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The political science professor and commentator Nicholas Grossman—whom you may know from social media, Arc Digital, and various other publications—reached out to me last week with a few caveats about Thursday’s lengthy essay about the new left-wing insurgency, and its origins in Democratic Party procedural weakness. Though we largely agree on the premise, I thought it’d be sportin…

(Photo by Natalie Behring/Getty Images) You can read what follows as an after-action report on the Graham Platner saga—but that episode is a microcosm of something larger and more profound. The Democratic Party has lost control of itself more completely than at any time I can remember. Donald Trump’s victory in 2024 was the precipitating incident.

(Photo by Adam GRAY / AFP via Getty Images) Whether you were excited by, skeptical of, or angry about Zohran Mamdani’s involvement in New York’s primaries surely turns on what his ends are, whether you support them, and how well or poorly you think he advanced his own objectives. Everyone agrees it was a ruthless demonstration of political power.

Quick reminder: I’m out and hopefully off the grid altogether from June 27 - July 8. Regular programming will resume then. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call) Eric Max: I want to help Democrats win, but I want to push them to fight harder. Donating to Democratic funds like the DCCC feels like rewarding bad behavior. Where would donations or volunteering move the needle?

(Photo by Brooks Kraft/ Getty Images) When Barack Obama signed the JCPOA with Iran and other global powers in 2015, his critics wailed that the deal was bad, but also too short. It echoed the Annie Hall joke: What terrible food—and such small portions! But these malcontents did have an argument about why bigger would be better. Taken at face value the idea was that Iran could bide its time, submit to an intrusive inspection regime for 15 years, then revert to form when the terms expired.

(Photo by Pedro Ugarte / AFP via Getty Images) Right-wing consciousness of guilt is one of few amusing phenomena of the Trump era. It is so pitched, and conservatives so self-aware, that any nod to virtue strikes them as an accusation, and they lash out angrily.

There’s a certain kind of right-wing American Jew who fancies himself (almost always himself) an arbiter of Jewry. In his eyes Jewry has almost nothing to do with living a life of private and civic rectitude, and almost everything to do with supporting Israeli belligerence in every conflict. This is why the Republican commentator Ben Shapiro felt entitled to slap the headline, “No, It Doesn’t Matter That Bernie Sanders Is Ethnically Jewish.

(Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images) Housekeeping note: I’m off for vacation on Saturday, so this will be the last mailbag until mid-July. The thread is open for members.

(Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) Quick observation from me up top, and then we’ll get to your questions. I haven’t written at length about the developments in Iran this week, or offered bullet-point thoughts, for three simple reasons: the president and his advisers aren’t trustworthy; the peace deal they’re treating as fait accompli isn’t a peace deal; and it doesn’t describe a stable detente.

Minor schedule change: I’ll be publishing mailbag responses on Friday instead of today (which means there’s still time to get questions in). I hope everyone has a restful and reflective Juneteenth.