Signs that a shutdown-ending deal could be coming soon.

Polls asking "do you approve of Trump's immigration policy" show rising disapproval. But polls asking what people think of both Republicans *and Democrats* on immigration often continue to give Rs the edge. Same with crime. www.pewresearch.org/politics/202...

Pretty much everyone who actually runs in a competitive race believes moderating your views on certain issues to better fit the electorate — "Zohran's position on the NYPD has evolved" — is a good strategy.

"Vaxxes were being put in arms and were expected to completely end Covid and quickly bring the economy and society back to normal" seems like a pretty decent explanation of consumer optimism then. Unfortunately it didn't pan out!

I'm confused by this belief that voters should base their perception of a party only on the specific messages you offer in a brief general election campaign, rather than their years-long governance record. Biden did a lot on climate and LGBTQ issues! In other contexts we admit this!

Biden did a lot on climate and LGBTQ issues and I feel confident that if elected Harris would have also. I don't think voters are misled or wrong to believe these are major Democratic Party priorities, even if Harris minimized them in her campaign rhetoric.

Dems lost many voters' trust on crime in the Biden years because they were viewed as the soft on crime party when most voters thought crime was a problem. It is true that Harris running on 2024 as "I was a prosecutor a long time ago" did not solve that. www.vox.com/politics/458...

The 1919 tattoo really was "The Bart, The"

"I told him that photo would come back to haunt him..."

Chris Rufo had a brilliant plan to claim that "the left" killed Charlie Kirk, using it as pretext for a crackdown. There was just one problem: many right-wing influencers concluded, instead, that the Jews did it. www.vox.com/politics/465...

good piece on a topic that is definitely unnerving to read about

New: The leaked Young Republicans chat, and the bizarre conspiracy theories about Jews being involved in Charlie Kirk's murder, have spurred a public debate on the right. Should they do more to condemn antisemitism in their own ranks — or not? Gift link here: www.vox.com/politics/465...

The Trump-Miller DOJ strategy: "flood the zone with shit." Target Trump's enemies & opposition with multiple likely doomed prosecutions. When one fails, move to the next (perhaps against the same person). Goal isn't conviction, it's putting enemies through the wringer www.vox.com/politics/464...

Genuine question, does Trump know who Bari Weiss is? He's obviously not a Substack guy. Is she on Fox enough that he'd recognize her?

It's actually very relevant and telling information that Bari Weiss says she's allies with the Federalist Society in a battle to save "the West" against (implicitly) the America-hating left. She's not about lowering taxes and never has been!

Excellent, detailed @awprokop.bsky.social piece about new CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss www.vox.com/politics/463...

Bari Weiss is now pivoting to "I only care about good journalism," but in her past few years she's been a factional coalition merchant (cc @profhansnoel.bsky.social ) — she convened a new faction of the right, making common cause with Chris Rufo & others against the left www.vox.com/politics/463...

How do you think the shutdown fight will end? A.) Dems win significant concessions from Trump, deal to reopen B.) Dems cave after a few days or weeks C.) Dems cave before the end of this year D.) GOP nukes filibuster, reopens gov't E.) Gov't remains closed into next year

In 2018 I wrote up the cases for and against Senate Dems shutting down the government via filibuster (in this case their demand was a DACA deal). They ended up doing it but caving after three days without success. www.vox.com/policy-and-p...

Well yes, but, all these shutdowns ended because the party shutting things down essentially caved after a few days or weeks, which allowed the news environment to move on to other things.

I've been feeling uneasy about the shutdown fight and the past two days crystallized why. In a moment of authoritarian peril, does it really make sense to start a fight that could very plausibly end with Trump and Rs getting full power to rewrite laws? www.vox.com/politics/461...

With the attempted firing of Lisa Cook based on a pretext supplied by Bill Pulte, he's becoming more important than ever. In some ways he's a ridiculous figure, in other ways he's quite dangerous — my piece on him here: www.vox.com/politics/421...

NYT reports that the “Russiagate” investigation targeting Comey and Brennan is based in Charlottesville, where the recently-confirmed US Attorney suddenly resigned and then posted this Anchorman quote. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/u...

We may be seeing something like "grand jury nullification” to refuse Trump team’s politicized indictments in DC www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/u...

NEW: FHFA director Bill Pulte is leading Trump's push to get Jerome Powell fired — and to get Adam Schiff and Tish James prosecuted. Who is this guy and why does he have 3 million X followers? And just how high will he rise in Trump's administration? www.vox.com/politics/421...

We're about to reach previously undreamed-of heights of "doesn't look like anything to me..."

Shows up! Brooke reflects on America’s culture of political violence @awprokop.bsky.social on the hawks and isolationists vying for Trump’s ear @micahloewinger.bsky.social w/ the story of a campus newspaper that went to war with its school admin and won

A very good analysis. Gave me a lot to think about. And who knew I'd basically side with Vance/Tucker/DonJr???? www.vox.com/politics/416...

To an extent many don't understand, opposing US aid for Ukraine was crucial to launching JD Vance's political career in 2022. That's because it helped win him support from Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump Jr.— who then convinced dad to endorse, which won him the primary. www.vox.com/politics/416...

NEW: My deep dive into the right's bitter divide on foreign policy. The "America Firsters" are in many ways repellent to Democrats— they want to cut off Ukraine and pull back from the world. They're also the most influential people on the right who oppose war with Iran www.vox.com/politics/416...

Berating holdout senators from your party to try and pass a reconciliation bill with the acronym BBB? Is it 2021 again?

The argument of "IEEPA actually gives the president unlimited power to do whatever tariffs he wants if he says the word 'emergency', but nobody has noticed it until now" does seem like it's kinda begging for a SCOTUS smackdown akin to the student loans ruling. We'll see.

The popularism debate (both pro- and anti-) often seems blinkered to me because so much of it is about policy position-taking in a vacuum — which is indeed important, but is just one of many things that tell a larger story about *whose side you're on.*

Tremendous overview of the progressive economic policy moment in the Democratic Party over the past decade by @awprokop.bsky.social www.vox.com/2024-electio...

"A newly toughened immigration law allowed the government to expel noncitizens whom it judged to be political radicals." New Radical Division of the Justice Department would "compile lists of subversives, track them," & build deportation cases -Adam Hochschild, American Midnight

New NYT piece on Pam Bondi portrays her as hapless, out of the loop, obsessed with going on TV, and argues that Stephen Miller is the one actually running DOJ www.nytimes.com/2025/05/12/u...

I'm interested in rebalancing my media consumption a bit more toward print. What are the best print magazines currently out there?

Oh boy he's mad

How's the future of America and Western civilization looking?

Back in May 2024, Trump told donors that, if he won, he'd expel any foreign student who protested Israel from the US. "We're going to set that movement back 25 or 30 years," he said. This probably should have been taken more seriously at the time. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

You're not behaving, JD, I'm calling the teacher

Would probably have been an amazing book if he'd had access to two more years of groupchats, though

Columbia gave in to Trump rather than suing because they figured there were too many ways he could claw back more funds... *and* because "the school believed there was considerable overlap between needed campus changes and Trump’s demands." www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

IMO, the Democratic Party made a mistake by throwing out their entire platform and messaging strategy and dictating that candidates are now only allowed to support proposals made in the book "Abundance."

I took neoliberalism as saying "government needs to get out of the way." I take Abundance as saying "government needs to get out of *its own* way."

Well I would at least be curious to see the counterfactual world of how "progressive Econ policy WITHOUT the biggest inflation in decades" played out. (Of course in practice, both before and after that inflation, progressive intellectual energy was devoted to downplaying concerns about it.)

The shift in opinion from "progressive/city governance is basically good or at least headed in the right direction" to "progressive/city governance is a miserable failure" has been really dramatic over the past decade.

Heritage Foundation paper mentions that some critics of elite universities want to tax their endowments, but argues that's a bad idea because its precedent could be used for a broader (gasp) wealth tax www.heritage.org/sites/defaul...

1980-2005: Center / Right Dominance 2005-2020: The Era of Rising Progressive Ambitions 2021-2024: Backlash and progressive disillusionment 2025: ??? www.vox.com/2024-electio...