Tag: The Bulwark

Democrats Just Crushed Republicans

Democrats crushed Republicans not by shifting left or right—but by running the right candidates for their states, proving that normal, competent governance still wins. The GOP is cracking under Trump’s weight, and for the first time in years, the future looks governable.

AI Note

This summary was generated from The Next Level Podcast transcript using AI analysis to distill the episode’s core ideas. It’s meant as a guide — not a substitute — for watching the full conversation, which is absolutely worth your time.

The 2025 off-year elections weren’t just wins — they were a realignment. Democrats swept Virginia, New Jersey, and New York by running the right candidates for their states: Spanberger’s pragmatic normalcy, Sherrill’s suburban competence, and Mamdani’s populist activism.

“Tonight the resistance struck back.” — JVL, The Next Level

Together they proved the formula: coalitional pragmatism beats chaos. Turnout was massive, MAGA candidates were crushed, and the GOP now faces a lame-duck crisis. The Trump cult is fracturing — torn between populist grifters and exhausted traditionalists — while Democrats look energized and sane.

If this night signals anything, it’s that normal, competent governance still wins.

Watch the episode:
▶️ The Next Level Podcast: Democrats Just CRUSHED Republicans

No Kings, No Knee: A Movement for Democracy

This weekend, I couldn’t join the protests but felt a renewed sense of civic spirit while observing from afar. The recent No Kings gatherings have transformed from mere protests into powerful rallies of unity and resolve. They reflected a deep commitment to democracy, reminding us that the instinct to resist lives on. Hope flourishes!

I didn’t march this weekend. Family duty came first, so I only drove past a small satellite protest, stopped quick to chat up some protestors, and kept it moving. But even from the margins, I felt something I haven’t felt in a while: the sense that ordinary people are remembering how to be citizens. For the last year I’ve had a gnawing feeling that Americans didn’t have the appetite to fight for democracy, that we’d rather rationalize power than restrain it. “No Kings” is the right slogan for that feeling: a polite, pointed reminder that we don’t bend the knee.

The first No Kings back in June gave me a pulse: hopeful, but fragile. The second one hit different. Same message, more backbone–a lot more. Less spectacle, more resolve. You could see it in the way people showed up everywhere and didn’t need a headliner to tell them what to do. It read less like a protest and more like a rally–a gathering of spirit.

I’ve been helped in naming this by The Bulwark crew, who’ve framed it not as left vs. right, but citizens vs. subjects. Their read tracked what I felt driving by: this wasn’t outrage cosplay. It was calm, patriotic, neighborly. Families with flags, marshals with de-escalation, a lot of honking. “There was nothing hateful about it,” someone said on the show, and that mattered.

Authoritarianism is, in part, a spell and these crowds broke it by refusing to play the villain in someone else’s story. MAGA provocateurs got a very powerful response: nothing. They were ignored. That discipline meant that this was not merely about just showing up. It was about movement, about soldiering.

What moved me most is how joy and seriousness coexisted. Joy says we remember who we are; seriousness says we know what’s at stake. The Bulwark folks called it out: June was people shouting “No!”; October was people saying “We still here…and we are moving.”

So, no, I didn’t lace up and chant this time. I waved, prayed a little, and kept my commitment to family. But I also exhaled. The first No Kings let me hope. The second let me believe that hope might scale. If democracy survives, moments like these will sit on the timeline—not because they fixed everything, but because they proved the instinct to resist still lives in us. And the slow work of God continues.