Shield of the Republic

Dearest Commentators, I find your podcast fascinating and informative. I see many of these comments in reviews where people are agitated. All I can say is you must be doing something right. Godspeed! Keep up the great work on educating people like myself.

This podcast is a good example of the limits, or at least challenges, of the Bulwark model. Where much of the network feels like an effort in coalition building and an active reworking of political ideas to meet the moment, Eric and Eliot’s analyses more often amount to criticisms from a conservative perspective that has failed to evolve. They have some valuable insights and smart critiques of the Trump administration, but they struggle to engage with ideas from outside their political tradition. They can be condescending and even hostile to good faith efforts from the left to change the status quo. Particularly on issues of military spending or rethinking the US relationship to Israel, they’re dismissive of even moderate moves to alter the dynamics that created our situation. I appreciate healthy debate and nuance on these issues, but their tone and casual dismissal of other voices is not constructive. In other places on the Bulwark, they’ve spoken about how the unwillingness of the political/national security class to take seriously criticisms of the Israeli government’s human rights abuses has alienated people. The quickness with which they label people antisemitic for good faith discussions of the issue pushes possible coalition members to the extreme right or left. This podcast is very much guilty of this. I hope they can at least take a step back and reevaluate how they engage with some of these issues, because I appreciate having folks like this in the discussion, but for now this podcast is not constructive. While certainly from a particular point-of-view and not stylistically everyone’s cup of tea, podcasts like Pod Save the World and some of the other Bulwark podcasts do a better job of wrestling with ideas and evaluating their own thinking. I recommend checking those out instead.

Its not anti semite to feel like Netayahoo is out of control. Isreal is bombing hospitals schools and apartment buildings. I dont want USA taxpayers paying for their war against woman and children. I believe we need to stop funding Isreal. They are committing war crimes against the people of Lebanon they are wiping them out like they did in Gaza. This isnt ok in my book, it is a crime against humanity. No Im not anti semite. My family donated film my CIA 5 star decorated uncle got off an officer in Germany. We donated to Holocaust Society in San Francisco. Isreal and Kushner and Hegseth want blood, cruelty, death and destruction. Kushner is family friends with Netanyahoo how can he possibly be neutral to go into peace talks? He has no business being in such a position.

He wouldn’t have seething contempt, he would start building his Bull-Moose party again!

trash