Damon Linker On Trump's Historic Win
The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan
Andrew Sullivan
4.6 • 836 Ratings
🗓️ 8 November 2024
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Damon is a political writer with a must-read substack, Notes from the Middleground. He’s been the editor of First Things and a senior correspondent at The Week, and he’s the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test. Back when we were both at Newsweek / Daily Beast, he edited my essays, so we’ve been friends for a while. We also both belong to the camp of conflicted moderates — and look like doppelgängers. The poor guy gets mistaken for me sometimes.
Damon was on the Dishcast right after the 2022 midterms, so he’s back to discuss the results of this election. For two clips of our convo — if we should be more afraid of Trump this time around, and the effect of woke culture on men — head to our YouTube page.
Other topics: Trump going from an “absolute joke” to a world historical figure; his uncanny instincts; how he activated an ignored demographic in 2016; telling Jeb Bush that his brother didn’t keep us safe; W’s wars; neocons like John Podhoretz; Trump’s gains with Hispanic and black voters; the backlash against elites; South Park Conservatives; the end of Reagan Republicans; how Trump’s first win felt like a fluke; his smart team this time; Covid lockdowns and BLM; MeToo excesses and DEI; the immigration surge under Biden as a gift to Trump; liberals who see borders as immoral; the hideous talk about Springfield and migrant crime; the left’s “racism” slur; the Hispanic backlash over “Latinx”; legal immigrants opposed to illegals; the 1924 and 1965 laws; how asylum law takes sovereignty from citizens; the threat of Stephen Miller; deportation camps, violent protests, and martial law; how Dems could flatter Trump to tame him; Obama’s progressivism restrained by realism; Niebuhr; how skepticism over Ukraine is deemed “pro Putin”; how Ukraine didn’t move the electorate; the “fascism” debate; Harris and Trump both running ads on both sides of Israel/Gaza; the gaslighting over Biden’s decline; inflation and fuzzy memories of Trump’s economy; Harris courting Haley voters with Liz Cheney; her not-terrible but tepid run; “opportunity economy” and other blather; how her abortion strategy didn’t work; her cowardice with the press and new media; Trump’s success with podcasts; how he became a funny grandpa figure; barstool conservatives; his trans ads in the final stretch; and Vance as the future heir.
Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy (the first 102 are free in their entirety — subscribe to get everything else). Coming up: Anderson Cooper on grief, Reihan Salam on the evolution of the GOP, David Greenberg on his new bio of John Lewis, Christine Rosen on humanness in a digital world, and Mary Matalin on anything but politics. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to [email protected].
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Hello, hello, hello. |
| 0:29.3 | Here we are. |
| 0:30.0 | We got through the election. |
| 0:32.1 | Well, I think we got through the election. |
| 0:34.4 | And I'm here today, the day after the election, |
| 0:36.9 | so you'll be hearing |
| 0:37.7 | this a little later, to talk about all things 2024 with an old friend of mine and someone, |
| 0:47.0 | I think, is an island of domestic good sense in every respect. And definitely has a very |
| 0:53.6 | interesting grasp of both intellectual history, intellectual history |
| 0:58.2 | of conservatism, especially, I think. And also a great just contemporary journalist reporter, |
| 1:03.1 | writer Thinker, Damon Linker, who actually has this fantastic substack called Notes from the |
| 1:08.8 | Middle Ground. He has been the editor of First Things. For a long time, |
| 1:12.5 | with senior correspondent at The Week, had an absolute must-read column. The author of the Theocons, |
| 1:18.2 | which is how we first met, really, back when he and I were both interested in the sort of |
| 1:23.9 | Uber Catholic Right and the religious test, which is a recent book. |
| 1:29.0 | And back we were both at the Daily Beast, he used to edit some of my essays. |
| 1:32.7 | And I think, have I edited a piece of yours? |
| 1:35.1 | Maybe, maybe not. |
| 1:36.0 | I don't think so. |
| 1:36.7 | I don't think so, no. |
| 1:38.0 | Anyway, he's part of the vast political party to which I belong, in which he could probably |
| 1:44.0 | fit into a small elevator, |
... |
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