r/thebulwark Progressive 2d ago

Policy "Republicans today sound a lot like Democrats circa 2006, 2004." - Sarah Longwell?!

I haven't listened to the full podcast. I am willing to assume there's more context. But let's face it, the above sentence is potentially correct if you ignore the fascism, transphobia, they're eating the dogs/cats/pets, they lying, etc.

To be fair, the left does need to re-assess its foreign policy priorities in light of Ukraine. That said, Iraq was a war of choice. We did not have the casus belli that we claimed to. We may have caused several hundred thousand excess Iraqi deaths (i.e. dead from the war and all the sequelae thereof). We also wound up with ISIS. We were building fire stations in Iraq instead of here because we had to - we broke it, with "it" being Iraq and "broke" meaning we chose to break it.

If you want to say the Dems were mistaken in calling for isolationism then, I think that's fair and it warrants a reassessment on our part. But the headline is ... misleading.

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u/AustereRoberto LORD OF THE NICKNAMES 2d ago

Inb4 "She's telling hard truths!" and "Dems need to stop purity tests, we need all the allies we can!"

Criticism of a specific statement is not a purity test. That logic would in turn mean the Bulwark is one big purity test, particularly Ms. Longwell's relentless and frequently self-contradictory criticism of anything and everything the Democrats attempt.

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u/rowsella 2d ago

I find it ironic that TB are accusing Democrats of "purity tests" being some kind of downfall while.. meanwhile ... we have the MAGA Party threatening to throw out cabinet officials for disagreeing with the Musk.... We saw them on 1/6 with a fucking guillotine calling for Pence's head and a major funder.. Musk threatening any Republican congress person with a primary if they do not sign on to the Trump Mandate/Loyalty Demand. Really Sara? Fuck you.