What’s driving the coming blue wave?
asserted
What → drive → wave
More than anything else, the latest New York Times/Siena poll finds, it’s a sharp reversal among young voters, who got Trump-curious in 2024 but have snapped back hard ever since.
asserted
who → find → 2024
Voters 65 and older have crept back toward Democrats by two points, voters 45 to 64 have stayed put, and voters 30 to 44 have slid five points left.
asserted
voters → creep → points
But voters aged 18 to 29 have jumped back toward Democrats by fifteen points—55 percent to 70 percent.
asserted
voters → age → percent
There’s a remark by the early-twentieth-century Marxist thinker and Italian Communist Party leader Antonio Gramsci, who was imprisoned by Mussolini’s fascist government in 1926 until his death in 1937, that’s been much quoted in recent years:
asserted
that → ’ → years
The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.
asserted
time → die → monsters
I’ve long thought Gramsci’s formulation to be an apt comment on the present moment.
asserted
formulation → think → moment
And I was reminded of it this morning as I read about Vivek Ramaswamy and JD Vance, and Donald Trump and Steven Witkoff.
asserted
I → remind → Ramaswamy
For, if I can update Gramsci, it seems to me that today…
Trumpism is dying, and a new liberalism struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters.
asserted
time → update → monsters
It’s worth noting that the famous line ascribed to Gramsci isn’t a literal translation of the 1930 entry in his Prison Notebooks: In questo interregno si verificano i fenomeni morbosi più svariati.
asserted
fenomeni → ’ → interregno
The late Professor Joseph Buttigieg—yes, the father of Pete!—editor of the comprehensive English-language edition of the Prison Notebooks, translated Gramsci’s comment more literally: In this interregnum a great variety of morbid phenomena occur.
asserted
variety → translate → phenomena
In fact, “morbid phenomena” may describe our Trumpists more accurately than “monsters.”
uncertain
phenomena → describe → monsters
They can have a certain grandeur.
asserted
They → have → grandeur
They’re not grand or impressive.
asserted
They → ’re → ?
They’re merely the “morbid phenomena” of our day, the visible detritus of a failing and flailing movement that’s, sadly, dominated our politics for the last decade—and that, of course, remains powerful today.
asserted
that → ’re → course
Jim Swift wrote yesterday about the disgusting attack by Ramaswamy, on his opponent in the Ohio governor’s race, Amy Acton—an ad featuring Acton’s estranged mother accusing her daughter of being a “liar” who “lies about her past.”
asserted
who → write → past
In fact, the mother’s husband, Acton’s stepfather, was arrested and charged with sexually abusing his stepdaughter when she was 12 years old.
asserted
she → arrest → stepdaughter
Her mother lost custody of both Amy and her brother, who also was abused.
asserted
who → lose → Amy
The stepfather posted bond, fled, and lived as a fugitive until his death in 2004.
asserted
stepfather → post → 2004
Acton’s mother left town with him.
asserted
mother → leave → him
In a statement, Acton’s brother, Philip Stearns, said that, “Our birth mother stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died.”
asserted
he → say → rapist
And he also explains that “I received a lot of abuse, but Amy always got the worst of it.
asserted
Amy → explain → it
She continued to receive that abuse” because at 11 and 12 years old, she tried to protect her younger brother.
asserted
she → continue → brother
But Ramaswamy has doubled down on his smear.
asserted
Ramaswamy → double → smear
His campaign is putting $4 million behind the spot.
asserted
campaign → put → spot
Yesterday, in Cincinnati to campaign for the Republican ticket, Vice President JD Vance at first seemed indifferent to the truth of this ad that calls a survivor of childhood sexual abuse a liar.
asserted
survivor → campaign → abuse
“Whether the ad was appropriate or not is not really my concern,” Vance said.
asserted
Vance → say → ?
But later in the day, at a rally with Ramaswamy, he actually praised his fellow Republican for having “the audacity to run a TV commercial which calls it out like it is and calls Amy Acton a liar.”
asserted
it → praise → Acton
What’s more, Vance said that he was “a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans across the country who are whining” about the ad.
asserted
who → ’ → ad
So there it is, the morbid phenomenon of late Trumpism on full display: Smearing a survivor of child sexual abuse; running an ad featuring a primary enabler of the abuse; and complaining that some decent people in his party are offended by this.
asserted
people → smear → this
But the Trumpists don’t just like enablers of child sexual abuse.
asserted
Trumpists → like → abuse
They also love brutal and aggressive dictators.
asserted
They → love → dictators
Andrew wrote Monday morning about Trump’s abandonment of Ukraine and his support for Russia and Vladimir Putin.
asserted
Andrew → write → Russia
And indeed, later that very day, Trump told reporters that “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine.”
asserted
Russia → tell → Ukraine
Even Neville Chamberlain didn’t claim that Nazi Germany had been fine on Czechoslovakia.
uncertain
Germany → claim → Czechoslovakia
And Trump’s befuddled appeasement of Putin has continued full bore this week, as Andrew details below.
asserted
Andrew → continue → Putin
Yesterday, U.S. special envoy Steven Witkoff joined the chorus, praising Putin as a “humanitarian” after he released a 74-year-old American who had been unjustly imprisoned in Russia for four years:
asserted
who → join → years
“You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian,” Witkoff told Putin.
asserted
Witkoff → talk → Putin
“You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that, I commend you, and I thank you again.
asserted
I → salute → you
Sucking up to a murderous aggressor and brutal dictator is another one of the morbid phenomena of Trumpism.
asserted
Sucking → suck → Trumpism
…and 70 more, not listed.
The Aporia
