The less popular Trump gets, the more shameless his open lawlessness becomes.
asserted
lawlessness → get → ?
This weekend, an old Trump campaign ad was back on airwaves across the country, with Trump railing against the “communists, Marxists, and fascists,” vowing to expel the “deep state” and “warmongers,” and declaring this “the final battle.”
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this → rail → state
In 2024, the ad was paid for by the Trump campaign.
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ad → pay → campaign
Now, the ad discloses, it is “paid for by the U.S. Government.”
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it → disclose → Government
When Pope Leo XIV speaks, Americans tend to listen.
asserted
Americans → speak → ?
On the other hand, there’ve been scores of American cardinals since the first was appointed in 1875.
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first → appoint → 1875
Those of us who aren’t in the Church don’t necessarily hear much about what they have to say.
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they → hear → what
I read about what Cardinal Robert McElroy, archbishop of Washington, said yesterday thanks to Christopher Hale’s excellent newsletter, Letters from Leo, which covers developments in the Catholic Church.
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which → read → Church
Last night, Hale reported on McElroy’s speech at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C.
A word about McElroy.
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Hale → report → McElroy
He was born in San Francisco in 1954 and graduated from Harvard in 1975, where he studied history.
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he → bear → history
He took an M.A. in American history the next year at Stanford.
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He → take → Stanford
He then attended seminary and was ordained in the priesthood in 1980.
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He → attend → 1980
As a priest, he pursued further studies, earning a degree in moral theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University.
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he → pursue → University
His dissertation was on the great liberal American Catholic theologian, John Courtney Murray, whose writings in the mid-twentieth century sought to reconcile Catholicism and American liberal democracy and to ground a defense of religious pluralism and religious freedom in both liberal and Catholic thought.
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writings → seek → thought
After rising through the church’s ranks to become bishop of San Diego, McElroy was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2022, and then archbishop of Washington in March 2025.
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McElroy → rise → March
A couple of months later, he participated in the conclave that elected his fellow American, Cardinal Robert Prevost, pope.
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that → participate → American
As Hale explains, the occasion for McElroy’s speech was the church’s annual day of recognition of migrants and refugees.
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occasion → explain → migrants
The cardinal’s text was the parable of the Good Samaritan, and he pulled no punches.
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he → pull → punches
For the last year and a half, the people of the United States have witnessed the suffering of the undocumented in our midst, purposely and strategically magnified by our government, and for the most part, we have simply passed on by.
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we → witness → part
Indeed, McElroy explained, we have failed to live up to the two great legacies that shape America’s duty to the stranger: the command in Deuteronomy that “you shall not violate the rights of the alien or the orphan,” and the words of Emma Lazarus on the Statue of Liberty.
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you → explain → Liberty
The cardinal deplored the fact that, in the last eighteen months, our country has traded that legacy for “suspicion, division, cruelty, and violence.”
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country → deplore → suspicion
And in abandoning the words of Deuteronomy and the Statue of Liberty, “we are losing our soul as a nation.”
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we → abandon → nation
McElroy noted that there are more than a million people who had been living here legally who have now lost or are losing temporary protected status.
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who → note → status
“These refugees never broke any law,” he said.
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he → break → law
They are being deported because “the bigotry that has often tarnished American immigration history is rampant once again in our nation.”
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that → deport → nation
McElroy’s words particularly hit home for me.
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words → hit → me
I’d returned the day before from the Bulwark event in Dayton, Ohio, on behalf of the Haitian Support Center in nearby Springfield, where we visited Friday afternoon.
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we → return → Springfield
It was inspiring to see the fortitude of immigrants we met there.
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we → see → immigrants
It was heartening to see how many citizens are rallying to their support, coming from elsewhere in Ohio to bring food packages to Haitian families who have lost their work permits so have no income, and who now can’t venture outside their homes for fear of ICE.
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who → see → ICE
It’s also inspiring that so many of you in the Bulwark community have contributed to support the Haitians in Springfield.
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many → ’ → Springfield
When I wrote Friday morning, donations amounted to an already impressive $85,000.
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donations → write → 85,000
This morning they stand at more than $340,000.
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they → stand → 340,000
So that’s all uplifting.
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that → ’ → ?
But I must also say that it’s depressing and infuriating to see the city of Springfield and its people suffering under a cruel and unjust assault from our own government.
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city → say → government
And so, as Cardinal McElroy put it yesterday, we need not to avert our eyes but to “recognize the evil that is being carried out in our name and fight every dimension of it.”
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that → put → it
And we need to “seek to convert our political representatives from tolerating this evil, or replace them.”
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we → need → them
In five weeks, we can replace a whole bunch of them.
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we → replace → them
AROUND THE BULWARK
Could a Wave THIS Big Actually Happen?
uncertain
Wave → happen → BULWARK
Dems who lived through past bloodbaths see something similar happening—in reverse, reports LAUREN EGAN in The Opposition.
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EGAN → live → Opposition
Suddenly, Democrats Have a Path to a HUGE Senate Majority…
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Democrats → have → Majority
…and 41 more, not listed.
The Aporia
