Brian Beutler

Washington, D.C.

Off Message; cohost: https://t.co/CvwKx1K9rd; Formerly: @crookedmedia @newrepublic. BlueSky: @brianbeutler.bsky.social Trump Employee 5

Articles

More Boycotts Please

6 days ago | offmessage.net | Brian Beutler

One decent if unscientific way to gauge of the trajectory of the second Trump administration is to track the ratio of good and bad news over time. In the first days everything was terrible. Today, most things are still quite bad, but as Trump has over-reached and misgoverned himself into toxic unpopularity, there are many more hopeful signs: legal victories, Trump retreats, failed nominees. Things like that.
How To Beat Cross-Bearing Fascists

1 week ago | offmessage.net | Brian Beutler

Thanks again for your questions, readers. Have a question for next Thursday’s mailbag? Leave it in the comments below. <PowerOfOne>: Brian, in your response to Nancy you said:"In the inner-most ring are the true diehards. Maybe 20-30 percent of the population.
How To Intensify Opposition To Trump-GOP Medicaid Cuts

1 week ago | offmessage.net | Brian Beutler

If you think about it in terms of compassion or even just raw political logic, the idea that Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress might enact enormous cuts to Medicaid, in order to partially offset the cost of trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy, is insensible. Medicaid is popular, more so now than when President Obama expanded it to tens of millions of lower-income Americans through provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Millions of those Americans are Trump voters.
Democratic Governors Should Not Paul Weiss Themselves

1 week ago | offmessage.net | Brian Beutler

Every person and every institution that has knuckled under Donald Trump’s extortionate abuses of power has had a compelling reason to do so. Even the most craven kowtowers, the corporate law-firm partners, have stories they tell themselves about why the calls they made were right when they made them.
Rein In Trump's Pardon Power

1 week ago | offmessage.net | Brian Beutler

It’s January 20, 2029. Everyone’s been through a lot. You’ve been through a lot. The country is battered, many of its institutions corrupted or destroyed. Americans are poorer, the nation isolated internationally, but we survived. Donald Trump did not seek a third term; Republicans nominated JD Vance to succeed him, and he lost. Trump has overseen a grudging, petty, but ultimately peaceful transition to a new administration. Just a few more hours, until he’s off to convalesce at Mar a Lago.
The Concentric Circles Of Trumpism

2 weeks ago | offmessage.net | Brian Beutler

Thanks again for your questions, readers. Please keep ‘em coming. Nancy: What do ordinary Trump voters think about this chaos, the ongoing shitshow? Do they know much or anything about it? Our neighbors at our weekend place in Suffolk County, Long Island (home of EPA killer Lee Zeldin) are hardcore GOP supporters and Trump fans/Hillary haters who explained their vote in November by saying 1. They wanted to prevent an imaginary tax from destroying their small business 2.
Is The Democratic Brand Toxic Or Fuzzy?

2 weeks ago | offmessage.net | Brian Beutler

Here are two questions to ask yourself, both of which will hopefully shed light on how Democrats should go about rebuilding, and why they all seem to think they need to do more than just fight Donald Trump:Do you think Democrats are: a) awful; b) excellent; or c) meh/hard to say?
Let A Million Anti-Trump Flowers Bloom

2 weeks ago | offmessage.net | Brian Beutler

Ask almost any professional Democrat what the party needs to do to become nationally viable and they’ll respond with some version of the same boilerplate internal critique:We have to be more than just the anti-Trump party. Voters want to know what we’re for, not just what we’re against. Democrats need a vision. If this were true, it would be a big challenge. The fact that so many Democrats believe it to be true is a pretty big problem in its own right.
The Fight Against Trump Is Not A Class War

2 weeks ago | offmessage.net | Brian Beutler

Most readers of this newsletter will be familiar with the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, led by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Some of you might even have attended one or two of their rallies. What you may not know is that, as the tour has drawn more attention, mainline and frontline Democrats have started rolling their eyes—perhaps a sign of nervousness.
Why Republicans Let Trump Tank The Economy

3 weeks ago | offmessage.net | Brian Beutler

Thanks again for your questions, readers. Please keep ‘em coming. And by all means feel free to ask about more than just politics and the news. Movies, books, travel, trivia, whatever. With a few days of lead time, I can even run down answers to questions that stump me. (Oh, and speaking of travel, I’ll be in Lisbon in late May, early June, and would appreciate your recommendations.)Kathy Davis: Can you explain why GOP reps appear willing to let Trump tank the global economy?