The Lincoln Logue's 2025 Wrapped | Trump's Military Parade, Megyn Kelly's Epstein Defense, & Mamdani's Big Win
It was a rough year, but we'll keep fighting back in 2026, no matter what.
2025 didn’t arrive with a single rupture. It arrived as a series of permissions. Permission to speak cruelty plainly, permission to monetize public rituals, permission to flatten moral horror into semantic debate, permission to shrug at suffering and call it realism. What once required euphemism now shows up as a punchline, a sponsorship deal, or a smug insistence that everyone dies eventually. The year wasn’t defined by chaos so much as by confidence — the confidence of people who no longer fear consequences because they’ve watched institutions blink too many times.
Across these months, power kept testing how little explanation it owes the public. A senator waved off preventable death as philosophy. A party establishment discovered too late that voters can organize without permission. A president’s own propaganda tool accidentally told the truth. A military celebration doubled as a loyalty program. A media figure tried to launder exploitation through wordplay while survivors did the work of remembering. None of these moments were isolated; they were rehearsals for a political culture increasingly comfortable with erosion as long as it happens slowly enough.
This is not a greatest-hits list. It’s a record of tells — moments when the mask slipped, when language failed to cover intent, when the system revealed what it is willing to trade away. Taken together, they map a year where accountability was treated as optional and cynicism was mistaken for strength.
Welcome back to The Lincoln Logue. Let’s look back at 2025.
Sen. Joni Ernst’s Compassionate Mortality
▌“We all are going to die,” says Ernst, offering comfort only a skydiver with no parachute could feel.
At an Iowa town hall in June, Sen. Joni Ernst was asked a direct question: would cuts to Medicaid in the new GOP budget result in deaths? Her response? “We all are going to die.” A quote destined for the Hall of Fame of Political Tone-Deafness.
Rather than defending the substance of the Trump-backed “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which slashes federal funding for Medicaid while adding work requirements, Ernst opted for a nihilistic shrug. Her follow-up claimed she was being taken out of context and that she’s “very compassionate.” But the damage was done.
It was a Marie Antoinette moment for the MAGA era: if they can’t afford healthcare, let them ponder their mortality. While Republicans continue gutting life-saving programs, they’re also testing how far they can push public indifference. The result? A policy agenda soaked in cruelty and wrapped in platitudes.
Source: CBS News