Ben Wikler’s Vision for the Democratic Party
Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler joins Marc Elias to discuss his bid to lead the Democratic National Committee, his plans for the Democratic Party, what went wrong in the 2024 election and more.
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Meet the Republicans Voting Against Trump with Sarah Longwell
Sarah Longwell, founder of Republican Voters Against Trump, wants you to know that not all Republicans support former President Donald Trump. She discusses with Marc Elias fractures in the GOP, how Trump is a threat to democracy and conservative ideals and what Democratic voters need to understand about modern Republican voters.
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Building the Opposition
By Marc Elias, Democracy Docket, December 5, 2025
The following is an excerpt. The complete text is available online at Democracy Docket.
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Hoping that Trump fails is not a plan. We must develop and foster new movements, structures, tactics, platforms and leaders to oppose Trump and articulate a positive vision.
In most democratic political systems, this is referred to as the opposition. Rather than a resistance, the concept of an opposition is more comprehensive and durable. It recognizes that there are no time limits to the effort.
First, we must prioritize effective electoral campaigns that maximize the chances of electing Democrats and defeating Republicans. Ideological fights must yield in service of winning. We must recruit and fund candidates who can win their state or districts.
Second, we must be a big tent full of diversity of new policy ideas and approaches to governing. Political movement must be about big ideas. New Deal liberalism was a big idea. So was the Great Society, neo-liberalism and populism.
Third, we need new and existing institutions to bolster the opposition, not work against it. The only litmus test for groups is whether they help the opposition effort. Building and funding pro-democracy opposition groups needs to be a critical priority for years to come.
Fourth, we must cultivate and amplify new communication methods and messengers. We need to identify and promote our best messengers and pair them with the most influential platforms, period. This means ending our reliance on credential-based legacy media. These high prestige outlets command very small audiences and that audience is shrinking. They speak to almost no persuadable audience. The goal should be to reach voters, period.
Finally, we must be comfortable using every legal tool available to challenge Trumpism in court. One of the most important lessons from the last eight years is that the courts matter. Litigation is one of the most important tools to protect democracy and we must use every tool we have.
Democracy Docket
Democracy Docket is the leading progressive media platform dedicated to providing information, opinion, and analysis about voting rights and more. Democracy Docket is committed to helping people everywhere better understand the greatest challenges facing our democracy and what can be done to solve them.
Web site | BlueSky | Facebook | Wikipedia
What Does It Mean? A Conversation with Heather Cox Richardson
We’re at the start of a new year, a new quarter century, and a new administration and a lot is up in the air, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to chat with one of the smartest people I know, about where she thinks America stands in the course of history and what to expect next.
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Letters from an American: Substack
Democratic Party Reboot
The Democrats can't keep doing it like they've always done it. Those days are over.
PoliticsGirl
Leigh McGowan launched PoliticsGirl as a way to help people reconnect with politics. She started the YouTube channel in 2015 as a way to inform and inspire because she said, “when you understand you care, and when you care you vote”. People like her because she’s smart in a way that doesn’t make them feel dumb. She’s able to put into words what people are thinking, or she’s thinking what people can’t quite put into words
Web site | Podcast | YouTube
Why I’m quitting the Washington Post
By Ann Telnaes, Substack, January 3, 2025
The following is an excerpt. The complete text is available on substack. Link
I’ve worked for the Washington Post since 2008 as an editorial cartoonist. I have had editorial feedback and productive conversations—and some differences—about cartoons I have submitted for publication, but in all that time I’ve never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at. Until now.
The cartoon that was killed criticizes the billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with incoming President-elect Trump. There have been multiple articles recently about these men with lucrative government contracts and an interest in eliminating regulations making their way to Mar-a-lago. The group in the cartoon included Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook & Meta founder and CEO, Sam Altman/AI CEO, Patrick Soon-Shiong/LA Times publisher, the Walt Disney Company/ABC News, and Jeff Bezos/Washington Post owner.
I will not stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they say, “Democracy dies in darkness.”
Visit Ann Telnaes at Open Windows.
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“Hello darkness, my old friend: the Ann Telnaes resignation and the late, formerly great Washington Post
By Jack Ohman, Substack, January 4, 2025
The following is an excerpt. The complete text is available on substack. Link
I know Ann very well. She is absolutely a no-bullshit personality in a good way. She says what she thinks to you and in her work. I have been on the sharp, pointy stick business end of a few chats over the years with her, but she is also very thoughtful and kind, with an arid wit. She was a real leader in AAEC, our national editorial cartoonist group, and was president about five years ago. One thing she doesn’t do is fold, take any crap, or otherwise compromise on anything.
Period.
When I heard last night that she had resigned in protest from the Post after 17 years of fine work, I was surprised/ not surprised, because I knew she had been having tense exchanges with editors there who do not know shit from shinola about what an editorial cartoon should be. It’s sad, and I don’t wish to name names, but the Post lost its way on editorial cartoons way before the resignation of Ann Telnaes.
Their editors brought in a bunch of New Yorker-type cartoonists—on the editorial page. One did a cartoon about blue jeans.
Blue jeans.
Ann’s description of her resignation and the reasons behind it showed me Ann’s true self, and Ann’s True Self doesn’t put up with, ahem, cowardice.
The Post now?
Hmm.
Suddenly, Bezos lost his courage and folded like a cheap tent, eager to supplicate to the incoming authoritarian regime. He also added a cool million bucks to the Trump inauguration fund.
During Trump I, the slogan of The Washington Post was “Democracy dies in the darkness”.
True dat, my little spacefaring friend. Now that Trump looked like he could assume power, all the democracy stuff went out the window in favor of ending Trump’s war on Bezos and Amazon.
I haven’t canceled my Post subscription yet, but I suppose I will now. Too bad. This is too much. Nor do I even bother to send my work to them. I stopped a few months ago. It makes me sad, but it’s kind of like finding out your mother was turning tricks on the side.
Bezos has hired a bunch of Murdoch Fleet Street clowns to run the smoldering wreckage of what once was a great and even inspirational newspaper. They can’t even find an external candidate to be editor now. Ask Matea Gold, an obvious next Post executive editor, who fled to The New York Times. The Post editor spiked the story, too.
Hi, darkness.
It smells familiar to most cartoonists my age, who found themselves lionized one minute and stifled the next. Ask Rob Rogers. Ask any of them who ran into a brick wall on their ability to do what they did before craven cowardice set into the journalism profession now owned by spineless techbro billionaires with no moral or ethical compass—other than dropping their pants for authoritarians.
Mad about Ann? Yeah, I’m mad.
But more importantly, I grieve because it’s not just Ann. It’s everyone in journalism. If you’re in opinion, you should be getting your affairs in order and making other arrangements.
Unless you’re a coward.
Then you’ll be fine.
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Hi, people: This was a hard one to write, because now the direction of American editorial cartooning isn’t determined by staffing levels, money, or the usual reasons. It’s about fear. I can keep doing this column with help, free or paid, from folks like you. I am in your debt, again.
Jack Ohman's You Betcha! is a reader-supported publication.
To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Substack
Substack is much more than a newsletter platform. A Substack is an all-encompassing publication that accommodates text, video, and audio. No tech knowledge is required. Anyone can start a Substack and publish posts directly to subscribers’ inboxes—in email and in the Substack app. Without ads or gatekeepers in the way, you can sustain a direct relationship with your audience and retain full control over your creative work.
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Rachel Maddow: Public Servant Announcements
How much will Americans get to know about the people Donald Trump is choosing to run the U.S. government? In the absence of any real vetting the way it's usually done, Rachel Maddow presents a Rachel Maddow Show Public Servant Announcement to hopefully help fill that gap.
Rachel Maddow on Kristi Noem: Five things to know about Trump's pick for homeland security secretary
Rachel Maddow presents a Rachel Maddow Show Public Servant Announcement to hopefully help fill that gap with a closer look at Trump's choice for homeland security secretary, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, whose state’s Covid record might seem disqualifying and whose personal stories have caused her political damage.
MSNBC Link | YouTube Link
Rachel Maddow on Matt Whitaker: Six things to know about Trump's pick to be NATO ambassador
Rachel Maddow presents a closer look at Trump's choice for U.S. ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, from his dubious business dealings to his dearth of relevant experience. MSNBC Link | YouTube Link
Rachel Maddow on Tulsi Gabbard: Six things about Trump's pick for director of national intelligence
In this episode, Rachel takes a closer look at Trump's choice for director of national intelligence, former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who has a deep history of anti-gay activism and a disturbing amount of support from Russian state media.
MSNBC Link | YouTube Link
Rachel Maddow on Dr. Mehmet Oz: Five things about Trump's pick to lead Medicare & Medicaid Services
Rachel takes a closer look at Trump's choice for administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who brings the endorsement of "magic" pills to what has been called "the most challenging technical, policy and political job in government," and questionable business ties to a job that oversees over a trillion dollars a year.
MSNBC Link | YouTube Link
Rachel Maddow on Billy Long: Five things to know about Trump's pick for IRS commissioner
Rachel takes a closer look at Trump's choice for IRS commissioner, Billy Long, a dubiously credentialled former congressman whose qualifications for the job are distant at best.
MSNBC Link | YouTube Link
Rachel Maddow on Pam Bondi: Five things to know about Trump's (second) pick for attorney general
In this episode, Rachel takes a closer look at Trump's choice for attorney general, Pam Bondi, who has been working closely with Trump, despite not being given a role in his first administration, showing commitment to his causes, including the prosecution of his political opponents. While Bondi is not highly regarded for her abilities, she does benefit from comparison to Trump's first choice for attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz.
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Fangirl
Tulsi Gabbard’s career is marked by her praise for brutal dictators. That’s why Trump the wannabe dictator nominated her, and it’s why our enemies really hope she’s confirmed.
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The Lincoln Project
The Lincoln Project is a leading pro-democracy organization in the United States — dedicated to the preservation, protection, and defense of democracy. Our fight against Trumpism is only beginning. We must combat these forces everywhere and at all times — our democracy depends on it.
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Before Crackpot RFKism There Was Crackpot Lysenkoism
By Gabriel Schoenfeld, The Bulwark, January 3, 2025
The following is an excerpt. The full article is available in The Bulwark.
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RATHER THAN OPPOSE DONALD TRUMP’S dangerous nominee for secretary of health and human services, some liberal commentators have suggested that the critics of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should find ways to accommodate him.
At a moment when we should be thinking of this nomination in terms of the potential risk to human lives, all this muddled analysis about science and politics calls to mind a grim episode from the last century that is a cautionary tale for today: the career of the Soviet biologist Trofim Lysenko.
Born in 1898, Lysenko had accomplishments of great consequence to his name. Most of these occurred in the field of agronomy, where he advanced a revolutionary set of ideas—now known as Lysenkoism. His main contentions were that genes did not exist, that acquired traits could be inherited, and that heredity itself could be altered by “educating” plants.
One such form of education was called “vernalization”—the notion that crop yields would dramatically increase if seeds that usually died in harsh frosts were exposed to lower temperatures before sowing. “Insights” like that, derived ultimately from Marxist ideology instead of legitimate empirical research, were put into practice on a large scale, first in the USSR and then in Communist China. Widespread crop failures followed, and then famines in which millions perished.
This history of massive state-sponsored scientific fraud is pertinent to Trump’s attempt to install Kennedy to the highest-ranking healthcare position in the U.S. government. The secretary of health and human services has oversight of everything from food safety to medical research to private health insurance to epidemiology to Medicare and Medicaid and much, much more.
Like Lysenko, RFK Jr. has departed from science even as he claims its mantle. He is a proponent of consuming raw milk despite the proven safety benefits of pasteurization (just last month raw milk in California was found to contain bird flu). He opposes the fluoridation of water despite the proven benefits to dental health. But it is for his opposition to vaccines—and his lies about them—that he is most notorious and most dangerous.
To be sure, in lobbying for his confirmation Kennedy has said that “We’re not going to take vaccines away from anybody.” He also says he aims to improve the science of vaccine safety and wants nothing more than to provide “good information” so people “can make informed choices.”
But in light of some of his other pronouncements, this is all disingenuous. One piece of his “good information”—repeated in a 2023 interview with Fox News—is that vaccines cause autism. This theory was first popularized by the British doctor Andrew Wakefield in the Lancet in 1998. But Wakefield was discredited and his Lancet paper was retracted because it was fraudulent. Despite numerous studies that have since found no link between vaccines and autism, Kennedy has persisted in trumpeting his view, and gone even further to claim that “no vaccine is safe and effective.”
A person with no medical or scientific training, RFK Jr. is evidently unaware that vaccines are one of humanity’s greatest accomplishments. Smallpox, the deadliest disease in human history, has been wiped from the face of the earth. Polio, a scourge that terrified generations of Americans and struck down an American president, has been largely consigned to the dustbin of history, at least in the developed world. Rabies, an invariably fatal disease, is preventable by vaccination (does RFK Jr. want to stop vaccinating Fido as well?).
UNFORTUNATELY, RFK JR. IS NOT THE ONLY Lysenko-like figure nominated to serve in the incoming administration. Trump has also tapped MAGA loyalist Dr. Mehmet Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Oz has a long record as a grifter pushing pseudoscience for bucks. Among his claims lacking any scientific backing are that selenium supplements are “the holy grail of cancer prevention”; that raspberry ketones are “the No. 1 miracle in a bottle to burn your fat”; that umckaloabo root extract is “incredibly effective at relieving cold symptoms,” and that hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment for COVID-19. All of this is quackery.
Trump has said he has appointed Kennedy to “go wild” on U.S. health. The phrase is well chosen. When it comes to medical care and medical science in the unfolding second Trump administration, we’re entering a wild time and a dark age.
More than 15,000 doctors sign letter urging Senate to reject RFK Jr. as health secretary
By Brandy Zadrozny, NBC News, January 9, 2025
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More than 15,000 doctors have signed a letter urging senators to vote against confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of health and human services. The letter was posted online by the Committee to Protect Health Care, a physicians advocacy group.
Letter to United States Senate
From Rob Davidson, MD, MPH, Executive Director. Committee to Protect Health Care
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The Bulwark
Honest news. Smart analysis. Good faith.
You may have noticed that sh*t has gotten weird the last few years. Fox News hosting a White Power Hour. Twitter turning into Pepe Town Alt-Light X. An entire political movement obsessed with drag queens and bathrooms. Pandemics, insurrections, and a Bad Orange Man.
At the heart of all this weirdness is a reconsideration of liberalism and democracy that started in Europe and has migrated to America. The Bulwark was founded to provide analysis and reporting in defense of America’s liberal democracy.
That’s it. That’s the mission. We publish written articles and newsletters. We create podcasts and YouTube videos. We give political analysis from experts who have spent their lives in the business.
Some of what we do is behind a paywall. Most of what we do is not. That’s because we are a mission-based organization first and a business second.
The Bulwark was founded in 2019 by Sarah Longwell, Charlie Sykes, and Bill Kristol. The idea, then and now, was to tell you what we think—with honesty and good faith.
To put country over party. To know that we’re all in this together. And to build a home for the politically homeless.
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