Israel’s actions after October 7, 2023 sparked a sea change in American public opinion.
Support for Israel has tanked. Support for politicians that assist and defend Israel has tanked. And support for those narratives used to deride Palestinians and opponents of Israel alike have also tanked.
Now that the US is pot-committed to a disastrous Israel-led war on Iran and Lebanon, Israel has become even more toxic in mainstream American politics. We’re not going back. Rather than accommodate this well-documented and indisputable change in public opinion, The Bulwark Founder and Publisher Sarah Longwell has spent considerable time in recent weeks dying on the hill of canceling anti-Israel Democratic influencer Hasan Piker.
The Hasan Piker smear campaign has failed to such a degree that it has effectively backfired, smearing the very people perpetrating it rather than the principled and popular target himself. In this episode of Reality Checking the Bulwark, Steward Beckham and I wrestle with the implications of this development in the broader context of The Bulwark’s history and current role in the pro-democracy movement.
Until now, we had presumed:
The Bulwark operates in good-faith
The Bulwark always strives for honesty and integrity
The Bulwark interrogates their priors and learns from mistakes
The Bulwark would rather Democrats win on policies they don’t like than see Democrats lose on policies that they support
We can no longer extend The Bulwark such benefits of the doubt.
In an effort to salvage her (and – by extention – the institution’s) good name, Longwell and Jonathan V. Last published a video in which they continued to smear Piker and his audience, mocked and mischaracterized the core substantive pushback to Longwell’s critique, lied about their own role in the movement, and gaslit the Democratic voters they misled during the 2024 election.
At a certain point, mistreating one’s audience in this way can not and must not be defended. It is insult. It’s disdain. It’s disrespect.
