Trita Parsi

.@BenMoser123 has this magical way with words. He can put things so simply, so self-evidently, that it makes you wonder why on earth there even was a debate.

“The lesson of the Holocaust wasn’t that you should act like Nazis. It was that you shouldn’t. For some reason, this is a hard concept for some people.”

Whenever you resort to the "history will prove me right" line of argument, you know you have lost, and instead you desperately claim you will win in some future, alternative universe.

Remember, George W. Bush said the same thing about the Iraq War...

In yesterday's Q&A, we discussed what happened at the White House on Friday, when a decision to restart the war was held off, at least for now. I explained the dynamics inside the Trump administration on this issue and why the stalemate is untenable.

Yet, time is also running out for the pro-war side: because of the December 11th deadline, when Democrats can threaten to shut down the government unless the war is defunded; January 3rd, when Democrats will control both Chambers in Congress and can directly defund the war; and if you are Netanyahu, your premiership may come to an end any day now if Eisenkot succeeds in forming a new government.

But we also discussed the deeper meaning of the midterm elections. I’ve personally been down on American democracy for some time, but for the first time in years, I see a glimmer of hope.

Not because of the specific results, but because partisan loyalty appears to have given way to anti-war principles. Party loyalty has traditionally been very strong among Americans. Shifting from one party to another has been rare. Moreover, loyalty to specific candidates has also been robust, none more than Trump, of course, who famously bragged that he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and his supporters would still vote for him.

In fact, in 2016, I had a meeting with Jake Sullivan at Hillary’s campaign headquarters - this is, of course, before he enabled the genocide in Gaza - to discuss regional developments. There was clear nervousness in the Hillary camp, and he asked me to guess who they were recruiting to the campaign. I assumed more pollsters and grassroots organizers. Turns out, they were hiring psychologists. Sullivan told me they couldn’t figure out the psychology behind the loyalty MAGA supporters had to Trump. If someone turned to the Trump camp, no matter what Trump did or what scandal emerged about him, those new voters would stay loyal to his camp. They were immune to any information challenging their decision to favor Trump.

Read more: tritaparsi.substack.com/p/recording-of…

wow!

Sometimes Laura Loomer did a retweet for only $500.

For my ego, I hope no evidence emerges that she ever tweeted against me for less than $4000 per tweet...

Argued on @owenjonesjourno that MAGA voters not only passively punished Trump (like Democrats did with Biden in 2024 over Gaza by staying home), but actively punished Trump over the Iran war BY VOTING FOR DEMOCRATS.

This suggests that loyalty to Trump is being trumped by the anti-war principle for many in MAGA.

youtube.com/watch?v=1GzNuy…