We're in a new era.

Hey gang, it’s JVL. For those of you who are new around here, I write The Triad newsletter. Sarah Longwell, Bill Kristol, and I founded The Bulwark with some friends back in the first Trump administration. We were one of the first Never-Trump media orgs who clearly saw the threat from MAGA and the creep of authoritarianism in America.

The second Trump term is here. And a whole bunch of bad stuff is happening.

Trump won. He controls all three branches of government. And the forces that mobilized against him last time aren’t even putting up token opposition this time. Heck, a lot of them have actually switched sides and thrown in with the new regime.

Look at Jeff Bezos. Look at Mark Zuckerberg. For that matter, look at the Democratic former presidents yukking it up with Trump and acting like everything’s normal and five by five.

Here’s the thing—it isn’t. Our job is to spend the next four years reminding people of these facts.

Truth. Freedom. Democracy. That’s the mission.

Support the mission.

These aren’t separate things, obviously. You can’t have democracy without freedom. And you can’t have freedom without truth. That’s why the first thing authoritarians do to try to undermine society is wage war on the idea of truth.

Trump doesn’t lie every second of every day because he thinks you believe him. He lies because he wants to tire you out, make you give up, make people believe that there is no “truth”—because everyone is just as corrupt as Trump.

That’s why we lead with truth. Why we won’t shut up about it. Why we’re not willing to move on and get with the program like the oligarch class has.

We called this thing The Bulwark because it turns out that our American system of norms, laws, and institutions—this democracy stuff we all used to take for granted—requires defending.

It turns out that the systems are just people. And that the systems need people to defend them.

Get 30 day free trial

So yeah, this is a dark time. For the first time in our nation’s history, we had a president attempt a coup and after his coup failed, the American people decided to send him back to the White House anyway. That sucks.

But we don’t give up. We keep fighting. And maybe something good happens.

We want you to ride with us. The Bulwark is a community—we spend time together every day, working through the big issues, trying to make sense of it all. So here’s my simple ask: Ride with us. Subscribe to Bulwark+.

When things are dark, the only way through is together.

—JVL