Andrew Prokop

MAGA-Lite: What “Bari Weiss Conservatism” Is, and Why It’s Dangerous The new CBS executive isn’t exactly MAGA. But her polite Trumpism will still help destroy America as we know it.

Another analysis from @perrybaconjr.bsky.social of Bari Weiss as the convener of a new political faction.

newrepublic.com/article/2014...

Genuine question, does Trump know who Bari Weiss is?

He's obviously not a Substack guy. Is she on Fox enough that he'd recognize her?

In some ways the belief that the culture war stuff is all a fake grift and just a put-on for tax cuts is a comforting one.

But it's false, the reality is they really do loathe progressive elites for culture war reasons and hope to wrest societal institutions from their grasp. Which she's now doing!

It's actually very relevant and telling information that Bari Weiss says she's allies with the Federalist Society in a battle to save "the West" against (implicitly) the America-hating left.

She's not about lowering taxes and never has been!

Why does Bari Weiss keep winning? The “anti-woke” commentator quit the New York Times in protest 5 years ago. Now she’ll be CBS News’s top editor. How?

Excellent, detailed @awprokop.bsky.social piece about new CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss

www.vox.com/politics/463...

Gift link: t.co/CpHUdGwATR

Bari Weiss is now pivoting to "I only care about good journalism," but in her past few years she's been a factional coalition merchant (cc @profhansnoel.bsky.social ) — she convened a new faction of the right, making common cause with Chris Rufo & others against the left

www.vox.com/politics/463...

How do you think the shutdown fight will end?

A.) Dems win significant concessions from Trump, deal to reopen
B.) Dems cave after a few days or weeks
C.) Dems cave before the end of this year
D.) GOP nukes filibuster, reopens gov't
E.) Gov't remains closed into next year

In 2018 I wrote up the cases for and against Senate Dems shutting down the government via filibuster (in this case their demand was a DACA deal).

They ended up doing it but caving after three days without success.

www.vox.com/policy-and-p...

If Rs continued the Oct 2013 shutdown past Nov 2014 I suspect it would have hurt them in those midterms.

Instead, they saw their polls had already plunged so they course-corrected by backing down.

Is the lesson from that "shutdowns don't matter" or "shutdowns are dangerous, better cave quickly?"

Well yes, but, all these shutdowns ended because the party shutting things down essentially caved after a few days or weeks, which allowed the news environment to move on to other things.

Not at all.

I'm saying "passing a status quo bill keeping the government open" is something very different, and much less bad, then "removing the main obstacle to them passing the crackdown on the left from Chris Rufo's wildest dreams"

So you are unconcerned that, without the filibuster to constrain them, Trump and Senate Republicans would pass new laws interfering with elections or cracking down on the left?

People have been saying this for 8 years and it's still around.

Maybe it's demise is inevitable in the long term but I think this particular moment would be a particularly bad time for it to go away.

If a shutdown fight ends with Senate Rs eliminating the filibuster so they and Trump can pass whatever laws they want, do you think that would be a good outcome?

Senate Rs are currently fine with the status quo where Trump can't pass new partisan laws except in reconciliation.

However, if they think the status quo is making governance impossible — for instance, shutting down the government with no end in sight — they will face increasing pressure to act.

The power is real. It is hugely constraining Trump's ability to pass new laws. That's why his entire agenda except the BBB is focused on the executive branch and vulnerable to court challenge.

Democrats are on the verge of a dangerous mistake There’s one big guardrail left on Trump’s ambitions. Democrats are gearing up for a showdown that could destroy it.

Adding — gift link for non-subscribers! www.vox.com/politics/461...

Democrats are on the verge of a dangerous mistake There’s one big guardrail left on Trump’s ambitions. Democrats are gearing up for a showdown that could destroy it.

That's why the argument for "shutting down the government to fight Trump's authoritarianism" very plausibly ends in "Trump assumes even more power as one of the last constraints on what he can do, the filibuster, is dispensed with."

More here: www.vox.com/politics/461...

If Dems force a government shutdown that is viewed as illegitimate by Senate Rss — and actually stick to it, with no end in sight — then Senate Rs will come under increasing pressure from the right to end the filibuster.

That's the more likely way a prolonged shutdown ends than a Trump cave.

Trump has wanted the filibuster gone for 8 years and it's still here. Senate Rs prefer to keep it.

But if Senate Rs come to believe that Ds are abusing the filibuster to make governance impossible, they'll end it.
(As we saw this week with the nuclear option they're deploying on nominations.)

The anti-filibuster case also typically asserts that getting the filibuster is good for democracy because it will let the president and Congress enact their agenda, and voters will get to decide if they like it in the next election.

But what if they pass laws interfering with the next election?

There's a longtime talking point that ending the filibuster helps progressives more than conservatives because conservatives don't want to "do anything" with government except cut taxes.

Again, this thinking needs to be updated for what we've seen this year and the threat of authoritarian laws.

The progressive case against the filibuster was made in a different time, with the idea that the major problem in our politics was the president and Congress not having *enough* power to enact their agenda.

Thinking on this needs to be updated for the current situation.

Guardrail after guardrail constraining Trump has fallen away as he's tried to centralize power.

But the filibuster remains a powerful constraint on what he can do legislatively. That's why his agenda is so executive branch-focused (and vulnerable to legal challenge)

I've been feeling uneasy about the shutdown fight and the past two days crystallized why.

In a moment of authoritarian peril, does it really make sense to start a fight that could very plausibly end with Trump and Rs getting full power to rewrite laws?

www.vox.com/politics/461...

With the attempted firing of Lisa Cook based on a pretext supplied by Bill Pulte, he's becoming more important than ever.

In some ways he's a ridiculous figure, in other ways he's quite dangerous — my piece on him here: www.vox.com/politics/421...

NYT reports that the “Russiagate” investigation targeting Comey and Brennan is based in Charlottesville, where the recently-confirmed US Attorney suddenly resigned and then posted this Anchorman quote.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/u...

We may be seeing something like "grand jury nullification” to refuse Trump team’s politicized indictments in DC

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/u...

Pulte as Fed Chair still seems a remote possibility at this juncture. He's viewed as an unserious pick for such an important role, he has his enemies in the administration, and his selection may not go down well with investors or senators.

But if Trump wanted to do a Matt Gaetz-type pick, well...