Casey Baskin Aneurysms, Best of, literature, publishing, race, whiteness

Up-Is-Down Wins the Losers’ Primary in a Tragic Victory

This will be a quick tune-in for this week’s best-of. As friend-of-the-blog Dr. Sebastian Gorka famously said: Events move quickly, you see.

The American Dirt story continues to rile the publishing world, thanks pretty much exclusively to the dynamo Myriam Gurba, who pointed out in grand fashion that the Yanqui Empress had no clothes on. We are trying to keep track of all the coverage, which is a nearly impossible task. Most recently, our own editor Romeo Guzmán shared the stage with Gurba and the legendary Roxane Gay to discuss diversity and white/Anglo domination in publishing — an event that was covered prominently by the Los Angeles Times. Our girl Myriam has been interviewed by Latino USA, among many other programs and publications, and Tropics of Meta was even mentioned on Good Morning America of all places.

Our long-suffering but always-patient Marxist sleeper cell is finally activated, and infiltrating your network morning shows. Everything is going according to plan.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party has succeeded in equally grand fashion at the one thing it’s good at: failing. The Iowa caucus on February 3rd was universally derided for somehow fumbling a task, thanks to DNC crony ingenuity, that is literally no more complicated than picking people for an 8th grade dodgeball team. The robotic boy from nowhere, Pete Buttigieg, declared victory before any votes were counted, in a speech that even the National Review found “creepy.”

Then, in New Hampshire, Sen. Bernie Sanders came out on top — but you would not know that from reading any mainstream news source. The always perspicacious New York Times merely noted that Sanders had not “won,” exactly, so much as “tightened his grip” on the party’s liberal wing. The WaPo‘s top three election stories the next morning were about Pete, Biden, and Amy, in that order. In an outbreak of spontaneous Orwellianism, Sanders somehow lost by winning, while Amy Klobuchar triumphed… in third place… with 19.8% of the vote.

We understand the need of political reporters to spin compelling narratives to hold the interest of readers, viewers, and listeners — so the Klobuchar Komeback is a good little twist in the news cycle. But the near-universal unwillingness to acknowledge Sanders’s success has been surreal — as symbolized by this piece of gonzo propaganda:

The moderate theory didn’t fail; the world did. But that can be corrected.

It is probably not a secret that many of our editors and writers are partial to Mr. Sanders, but it’s equally fair to say we are also supportive of Senator Warren — who gave a principled and dignified speech on Tuesday night, despite a disappointing finish in NH. She and Sanders both have signaled over and over that they will rally the troops and stick with the
Democratic cause even if their own progressive movement does not secure the nomination. The question is often asked as to whether Sanders’s loathsome supporters would be willing to vote for the Democratic candidate if their idol does not get the nom.

A much better question would be: are any of these other people going to support Sanders if he does become the party’s standard-bearer? Everyone from Lloyd Blankfein to Michael Bloomberg to Neera Tanden has been making it abundantly clear that they would not.

So whose side, indeed, are you on? Who will keep faith with us? Warren and Sanders will. The rest of the crowd can go jump in a goddamn lake.

Here is the round-up of the best of the web, picked by our editors: