Snapshot · The Bulwark Podcast
Cameron Kasky reported that even fundamentally pro-Israel candidates in New York's 12th district rejected AIPAC money because the organization's brand has become so toxic it could cost them their elections.
Where this was said
At 58:10 · chapter starts 52:35
Miller frames the Gaza question as 'table stakes' in progressive primaries — the minimum requirement to get in the door with progressive voters, after which other factors determine the outcome. Kasky agrees but adds texture: the Israel issue became a credibility problem specifically for Dan Goldman, whose ideological Zionism was genuine and visible, making his position politically untenable in NY-10. Espaillat's case was different — Kasky believes he probably could have survived had he adjusted his position, because unlike Goldman, there was no personal or religious tie to Zionism for Espaillat, just political habit. Kasky also notes that AIPAC's brand has become so toxic that even fundamentally pro-Israel Democratic candidates in NY-12 — including Alex Borres and Michael Lasher — were telling AIPAC explicitly not to donate to them. The discussion ranges across Daria Leza's upset of Espaillat in Harlem and the Brad Lander-Dan Goldman Brooklyn dynamic.
Gaza criticism is now the entry ticket for progressive voters to even hear your pitch — but it's just the ante. The candidates who have actually won built coalitions around energy, vision, and relentless work. The candidates who lost weren't simply pro-Israel; they were also stale, complacent, and neglecting chunks of their districts.
Dan Goldman won the 2022 NY-10 Democratic primary with just 26% of the vote in a crowded field, a result that left him politically vulnerable from the start.
A total of 8 states have filed lawsuits against social media platforms, including an ongoing case in Tennessee, using product liability and public nuisance theories to seek accountability.
France built 56 nuclear plants in the 1970s and now has the cheapest energy in Europe, making it independent of Russian or Middle Eastern energy geopolitics.
Estonia has a single tax form, a law preventing the government from asking citizens for the same information twice, and a flat rate of tax — enabling competitive taxation.
Portugal's Lisbon, once a city with a major heroin problem, legalised drugs and redirected enforcement spending into rehabilitation and housing, dramatically reducing crime.
The first Boland Amendment banning CIA and Defense Department funds for the Contras passed the House unanimously — yet the Reagan administration ignored it.
Over just two years, Saudi Arabia alone donated $32 million to the Contra rebels, giving loosely affiliated factions millions they had no way to spend on arms.
The National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty raised $6.3 million for the Contras but only $3.3 million reached them — a shockingly low 52% program expense rate.
Richard Secord and Albert Hakim marked up their arms shipments to the Contras by as much as 300%, making enormous personal profits from the covert operation.
Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, tapped to run the entire covert Contra support operation, had no prior experience in covert operations whatsoever — he was learning as he went.
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