This is a situation where the technology of the internet is undermining social cohesion in a serious way.

And this undermining of social cohesion plays out in politics with the kind of politics that we now see. Welcome to Beg to

Beg to Differ, the Bullworks Weekly Roundtable discussion featuring civil

conversation across the political spectrum. We range from center left to center right. I'm

Will Salitan and I'm sitting in this week for Mona Sharon who's out this week. I'm

joined by our regulars Bill Galston of the Wall Street Journal in the Brookings Institution.

Linda Chavez of the Niskanin Center and Damon Linker who writes the

sub-stack newsletter, Notes from the Middle Ground.

This week our special guest is Tom Edsel, a New York Times columnist who has covered

politics in Washington for the past 50 years and who is, in my opinion, one of the smartest

people in this business. We're honored to have you with us, Tom.

It's good to be here. So since I'm only the substitute today, I'm giving all of you a

free pass, which is if you don't like the question I'm asking you, you can answer the question you wish I had asked you.

And in fact, if you want to take another crack at the question I asked somebody before you, go for it.

Let's start with the first topic of the week which is immigration.

So two weeks ago President Biden issued an executive order to restrict asylum for people who are just now

crossing the border. And basically they'd be turned back instead of being allowed into the United States to wait for their asylum hearing.

When Biden did that, critics on the left accused him of being just like Donald Trump,

and it was seen as a concession to a political shift in this country that voters wanted a stricter immigration policy.

But, but this week, Biden is tacking back to the left.

On Tuesday, he issued another executive action and

this time it is designed to make life easier not just for asylum applicants but

...