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Sarah Longwell: Trump’s Failures Give Democrats a Once-in-a-Generation Opening | Bulwark on Sunday

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Kristol, W. (2026, September 6). Sarah Longwell: Trump’s Failures Give Democrats a Once-in-a-Generation Opening | Bulwark on Sunday. The Bulwark. https://www.thebulwark.com/p/revealing-the-bulwarks-secret-origin

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The Bulwark · collected 2026-09-06 · by William Kristol commentary

Quick Summary

Sarah Longwell argues in her new book that the failures of Donald Trump's presidency provide Democrats with a rare opportunity to make significant gains. Longwell, who has conducted extensive voter focus groups, believes that Democrats can learn from Republican political infrastructure and create a broad pro-democracy coalition to take down Trumpism. The key to success, according to Longwell, is finding ways to manage internal disagreements within this coalition. In her book, "How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time", Longwell draws on years of research to outline a strategy for defeating Trumpism.
Written by AI on 2026-09-07, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

Sarah Longwell, author of the book How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time, believes that Donald Trump's failures have created a rare opportunity for Democrats to make significant gains in the upcoming elections. According to her, this is a "once-in-a-generation opening" for Democrats, who can learn from Republican political infrastructure and use it to their advantage. Longwell argues that the changing media environment has shifted the balance of power in favor of Democrats, allowing them to capitalize on Trump's weaknesses. She suggests that a broad pro-democracy coalition can be formed to manage internal disagreements and develop a successful strategy against Trumpism.

Written for “Trump's Election Impact Assessed” on 2026-10-31, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Trump's Election Impact Assessed
Politics · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

This article reads centre and hedges 25% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Noahpinion
⚖️ Leans strongly left further left than this Hedges 5 of 78 claims
“Article A is an opinion piece about Donald Trump's failures, while Article B is an interview with Sarah Longwell about her book on opposing Trump, which does not describe the same specific happening”
The Guardian
Hedges 11 of 60 claims Outlet record 66/100
“Article A mentions Trump's failures in general, while Article B specifically refers to 'Trump’s authoritarian executive orders on voting and other presidential actions'”
TIME
⚖️ Leans left further left than this Hedges 5 of 34 claims Outlet record 59/100
“The articles discuss unrelated topics: one about the state of democracy in the US and the other about a book discussion on opposing Trump”
Toronto Star
⚖️ Leans left further left than this Hedges 10 of 53 claims Outlet record 64/100
“Article A appears to be a general reflection on the 2024 election cycle, while Article B discusses a specific book by Sarah Longwell and its discussion of Trump's failures”
New York Post
⚖️ Leans strongly right further right than this Hedges 2 of 36 claims Outlet record 66/100
“Article A discusses a book discussion about Trump's failures giving Democrats an opportunity, while Article B is a general commentary on the upcoming midterm elections and the choice between Trump's administration and the Democratic party.”
The Bulwark
⚖️ Leans strongly left further left than this Hedges 1 of 15 claims
“Article A discusses Sarah Longwell's views on Trump's failures and a potential opportunity for Democrats, while Article B mentions Adam Jentleson and Pablo Torre discussing corruption and the rich getting rewarded in the US, without any apparent connection to Longwell or the topic of Trump's failures”
Washington Examiner
Hedges 3 of 29 claims Outlet record 70/100
“Article A discusses a book about opposing Trump and does not mention an election or convention, while Article B talks about a Republican midterm convention putting Trump on the ballot”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
4
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
25%
1 of 4 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Centre
expected in commentary, which argues a position · beta estimate
Publisher signals
not measured
these signals count newsroom corrections; Commentary has none to count
Outlets on this story
1
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-07 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Bulwark · 563 article(s) · 0 correction(s) detected
No corrections detected for this publisher. That may mean careful reporting, or simply that nothing has been checked.

Who wrote this

William Kristol
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Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 24 articles by William Kristol →

Topics

Democrats Republican

Subjects

Democrats NORP · 2× Sarah Longwell PERSON · 2× Trump PERSON · 2× Bill Kristol PERSON · 1× Longwell PERSON · 1× Republican NORP · 1×

Narrative

Bill Kristol and Sarah Longwell discuss Longwell’s new book, How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time, tracing the origins of The Bulwark and their efforts to oppose Trump while drawing lessons from years of voter focus groups.
framing: mixed · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-07
🔮 They consider how the media environment has changed, what Democrats can learn from Republican political infrastructure, how a broad pro-democracy coalition can manage internal disagreements, and what a successful strategy against Trumpism could look like.

Claims (4 extracted, 1 hedged)

Sarah Longwell: Trump’s Failures Give Democrats a Once-in-a-Generation Opening | Bulwark on Sunday asserted
Failures → give → Sunday
Bill Kristol and Sarah Longwell discuss Longwell’s new book, How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time, tracing the origins of The Bulwark and their efforts to oppose Trump while drawing lessons from years of voter focus groups. asserted
Kristol → discuss → groups
They consider how the media environment has changed, what Democrats can learn from Republican political infrastructure, how a broad pro-democracy coalition can manage internal disagreements, and what a successful strategy against Trumpism could look like. uncertain
strategy → consider → Trumpism
Help others find Bulwark on Sunday: hit that like 🤍 button and restack it. asserted
others → help → it
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