Welcome to The Cameron Journal Newsletter. Each week, Cameron Lee Cowan wraps up the headlines with commentary, helping you navigate today’s media narratives, how they are affecting our Culture, Lifestyle, and Society.
Update from Cameron
Happy Weekend everyone!
It is sunny and spring-like here in New England. I was dashing about today with a tank top on, guns out and enjoying the sun before I came back to finish writing this. The nights are still delightfully chilly. It’s nice to have a real Spring. This week was busy in the news with peace with Iran on offer. I also had a great conversation with my colleague David Beckemeyer about Trump voters that you won’t want to miss. However, that’s the big stories of the week, there was a smaller story that didn’t get much attention but is interesting.
It is not often that you get to see the American President facing off with the Pope, and the stakes are even higher as the Pope is American for the first time. Apparently, the White House pressured the Holy See to get on board with the Trump agenda (Pope Leo XIV has spoken out against the administration on the war in Iran and immigration during his state of the world address) or face possible military intervention. The Avignon papacy was even brought up (give it a Google for more info about that) and this has so shaken the Pope that he cancelled plans to come to the US this summer for celebrations around our half-centennial. Relations between Washington and the Holy See have never been lower than right now. What does this mean for the Catholic Church or Catholics in America? That is unclear, but that story should have gotten more attention.
Alright, let’s get into the headlines!
Refresh Your Inbox
If you like The Cameron Journal newsletter and are looking for other newsletters, you should check out this list. I hope you find something interesting to read that you love just as much as The Cameron Journal.
Sign up for CameronJournal+
If you love these newsletters and want to support my work breaking down news narratives at The Cameron Journal, please consider signing up for CameronJournal+.
You will get exclusive content for CJ+ subscribers
Access to our Discord, and special hangouts with me
Ad-free newsletters
It’s the coolest club in town! Don’t want to subscribe but want to support? I take donations at Kofi.
Save big on your next getaway
Over 2 million travelers are saving 40-90% on flights with Going. They provide real-time alerts on deals for 900+ destinations, and saving couldn’t be simpler…
✈️ Just choose your airport
👀 Watch the deals roll in
🏖️ Book your next quick trip or dream getaway
Just imagine going from Chicago to Cancun for $166. Or Baltimore to Paris for $260. These are real deals members have booked.
Get started free with Going here.
The News Narratives of the Week
Don’t forget to join me on Monday for The Cameron Journal Newshour
Peace in Iran?
This morning, the State Department announced that peace talks were taking place in Islamabad, Pakistan. The two week cease-fire was meant to allow for negotiations, but the ceasefire was teetering on collapse due to Israel’s bombardment of Beirut and seizure of land in Lebanon. Iranian state media announced the talks as well on Friday, stating that they did not trust the Americans anyway. Oman has been trying to broker a peace deal between the two countries. VP J.D. Vance is on the ground and this is the highest level talks that have taken place between the countries since 1979. As of this writing, at 6 pm EDT, talks were ongoing at 2 am local time (about an hour ago).
However, there is more to this story, as we know. An F-15 was downed and the CIA used new technology to find the pilots. An F-35 was damaged but landed as well, and strikes on various bases have rendered radar systems and command and control aircraft useless after being bombed. Qatar has withdrawn from the conflict has is forcing US troops out of the country to stop the barrage of missiles from Iran. We don’t know how many American troops have been killed in the conflict, at least not really, as reports have not been forthcoming.
I was intrigued by Jimmy Rushton on Twitter who said that Iran was America’s Suez crisis. For those that don’t know, Egypt seized the Suez Canal from the UK in the 1950s and Britain invaded with French forces to take it back, but both nations were pressured by the United States to allow Egypt to keep the canal, despite that it was the main connection between Britain and the East where they still had large territorial holdings (and would continue to have for another decade). Fighting against the Egyptians wasn’t going that well, but they were successful until the conflict ended with Egyptian victory. It was the biggest sign that the British Empire was over. India had already declared independence, as had some other colonies but losing the canal was a strategic and symbolic loss. The British Imperial age was over, and it died at the Suez Canal in 1951.
Back to the present day and Iran, It is clear that Israel and Netanyahu specifically (who is in court over corruption charges in Israel) sold Trump on a bill of goods about the Iranian regime that was not true at all. And that a few air strikes would not topple the regime. Instead, oil supplies have been disrupted for more than a month and the infrastructure damage will take 3–5 years to repair. Public opinion on the war remains low and the security umbrella of the US has been damaged, especially in South Korea, who lost its THAAD system to Iran. Although Trump has declared victory and even today said that the outcome of the peace process doesn’t matter because the US has defeated Iran militarily (there is not a ton of evidence for that) and that was what mattered. However, the war in Iran has not been the “slam dunk” that was promised. Iran has been resilient and despite the initial goal of regime change, that goal is off the table. The US and Israel have killed 45 leading Iranian officials, and the regime remains in place. Iran controls the crucial Straight of Hormuz (which may or may not be open depending on whom you’re asking) and instead of the regime collapsing in the face of overwhelming American air power, the US is not in Pakistan looking for an off-ramp.
In many of the spaces and places I hang out in on line, American imperial decline is simply taken for granted now and that the war in Iran is the last violent outbursts of an Empire that’s on its way out. International internet users seem to celebrate the end of American empire too. Japan and other countries are securing their own oil supplies with Iran directly and sidestepping the US entirely. The Suez comparison is apt, the US is good at winning battles, but rarely do we win wars anymore. The British won at Suez, but they lost the war and their empire along with it. In my view, we’re likely in the same boat.
Dear Dems: It’s Time to Ditch AIPAC
At a quarterly meeting in New Orleans, a DNC panel voted for a resolution condemning dark money in politics but declined to specifically name AIPAC or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee as a primary donor and contributor to the dark money problem in politics. AIPAC is the crown jewel of the Israel lobby in Washington and they are generous with their donations for candidates that support Israel and they donate to both sides, mostly to ensure US support for Israel that is both political and economic.
AIPAC has been deeply involved and invested in American politics for decades and they spent most of their time supporting pro-Israel candidates so that Washington stays firmly in Israel’s camp, however, on the Democrat side, that support is beginning to wane and shoe cracks. Both Rahm Emmanuel and J.B. Pritzker have come out against AIPAC in recent months. Support for Israel among younger voters has basically collapsed across the board, and support for Israel among democrats has decreased as well (click the link above for polling from NBC on that in reporting from The Hill). Rep. Ilhan Omar was criticized for talking about AIPAC and their lobbying and giving activities several years ago and now that opinion has grown to a fever pitch in the party, but the DNC itself has stopped short of calling them out directly in this latest meeting.
I, for one, wholly am on board with this rejection of AIPAC and their money. Israel has caused the US no end of problems in our relationship with the Middle East for decades, and they advocate for a country that runs an apartheid regime. I support the great people on the ground living normal lives in Israel. I support the Palestinians doing the same thing and I don’t support Hamas or any terrorist organization or any kind. That’s no longer an extreme opinion (although I’ve had it for 20 years), it is the reasonable view of the situation and the sooner we, as a party, separate ourselves from AIPAC, the better off we will be, and it is what many of the rank-and-file members want, especially given the recent events in Iran and how Israel have sold a bill of goods about the war in Iran that simply wasn’t true. To stay wedded to that organization is to stay wedded to an agenda that is both politically unsustainable and, quite frankly, repugnant.
MAGA Elegy
This week I had a chat over email with David Beckemeyer about an article in the Wall Street Journal about how to understand Trump voters and what democrats don’t understand about MAGA which dovetails nicely into my screed last week on the desperation that fuels Fascism.
We’ll begin with an initial comment from David Beckemeyer, “I particularly question what he says is Trump’s third priority, the characterization of that group, and the idea that Trump is primarily guided by some coherent economic program to help those voters (that he will ‘move heaven and earth’ for them — I also don’t think JD Vance’s stupid book says anything useful).”
And my reply to that is: I’ve read Hillbilly Elegy, and as a southerner, he aptly describes how life is for the working class in the midwest these days. The first time I drove across central PA, I stood in a truck stop and said, “Ok, yeah, I get it why they voted for Trump.” It’s bad out there, everything is falling apart. The roads are crumbling, there’s a dead steel plant every 10 miles (ca. 16 km) on I-70. I stopped in Scranton in 2024 and driving around, you can tell that it was once a nice place that has just fallen on hard times.
The same situation has taken place in Binghampton, NY, you can tell it used to be quite wealthy with historic houses and such, and now they are duplexed out and filled with ne’er do wells, drugs, etc. JD Vance describes a life powered by drugs, marginal employment and such. Where the book falls apart is when he decides that the only solution is for people to take themselves seriously and get educated. He doesn’t adequately acknowledge that he moved in with his grandma, his grandfather had a union job, with better pay, and he got a scholarship to Yale. He didn’t pull himself by his bootstraps working at Waffle House, he had a family who could afford to give him a chance, and he took it and networked himself into being Peter Thiel’s protégé and Thiel bankrolled his entire political career. But yeah, much of what he said was true of the people (and he and I are around the same age, he’s slightly older than me). He’s not wrong, it’s tough out there and people got so desperate that when anyone, like….say… a gameshow host from New York showed up offering them to fix it all and put it back to the way it was when things were “good.” They were desperate enough to fall for it.
David continues from the article, “Mr. Trump has at least three priorities. If you follow their logic and make allowances for his bombastic style, there is little that can’t be understood about Mr. Trump and his actions.” I replied that “Make allowances for his bombastic style” is doing a lot of work here, but fundamentals I agree.
From the article again, “First, America must be the Top Nation, not merely “the dominant member of the Western alliance.” China is the only serious rival and the main preoccupation in the White House.”
My reply: Yeah, pretty much. Trump doesn’t understand that being number one requires support. He’s probably never read a history book about nations that go it alone and don’t have allies don’t last at number one for very long because everybody else can gang up on them. If he had ever read about Napoleon at Waterloo, he would know that’s how the 2nd French Empire ended. Add on also Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and other examples farther back in history. Also, Trump wants to be the Top Nation with none of the responsibility for the world’s problems. Which leads directly into point number 2:
From the article, “Second, allies and friends have taken America for granted, with the collusion of past presidents and other Washington insiders. From illegal immigration and inadequate defense spending to organized crime and cozying up to China, Mr. Trump and his circle are determined that any accommodations granted to other countries be matched by concessions to the U.S. of at least equivalent value.”
My reply: This is tent pole to MAGA. I live with someone who thinks exactly this way. I told him the Taiwan was getting cozier to Beijing and may opt for a “one nation, two systems” approach like Hong Kong and that even North and South Korea were chatting more than they have in years. He smiled and said, “See, everyone is starting to get along now, instead of us getting pulled into all of these wars.” That’s the logic of this, and it goes contrary to the entire post-WWII International Order that was developed after the War and solidified after the fall of the USSR. They don’t care that the system has made the US stupidly wealthy compared to any other country in the history of mankind. They didn’t see any of that wealth in decades (see the first part about JD Vance for more).
As far as they are concerned, they do the dying for the overseas wars and after 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan which has left families with young men and women lost in those conflicts, it’s far better to get out of dealing with the world’s problems. The isolationist streak is coming out for the first time in 80 years. Personally, I am horrified because the world will end up being a far more dangerous place, and we’ll end up spending more on defense than we did before because we don’t have allies and forward bases to help us. But they view the entire system as expensive and bloody, almost like leftists who are anti-imperialist but from a purely cost-saving and life expending point of view.
Remember, these are the people who had to unbolt the machines from the factory floors of this country so the machines and their jobs could be sent to Mexico, China and everywhere else. Their children watched their parents, aunts, and uncles go from having good jobs to having to move away from their town, take lousy jobs, go on disability and so on. The economic policies of the last 30 years hollowed out America and all the Democrats have to offer is an economic program that includes more government spending (which I think is a good thing) but lacks the dignity and independence of simply having a good job at GM, Ford, GE, and so on. Literally had a meth head say to me once, “I’d love to work a nice job where I can go to work, do it, get paid and go home.” I have another buddy for whom I have said, “He’d be ok if someone would just like him bolt bumpers onto Fords all day.”
From the article,,”Third, at the forefront of Mr. Trump’s political priorities are the Americans who have paid the price for decades of sacrificing the country’s interests in the name of the “rules based” postwar order. These are the people immortalized in Vice President JD Vance’s memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” and derided by Democrats as “deplorables” who “cling to guns or religion.” They regard Mr. Trump as their tribune, and he will move heaven and earth not to disappoint them.”
As far as they are concerned, we pay for all of these bases and all of this security, and what did we get out of it? Not much? Europe has social programs that most people can’t even dream of due to social democracy, so while the French are on vacation for all of August, Bob, Barb, and Tony are getting in the car at 7 am to drop the kids off at school and get to work on time before the first pot of coffee runs out. And while many of us Liberals look at the French and say, “let’s make that happen here.” MAGA sees it as simply freeloading. They don’t see the sacrifice of coalition troops in Afghanistan as comparable.
Instead, it’s the US who is sending money and weapons to Ukraine, even though the EU (especially Poland) has given an equal amount. Past presidents have been frustrated with the lack of defense spending in Europe. Only France and the UK have legit militaries of any description, and they have very little power projection with one aircraft carrier each. They have overseas bases in their possessions or former colonies, but nothing like what the US has. It has seemed like every problem in the world is somehow our problems and also our expense to solve. The attitude is, “the free ride is over, do your own security.” They don’t understand that’s what caused 2 world wars in 50 years that killed 100 million people and displaced even more. We’re 30 years out from the Cold War, the old calculus doesn’t make sense anymore, and a lot of MAGA people are just done. They are done with paying for it, dying for it, and they are done worrying about it.
MAGA voters want a focus here at home. They would like their crumbling roads fixed and their schools repaired. They would like jobs to come back (tariffs) and they are tired of competing with cheaper foreign labor (China and Southeast Asia/immigration).
And yes, the democrat messaging around his has been terrible. The moment Hillary said, “basket of deplorables” I about threw my phone at the TV. You cannot insult most of the country like that and expect to get away with it. It has been a slogan and anthem for everyone who is tired of being talked down by coastal elites (which is a right wing talking point from the 90s) and is tired of being told they are bad people for thinking that all this globalization and trade deals are a good idea. TVs got cheaper, appliances got cheaper, shittier, and there are fewer jobs in the middle of the country because big tech and big finance are all concentrated in about a dozen super star cities and the wealthy has not moved out into the middle of the country because that’s not the economy we have anymore and it was sold to the rest of the world. Jack Welch, Lee Iocca and many others took the most dynamic economy in human history and basically packed it up and moved to China.
The good jobs that people had are now located in Shenzhen. In a perfect world, the movement of capital would match the movement of labor but most people who live in Ohio aren’t going to learn mandarin and then pick up their lives and live in a tiny apartment in China to install dash assembles into Buicks for GM China. That’s not how people work. People would like to have opportunity in their community so that they can stay near friends and family. The rest of the world who moves half a world away to take on jobs would laugh at the idea, but the reality is that immigrants are a minority of people in their home countries.
However, times are changing, America had negative net migration last year, more people moved out than in, and I’ve seen how moving overseas for cheaper cost of living and more opportunity has become popular. I’ve had my Euro friends invite me over on several occasions. I’ve been told to look for fractional roles in Germany, as they desire American-style marketing. The reality is that we live in a globalized economy and for those with the skills, it is an advantage but for everyone else it’s a net loser. What’s left? Healthcare and service jobs that can’t pay the same as a machine shop because the value isn’t there. We can’t pay coffee baristas $25 an hour plus benefits, they don’t produce enough value.
What does all this mean? For better or worse, they ignore everything we find annoying about Trump because they believe he is on their side (for once) and he is there guy and that they finally have some representation in government that believes in them over everything else. He “isn’t beholden to donors” and appears to be on their side and will finally fix a system that left them behind and screwed them over.
And what do the democrats have to offer? Institutions, preserving the order and the norms that, as far as MAGA people are concerned, haven’t worked in their favor for 40 years. And most people don’t find Trump that offensive, he sounds like the things they aren’t brave enough to say out loud. To most of the East Coast people, he’s just another loud New Yorker that says dumb shit that’s sometimes funny. They don’t understand that in international politics, that kind of attitude is a great way to piss everyone else off. But then again, that’s what they want because they want to withdraw from the world.
Long story long, this article gets it and says it well in a similar way to what I’ve been talking about. On a personal note, I find their attitudes deeply troubling and disturbing. They don’t care how much it takes to break the system, they want to broken, and no price is too high. They barely care that Trump is mentioned in the Epstein files 38,000 times because that’s not proof he’s a pedophile. And in any case, Democrats have done themselves a disservice by complaining about the things he says and even some of the things he does. As I said on Instagram recently, if you want to defeat MAGA, Democrats have to start taking the harms expressed seriously, start taking MAGA voters seriously, and start addressing their concerns, especially around immigration, homelessness, anti-social behavior and the economy.
So far Democrats haven’t offered anything of note on any of those things. The sad part is that the Biden admin did quite a bit for the economy and for working people, but they never messaged it well, and they required the projects go through normal process and be union-based and that delayed most of the projects for years and only just now are some of them coming online and Trump is getting all the credit for it. But within the party, you can’t have a serious conversation on immigration without being branded a racist. You can’t have a conversation about trans people in sports, either. You can’t have a real conversation about a host of right-wing talking points, and they do unanswered by our party (except on The Cameron Journal) because we don’t even acknowledge those problems.
We discuss our unhoused neighbors and how we need more public housing. That’s not good enough for most people who just want them to go away. Newsom did camp clear outs in California and people were mad about that. People can’t find jobs and can’t afford to live and our party, which should be leading the charge on this is stuck with Schumer and Jefferies who the two most incompetent politicians our party has ever produced except for Walter Mondale with George McGovern as an honorable mention.
If we want to get back into the real political discussions going on in this country and not just be known as the “DEI Party” then we need to start having the conversations that are taking place, not the ones we’d like to have. We have to stop with these flat-out dismissals and the attitude that goes with them. We need to get in the real fight. It has to be more than the bad things Trump does. We have to start having the conversations around the issues that have attracted people to him in the first place. That’s how the party moves forward in 2026 and 2028. Let’s not react, let’s lead.
Articles of Interest
Keep up with The Cameron Journal Podcast and The Living Joke
The Interview:
The Cameron Journal Newshour:
The Living Joke:
The World is Hard, This is Not
If you’re new here, my name is Cameron Lee Cowan M.A. MFA, and I’m the Creative Director here at The Cameron Journal. You can learn more about me on the about page. I do research and commentary on politics, culture, and the world around us. Each week I send out the latest news narratives, the latest videos from The Cameron Journal and commentary about the week’s events. If you’d like to explore what The Cameron Journal can do for you beyond the news, just reply to this newsletter and we’ll connect you to the team.
Remember, The World is Hard, This is Not.
Discover more from The Cameron Journal
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
