Mailbag: Is The Democratic Party Cracking Up?

Lisbon ... Antwerp ... veal brains

Thanks as always for your questions, readers. It’s good to be back.

Or to be more precise about it: since being on permanent vacation is not feasible for me, returning to this newsletter, this community, this line of work is a blessing relative to most alternatives.

Have a question for next Thursday’s mailbag? Leave it in the comments below.

Mitchell Stein: What I really want to know is how your trip was and what you think of Portugal?

Hannah Iris: Same! How was your trip?! How were the weather, the sites, the food, the vibe? How was the time away for you personally?

Short, literal answer: Trip was great, really enjoyed Portugal, caught great weather there, and even decent weather in Belgium. Great sites, food, vibe in both countries (with the exception of Brussels, which sucks) though they are of course very different places¹.

Long, detailed answer: This trip was unusual for us, not only because we basically never get two full weeks away, but because we moved around a lot. Two days Bruges, three days Ghent, one day Antwerp, three days Lisbon, four days Cascais, then back to Brussels to fly home, taking trains between cities in each country and a round trip flight between Brussels and Lisbon. I suspect that conflicts with most people’s experience or instincts as to what constitutes a relaxing getaway. And of course I didn’t get home Sunday feeling terribly well rested. But all the moving around, seeing new places, making new memories made it feel like a long, long time away—like I’d really come out of my day to day routine and settled into a different kind of life. Toward the end of the trip we looked back on some pictures from a night out in Bruges, and it felt like months had passed. It had been about nine days.

And in that new, temporary existence, I was able to reset in a way that usually eludes me. For the first time in way too long, I read a novel² (I mean a real, literary novel, not pulp fiction) and could ingest it chapters at a time without losing focus, which is what usually happens if I, say, go to the beach for a few days. My mind will rattle or wander to politics or I’ll get restless about missing out on whatever’s happening online, and struggle to make any progress. I’ll get to the end of a page and have to reread the whole thing, because it turns out my eyes were glossing over the words while my brain was fixated on some dumb bullshit. This is one of several ways social media has impoverished me.

So by that broad measure it was a huge success.

The particulars were great, too. Bruges and Ghent are both charming, but with a chance to do it over again, I’d give up a day or two in either or both of those towns and spend more time in Antwerp, which is a fantastic city.

Lisbon was our only real European Capital Vacation Destination on this trip, and I thought it was a pretty cool place. Perfect weather. Beautiful vistas. I sampled pastel de nata, bifana, and ginja—all firsts for me. We always walk a ton when we travel—everywhere, often a bit aimlessly—but the hills in Lisbon provided special permission to overindulge (or so I told myself). We met up there with a couple friends who live in Europe, whom we hadn’t seen in several years, and ate and drank like 20-somethings, but at the kinds of places we can only afford now as 40-somethings. Nevertheless I lost about four pounds over the course of the full vacation. Europe is magic in this way, if you commit to walking as a way of life.

The only setback was that I developed a pretty bad sinus infection (unusual for me) and by the time we got to Cascais it became clear a) it wasn’t going to go away quickly on its own, b) it wasn’t fair of me to loiter around our hotel sniffling and sneezing and sweating like a crook, even though I knew I didn’t have COVID or anything contagious. So I had to spend a few hours at the public hospital, and start taking prescription antibiotics. It cost us about a day of recreation, and it cost me the ability to swim, which was a small bummer. I wanted to take a boat out into the Atlantic and paddle board. But other than that, it didn’t prevent us from doing anything that was on our agenda. I felt all better within 24 hours. We took a day trip through Sintra, which left a big impression on me, and ate an enormous, unforgettable lunch at a family-owned, countryside restaurant called Curral dos Caprinos. This was our least-elaborate sit-down meal of the trip, but also my favorite—the most memorable was in Brussels, where I ate raw veal brains³ to try something new/freak out my family.

I’d like to see much more of Portugal, particularly areas north of Lisbon and the Azores, but there was just no way to squeeze more stops into what was a very packed trip, let alone fly out to the islands. Another time.

Bill: Early in 2024 Jamelle Bouie was on Ezra Klein’s pod. They both agreed that the party that lost the 2024 presidency would destroy itself (or maybe it was could destroy themselves). After witnessing the recent Welcome Fest (aka Abundance Coachella) and the way Democrats are floundering to find their footing against Chump it seems like we are on the way to fulfilling that prediction. What are your thoughts? Honestly, I’m discouraged.

Have you paid any attention to the NYC mayoral race? Have you caught anything on this newcomer Zohran Mamdani? (AOC just endorsed him).