“It is Mr Biden’s job to hammer home...what a second Trump term would mean. That requires reaching them with credible messengers who speak to their concerns. These messengers must look, sound, talk and act like voters...it takes regular people.” economist.com/by-invitation/…

“Irving Berlin wrote God Bless America in 1918. Most people know the chorus: ‘God bless America, land that I love.’ But many fewer know the verse. It begins, ‘While the storm clouds gather far across the sea/Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free.’” nationalreview.com/2024/04/confed…

Craig, a former Trump voter from New Jersey, explains why he no longer supports him:

“In the beginning, I was excited about what he was doing, and then over time, I became more scared of how he was acting. It was the first time in my life I’ve ever been scared of a president.”

Jim is a veteran and lifelong Republican from Alabama who will never support Trump again:

“His stance with NATO probably was really the straw that broke the camel’s back…It may sound ‘America first,’ but when it’s America only, that could be a problem.”

Lots of Republicans going on record on the opposite side from Trump on one of the most important choices we face, and will continue to face in 2025 and after. Should be helpful in wedging more Republicans and Republican-leaning independents away from Trump in November.

.Liz Cheney: 'If you elect someone willing to blow through all of those guardrails, willing to torch the Constitution, then we can't protect ourselves. Those institutions aren't self sustaining. It really matters that we have people of good character.'

“Had he lived, William Shakespeare would be 460 today.”

But of course Shakespeare does live. thebulwark.com/p/healthy-demo…

'Yes, the consequences of the mob spirit taking over a political party are greater than those of the mob spirit erupting on some campuses. But lesser evils are still evil, and can grow into greater ones...The mob spirit must be resisted across the board.'
thebulwark.com/p/healthy-demo…

'It seems simple, but it’s important: Be anti-mob. Because resisting and combating mob spirit is central to our political and social well-being.'
thebulwark.com/p/healthy-demo…

The looks on their faces!

Come watch The Next Level with Jonathan V. Last, Sarah Longwell, and @timodc live in Philadelphia on Wednesday, May 1! Get your tickets here: bulwarkinpa.rsvpify.com/?securityToken…

Special pod today: First Bill Kristol on Mike Johnson’s pleasant surprise, Ukraine, and the grotesque Columbia protests. Then Tom Mauser whose son Daniel was murdered at Columbine on his son’s life and the quarter century fight for gun safety legislation. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the…

I agree with David Sacks, America First voters should shake up the establishment and back Kennedy/Shanahan this fall.

'I think Daniel would want me to return to that life and by honoring him in the way that I do, I feel that kind of goes with it, that I've returned that life. But I've also reminded the world who Daniel was.' Tom Mauser, a Columbine father, 25 years on: lnk.thebulwark.com/4aHSZw7

“They that have power to hurt and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow:
They rightly do inherit heaven's graces
And husband nature's riches from expense;
They are the lords and

“Shakespeare, rise! I will not lodge thee by
Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie
A little further, to make thee a room:
Thou art a monument without a tomb,
And art alive still while thy book doth live
And we have wits to read and praise to give.” poetryfoundation.org/poems/44466/to…

Born on this day 460 years ago: William Shakespeare.

“He was not of an age, but for all time!” thegreatthinkers.org/shakespeare-an…

FYI: A new episode of Lisa New’s Poetry in America series, featuring Robert Lowell's poem 'July in Washington' (and in which I have a bit role as a commentator), is now streaming.

You can watch (for free!) via these sites:
poetryinamerica.org/tv-series/ 
or 
pbs.org/show/poetry-in….

“The situation on Columbia’s campus is far more severe than the antisemitic incidents we have seen at Harvard, but I worry similar circumstances could soon make their way to Cambridge. Such a threat warrants urgent reflection from our campus’ organizers.” thecrimson.com/article/2024/4…

This focus group of swing voters was--dare I say it?--heartening.
These voters take foreign policy seriously, grasp the consequences of letting Putin win--and hold his pro-Putin stance against Trump.
I am encouraged.
Sarah Longwell and I discuss here.
thebulwark.com/p/wanted-serio…