Never-Trump Smackdown

What an online fight between writers at The Dispatch and The Bulwark reveals about enduring tensions between politics and the life of the mind

Broken Red, White, And Blue Elephant (Stock image, Getty Images)

Twitter/X has never been a great place to go for thoughtful argument and debate, and that’s even less so today, since Elon Musk took it over. (Insults, conspiracies, and amusing memes? Yes. A sober and good-faith airing of differences? Not so much.) But late last week, an illuminating (if also testy) debate broke out among a number of people I respect and see as intellectual and political allies. I think my followers here may find the issues raised by people on both sides pretty interesting and important. I know I did. That’s because those issues are ones I’ve been thinking about and wrestling with for a long time—for something like 20 years, in fact.