Mark Judge Ponders What Happened to Bill Kristol – And So Do I
8th June 2023
I’ve long pondered what happened to Kristol, and haven’t really come up with an answer either. Yes, the facile answer is “Trump happened,” but to me that’s no answer at all. Why did Trump’s advent on the scene cause previously sane and thoughtful people to go over to the dark side – that is, supporting the left, which is what Kristol now does?
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I have my own experience with Kristol, too. I met him a couple of times, once at a medium-sized gathering where he gave a talk and then there was a dinner where I happened to sit at the same table of around eight people. We have a mutual friend who had known him for decades and thought highly of him, and this person now can’t explain his change either. I wrote a number of articles for the online Weekly Standard (you can find them here at the Washington Examiner, which seems to have taken over the Weekly Standard’s archives) and he was always kind and smart and seemed quite principled. So I am deeply puzzled by his behavior.