the particular position the Dispatch occupies in the media landscape. I would hate to see you sacrifice that good work just to shill for either Trump or Biden because “this time it’s really a binary choice.” Above all, I subscribe to the Dispatch because you, Jonah, wrote an article in 2016 about the “invasion of the body-snatchers,” and because you made a decision then to “bet on integrity.” Since that time, you’ve refused to sacrifice that integrity for either the Trumpist clowns, or the #nevertrump crowd which essentially wants you to repudiate all of your prior beliefs, or at least endorse the Democrats. Keep fighting the good fight. Thank you for all your hard work.

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    EricRemcon@gmail

    I am very late to this (I would not be if there were transcripts😉) and you will likely never see my comment, but I had to waste my time anyway because this was so good.

    This is the best Ruminant that I have listened to in a long time (admittedly I don’t get to most of them). Even though I could hear the tired in your voice, every topic and argument was a home run.

    I am soooooooo sick of the ‘flight 93’ politics. I can understand your frustration for being criticized by the ‘How can you?’ crowd that are so blinded by their panic that they cannot even see your point. And calling him Hitler is just plain dumb from a hundred different angles. (BTW: I say this even though I was one of the thorns on the editorial. I won’t repeat myself).

    The part on the court ruling was also good, especially the stuff about local/state/federal government prioritization. While I agree with your point about different states having different ballot rules, I don’t see how the court could have ruled any other way given the vagueness of the amendment language (there needs to be a more specific definition).

    I agree with all of your points on Ukraine and especially with the ‘we have already promised’ part. You can debate about extending more promises or argue about the type of aid, but I do not see how anyone can argue for doing nothing.

    I will stop now because this is probably just going to float along in the ether.

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  3. Stephen G

    Minor point but on your war rant, you forgot the stupidest war of all: the war on drugs.

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  4. Randall Briggs

    Jonah: You allow that Biden has done a pretty bad job, but you also assert that Trump would do much worse. After all that, you can't say that that means that it would be better that people would vote for Biden rather than Trump. Nothing that you, Steve, and Declan said the other day adequately explained that, and nothing in this Ruminant explains it either.

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  5. Mary Stine

    The great danger of Trump isn't him alone, it's the many Americans he has converted and trained to his particular brand of lunacy. While I agree that Trump isn't Hitler, he'd be a convincing Hollywood stand-in for Mussolini in a nonspeaking role, assuming he'd shave his head. I hope he doesn't try that as his base would probably love another proof of dictator mode.
    I've watched this desire for an autocrat bloom over decades. It's not absent on the left, just more diffused...the left has far more factions to satisfy. I was born just before Eisenhower's first term and grew up with staunch Eisenhower Republicans...pragmatists and patriots all. The importance of real freedom, including religious freedom and the protection of everyone's rights was not just taught, but emphasized. A couple of decades later I was forced to realize that not all Republicans were like my family. A good number of the most conservative on the right were quick to tell me that the US was a Christian nation, and that all our problems were the result of not forcefully enshrining "Christian principles" into written law, and punishing violators. Pointing out that there were many sects of Christianity got me nowhere, because the "others" were dismissed as fakes or false prophets. There has always been a great desire among the "Christian Nationalists" for retribution against the "false prophets " of other religions, other cultures, atheism, real history and science. Christian Nationalists don't just want to gain power and subdue those influences. They want to destroy them to the point that none can threaten their version of history, faith and truth. Trump is the ideal vehicle for their dreams because he is a natural destroyer and has zero ethical attachment to anything, especially the truth. He and his followers both think their own highest priorities will prevail, and that the other will adjust. It will be interesting to see if some of the women involved balk at having their voting rights and birth control removed forever, a longtime goal of many fundamentalist Christian sects.

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  6. Harrillsgzsia

    "America will still be America." Point taken. But will Ukraine still be Ukraine? Will Taiwan still be Taiwan? Will NATO still be NATO?

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  7. Avatar photo
    Charley Warns

    Point made near the end about how America should keep her word with Ukraine. Point made on how it's Russia who is committing genocide, not Israel. Goldberg's logic: Trump will likely pick someone like Kari Lake to curb the appetite for his impeachment. (That's a reasonable take.) The name of our nation and the design of our flag should do more than suggest the United States of America to be an umbrella group; it should strike one as so obviously true as to be indubitable.

    Joe Biden is indubitably laundering his duplicitous political agenda under the guise of Catholicism.

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    Erik Martin

    I was surprised that you think Trump would have any sort of impeachment risk in a next term. He has successfully excised nearly every non-loyalist from the GOP, including nearly everyone who voted for impeachment either of the first two times. I don't believe there is anything he could do in office that would result in an impeachment conviction, unless the Democrats were to have a 2/3 majority which isn't going to happen. The increasingly absolute control he has over the GOP is part of why I think you're underestimating the threat he poses to the continuation of the constitutional system, and overestimating the power of that system to resist him, in the potential absence of a critical mass of people in government who will place loyalty to the system over loyalty to the man.

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      Charley Warns

      I'm not calling you a Watson, but if you look below, I had just made that point.

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  9. Avatar photo
    Charley Warns

    To argue a Biden presidency would be less dangerous than a Trump presidency should take context into consideration, as at a future date, the context will not be as clear. We should consider the odds of Trump finishing his term if that situation comes about, as it's got to be significant. That's why his selection of a running mate is key. If he selects someone like Kari Lake, then forget him! If it's Tim Scott, that's a tough call, as it's still a crap sandwich. The flaw in my argument (not that I made one) is that it's hard to say how many Republicans would impeach Trump when that opportunity comes. Then again, based on what we know, maybe it's easy to say ... "Well, that would be not enough!"

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  10. Scroop Moth

    The scariest thought in a Democracy is that one's opponents will become wildly popular. That's particularly a fear on the right, where ideations of The Good aren't particularly defined by the elements of GNP but have more to do with the rewarding of virtue and the punishment of vice, the traditional order and personal relationships of power, and the preparation of the soul for the life to come.

    Progressives will not storm the Capital on 1/6, for they see the election as a win-win-win. Win if MAGA 2.0 makes America great, because our errors will be corrected and we'll receive a share in the winnings. Win if catastrophe ensues, because independents and swing voters will learn their lesson. And, win if we win, because our policies will make the world better. Could progressives make a dystopia? No, that's Orwell's fiction and Hayek's false prophesy. Progress is messy.

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