They fear and they enjoy. And this, friends, is the balance. The secret sauce of The Way of Love. Holding the fear in check and embracing the opportunity for great joy. To love. drewdowns.net/2026/04/04/w...
Why I love Life is Strange. Plus some mild takes.
open.substack.com/pub/drewdown...
MAGA and its Talarico Derangement Syndrome.
FYI—Markwayne Mullin is quite likely to be worse than Kristi Noem but don’t think the comparison is the point. Double the wrongness of a failing grade is still a failing grade.
FLASHBACK: Bezos' revamped Editorial Board really nailed this one
When one is perplexed about him in particular, they are assuming something unique to him rather than something revealing about us and this moment.
In a very real sense, little of the Trump phenomenon is actually Trump himself. It is the story of wealthy people bailing out a crooked, sociopathic narcissist and the GOP riding his coattails to power.
When his businesses fail, others bail him out. When he can’t get loans in the US, he goes to Saudi Arabia. When he commits crimes with Epstein, they protect each other. Even the Supreme Court is protecting him.
When people ask “how does he get away with this?” they are inadvertently misapplying direct responsibility. Like he is doing something and he is getting away. He isn’t. Others are letting him go.
One of the most under-appreciated aspects of the Trump experience is how the appearance of being above the consequences of his actions has always been the brand. It is literally something he has no control over.
It is remarkable — Indiana’s Governor, parroting the president, wants you mad, not that someone died, but that an immigrant is involved. He doesn’t want you to demand safer roads, but the rejection of immigrants. He doesn’t want you mourning the dead, but hating the living.
Are we really not going to talk about how the administration is pushing the Melania movie after spending the last decade convincing us that immigrant is a synonym for murderer?
or The Common Writing Advice I Most Need to Ignore
open.substack.com/pub/drewdown...
I can't repost it, but the first reply to this post starts with "Vance has never improved a situation a day in his life," which is the meanest and funniest and truest thing I think I've ever heard anybody say
this is such an embarrassing speech to give a newsroom of media professionals. this all boils down to "the internet exists and people don't watch as much TV news". incredible revelation Bari. Her solution seems to be "create a product people want even less than TV news".
For those struggling to connect the dots, CBS News viewership is down 25% since Bari Weiss took over with the claim that it needs to be more centrist and unsurprisingly Trump still wants to kill it.
So much was good about 2025. Here are 100 things that made my year! open.substack.com/pub/drewdown...
Either it’s that ICE attracts the worst people or ICE brings out the worst in people. Lawless gestapo is the model.
Every time I see a new thing from the admin, I have the same thought. "These losers are so thirsty."
Every single time.
The idea of a media blackout for sports made more sense when tickets were like five bucks and people could just go to them. But in a world when a trip to a game costs a week's wages, blocking games seems self-defeating.
I keep thinking about what people keep expecting from the government, from democratic norms, and from the systems of power in the US. And it occurs to me that maybe the problem starts with our expectations. drewdowns.net/2025/11/13/s...
They are getting their joy now, at the world’s expense. At the expense of our future.
drewdowns.net/2025/11/02/o...
Even if it’s negotiable, that makes it a negotiation. Just because a president crossed the line and people voted for him doesn’t change the line. Nor does it suggest we should accept where they want to place the line. It isn’t dependent on partisanship, but on common behavior. 2/2
One should not take it as given that the plurality that has accepted things that are over the line should be able to dictate where a hypothetical new line should be drawn. 1/2
the lesson of the kimmel thing is that a corporation that previously caved to trump was forced by its audience to defy him.
they're afraid of him but they're more afraid of you.
Using him, not to make the world a better place for everyone. But to push for conservative hegemony.
