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I wrote this email response to the same Tim Miller article a few weeks back and it’s kind of crazy how much it echos, in some parts almost word for word, what Amanda Morgan wrote. Thought I’d add my thoughts to the mix here (btw thanks for enabling comments! 🥳):

Tim et al - as a pretty blue as blue gets, liberal democrat (I grew up in Oakland – say hi for me! 😊), I have been pretty frustrated to hear you say you feel unwelcome in your new coalition all of a sudden. I want to think that the loudest voices you are hearing from are not at all representative – I definitely still absolutely value your opinions and would fight all my lefty friends to keep you on side if I had to! Just wanted to make sure you heard from at least one of the voices that absolutely values our new red-dog partners in crime (err democracy 😊). I think we far outweigh the whiners making all the noise lately – we appreciate the heck out of you guys! Keep making us think – agreement on all things is boring and lame. 😊

Thanks for all you do.

Elianna

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I have been writing some version of Mary McKim's letter in my head to the various podcast hosts on a weekly basis for months. I would really just once love to hear Sarah acknowledge the precarious voters on the left side of the Democratic coalition--the other swing voters who destroyed the Dems in 2010, 2014, 2016, etc. She acts like they don't exist. The Bulwark is an important voice in lifting up the red dog Democrats & Trump-> Biden voters but they never even mention all the young people & progressives that bit their tongue and sucked it up to vote for Joe Biden. How are we going to get these folks excited about the midterms if Biden breaks all of is promises to please Sinema?

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“ When you or other thinkers like you say something conservative that I disagree with, I find it very reassuring — because it proves that this fight for reason and democracy is NOT a partisan thing.” Hear hear, Amanda Morgan!

I think the podcasts are topic oriented and Charlie has on someone topic knowledgeable to explore it. The Stuart Stevens episode is not to be missed.

Sarah, the Focus Group rocks. I like to understand. You help me do that. Thank you.

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founding

Rita..."Charlie Sykes in leggings." Good one. Thanks for the grin and for lightening the mood a bit.

Charlie...Thanks for posting Rita's email. A little humor once in a while can't hurt. But since my sometimes undisciplined brain actually went there for a nanosecond, could you please advise as to how to un-see this?

Great mailbag today...

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Thanks, Charlie, love the emails...I never write because I don't think I can be half as eloquent as most of your writers...

thank you for the Bulwark

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Somewhat related to Amanda Morgan's laurels above, Tim Miller first popped up on my radar when he was a part of Pod Save America, the token conservative who actually stole the damned show every time he was on. Then they gave Tim the boot over something he had written before he even worked at Pod Save America, and when I read about the details, I couldn't understand what the problem was. Tim has always been gracious in addressing the episode, more gracious than anyone ought to expect. Anyway, the day I found out they fired Tim and why was the last day I ever listened to Pod Save America.

An ironic twist, I used to listen to The New Abnormal, a podcast originally with Rick Wilson and Molly Jong-Fast, put out by the Daily Beast. Now, it's just Molly, because they kicked Wilson off for his ties to The Lincoln Project and the discovery that one of the people there had sexually abused a fourteen year old boy. I stopped listening to that one, too, after they got rid of Rick, but the first Wilson-free episode, do you want to know who the guest was? Tim Miller, who got similarly canceled from a podcast cowed by its own listeners! So, Tim's appearance was actually the last New Abnormal for me.

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"Her piece is essential background reading for this weekend’s other bombshell story about the role that Claremonter John Eastman played in Trump’s attempted coup. "

You see.... this is why we cannot have nice things related to political dialog.

From my perspective this claim that Trump was staging a coup and that Jan 6 was an insurrection is so un-serious it barely qualifies as satire on The Onion. Yet my liberal friends just adopt it as their alternative facts.

Meanwhile the four years of media, Dem and deep state colluded fake Trump-Russia collusion claims... and two completely politically-motivated fake impeachment attempts are considered... well nothing bad and completely justified.

Trump derangement syndrome is real... and those not having it can see it clearly in those that do. And writing that those that don't are conspiratorial just amplifies the TDS diagnosis.

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On what looks to be a roughly one-mile square mile piece of land East of the city of Los Angeles are located the seven colleges of Claremont Mckenna, The Claremont School of Theology, The Claremont Lincoln University, and the Claremont Institute. Claremont McKenna specifically says they have no relationship to the other three.

I knew David & Joan Lincoln and their hopes when they founded Claremont Lincoln University. They were people of integrity and belief that humanity can work together across race, religion, and culture to solve issues we face in the world. When they were alive I could not fathom they would have allowed themselves to be anywhere near a man like Paul Eastman or what the Claremont Institute has become. Knowing that a man like Paul Eastman (the guy that has Trump's ear about overthrowing the election and was a prominent provocateur for the Jan 6th insurrection) is a favored son at Claremont Institute says all we need to know about the intentions of Claremont Institute.

Claremont Institute while legally separate and officially not affiliated with the other Claremont education-focused campuses either; a) has the tacit endorsement of the colleges to shift their culture to the right while being able to say they are unaffiliated, or b) Claremont's radical transformation is infecting the reputable Claremont schools by using their name and proximity to provide the cover of respectability for their work and sending educators and dozens of Claremont Institute indoctrinated "Fellows" for education at the colleges.

In either case, the insidious and organized right-wing ideology + "Christian" philosophy to underpin their movement has become cultish in their behavior. I think something we should all notice, worry, and fight through shining a light into this dark hole. Thank you for shining a bright light!

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For Douglas Brooks in ROC, NY - where do you live? We moved up to ROC this year from Queens and feel like we're drowning in a sea of MAGA. Lori W

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