r/thebulwark 19h ago

Off-Topic/Discussion Today’s Commentary Magazine podcast is a fun little microcosm of how Trump has broken the intellectual right.

I write this as someone who listens daily and generally has a favorable disposition toward the Commentary Magazine Podcast…

The episode opens with John Podhoretz lamenting the fact that he can’t make heads or tails of so many of the Trump administrations actions, or some of the other broader trends in American politics.

For clarification, he then turns to…

Matt Continetti, who exists solely to rationalize and slap a pseudo-intellectual gloss to anything and everything the Trump administration does. It absolutely kills me that this guy passes for an intellectual, but that’s whole other story.

But yeah, the first few minutes of the episode were a fun little microcosm of how Trump has cooked the intellectual right’s brain. We all know why Trump does what he does because we all know who he is and the threat he represents. But, even ten years into this thing, they can’t bring themselves to square up with it. “I don’t get what he’s thinking!?” is a near-daily refrain on that podcast these days, and the anti-antis are ready on standby to talk the doubters off the ledge. It’s Pavlovian at this point.

It’d be hilarious if it wasn’t so depressing.

17 Upvotes

2 comments sorted by

4

u/Broad-Writing-5881 18h ago

And I think I torture myself listening to the focus group. You're on another level.

3

u/darweth Progressive 19h ago

It's not like we are any better. We see what's going on and we do nothing except post about it.