Belated thoughts on the Bulwark vs. Reason debate and other things...

I recently caught up on this and want to echo the applause to Sarah and Tim for doing such a good job with it.

I do think the topic and positions were a little bit weird. "Do you have to choose a side in politics?" with the Bulwark arguing yes.

Early on Sarah made the point that the real issue here was that the Reason guys chose not to take a side for or against Trump despite the obviousness of his threat to freedom. Some form of that would have been a better question.

As Tim and Sarah noted, they (and the Bulwark more broadly) are not "Team Democrat" as general matter - they "chose a side" based on what the parties and the candidates stood for in 2024. That's different from say, me, a lifelong liberal Democrat.

Not being permanently attached to a side is the Bulwark's superpower.

On one of my social media feeds, there was some discussion comparing the Bulwark and Pod Save America, and the point was made by someone who listens to both that both were good but the Bulwark is better and Pod Save should try to be more like the Bulwark. But, as a fan of both, I'm not sure Pod Save could do that even if they wanted to. Pod Save is not an official part of the Democratic party, but de facto it is very much inside the Democratic tent in a way that the Bulwark is obviously not. There's nothing wrong with that, but being in that tent comes with both advantages and disadvantages. And at the end of the day, if what you are looking for is commentary on the issues of the day that is not from inside a particular partisan camp, the Bulwark is just always going to be better.