July 18, 2024
On the people I warned you about Monday...
I had plans for today’s link. Then I came across Peter Savodnik’s column in The Free Press and my plans changed. Savodnik’s reporting is such a boon to read because he’s so intellectually honest. Back in January, he wrote an all-time great column profiling voters who were considering casting their ballots for Trump. The piece was phenomenal for its utter lack of condescension. These were people worth hearing, not Martians worth prodding, as some reporters treated them. It is a truly magnificent piece of writing.
So when I saw Savodnik’s piece today about some of MAGA-messaging’s more unsavory elements at the RNC, I thought, “Well, I was happy to take the good news. I’ve got to take the bad, too.” The figures he mentions are the people I said Monday I’d be keeping an eye out for after Saturday’s events — those desperate to return to inflammatory rhetoric rather than thoughtful argument. More than inflammatory rhetoric, though, some of the personalities are preoccupied with bizarre, conspiratorial beliefs. Seriousness should have taken over after the events of Saturday. The fact these people still have a seat at the table doesn’t bode well. And while they aren’t necessarily representative of the party, they are influential within it. Republicans deserve better.