Gerard Baker—once upon a time the editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal—had a remarkable essay in the paper yesterday.
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Baker → have → paper
Let’s do two things today.
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’s → do → things
(1) Understand that, as a rule, obsessing over anti-anti-Trump simps like Gerry Baker is a bad use of time.
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obsessing → understand → time
They do not care and it is bad for the disposition of our souls.
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it → care → souls
That said, (2) I’m going to go to work on the homes here with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch.
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I → say → pliers
But because there are going to be people jumping off the Trump train and we should be careful not to assume that their maneuvering is a belated embrace of liberal democracy.
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maneuvering → be → democracy
They should be vetted.
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They → vet → ?
So let’s get medieval on his limey ass.
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’s → let → ass
Gerry—whom I used to know a little bit1—titled his piece “Help—I Feel a Bad Case of TDS Coming On.”
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Case → use → TDS
The joke is that Baker has spent a decade apologizing for Trump, attacking Trump’s opponents, and deriding anyone who believed Trump was a danger to the liberal order.
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Trump → spend → order
Now he’s having second thoughts.
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he → have → thoughts
On first blush, we should welcome this change.
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we → welcome → change
Defeating fascism requires holding hands with people we may not like.
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we → defeat → people
We should praise Baker and make space for him at the table, not cast him out like a leper, correct?
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We → praise → leper
In general we should welcome converts.
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we → welcome → converts
But let’s look at what Baker has to say:
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Baker → let → what
Thanks to a self-indulgent tariff fixation based on a profound misunderstanding of international economics, an insouciance about public finances that has widened the deficit, and a reckless military adventure that has choked off global energy supplies, inflation and interest rates are higher than they were in November 2024.
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they → base → November
The bolding is mine because I want you to pay attention to how Baker describes Trump’s failures.
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Baker → bolde → failures
He is not authoring America’s most consequential military defeat in generations.
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He → author → generations
He’s self-indulgent.
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He → ’ → ?
He’s insouciant.
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He → ’ → ?
Donald Trump practices actual, honest-to-God, national socialism.
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Trump → practice → socialism
He condemned hundreds of thousands of poor brown people around the globe to death.
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He → condemn → death
He weakened our military by fixating on pushups instead of mastering drone warfare.
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He → weaken → warfare
He abandoned the Pax Americana as fast as his edematous legs let him.
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legs → abandon → him
He ushered in the return of preventable infectious diseases that have killed American children.
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that → usher → children
He created a masked secret police force that answers only to him and routinely guns down innocents in the street.
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that → create → street
He embraces Vladimir Putin and fellates Kim Jong-un.
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He → embrace → un
And he’s insouciant?
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he → ’ → ?
Here’s Baker’s description of that unpleasantness:
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description → ’ → unpleasantness
Even after Jan. 6, 2021, removed any doubt about the threat Donald Trump might pose to our constitutional norms and rules, I thought the institutions of the U.S. would be strong enough (as they were then) to constrain his worst instincts and intentions.
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they → remove → instincts
Removed doubt about the threat Trump might pose to norms and rules.
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Trump → remove → norms
It was not a matter of what threat Trump “might pose”—it happened, in the real world.
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Trump → happen → world
It was on the law, the constitutional order, the vice president, members of Congress, and specific policemen, whose names we know and whose blood we saw.
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we → know → blood
At the very end of his piece, Baker explains why he’s finally had it with Trump.
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he → explain → Trump
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Join → join → post
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subscription → get → chats
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who → help → membership
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