Welcome to this week’s edition of “Stuff You Should Consume”— a weekly compilation of interesting political content for Message Box readers

“2022 Voters Rejected Republican Priorities” by Tenneth Fairclough II, Data for Progress

“Just Wait Until You Get to Know Ron DeSantis” by Mark Leibovich, The Atlantic

The pure nerve that allowed DeSantis to so debase himself before Trump and then promptly turn against his former kingmaker could serve him well. DeSantis understands intuitively that loyalty in politics can be a loser’s proposition. “Ron’s strength as a politician is that he doesn’t give a fuck,” a Republican consultant told The New Yorker. “Ron’s weakness as a politician is that he doesn’t give a fuck.”

“The VIRAL Ads of Herschel Walker & Raphael Warnock,” Crooked Media

“Republicans Hate Everything About Trump’s Dinner With Ye and Fuentes Except Trump” by Jamelle Bouie, New York Times

You’ll notice, in all of this, that while Republicans are willing to condemn Fuentes and Ye and Trump’s decision to eat dinner with them, they are not willing to go so far as to draw any conclusions about Trump himself. Even Pence — who had, in this group, the strongest words for Trump — took care not to impute any malice to his former boss. “I don’t believe Donald Trump is an antisemite. I don’t believe he’s a racist or a bigot,” he said. “I think the president demonstrated profoundly poor judgment in giving those individuals a seat at the table.”

“A Right-Wing Zionist Digests Trump’s Anti-Semite Dinner Party” by Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker

Three weeks ago, the Zionist Organization of America gave what it called its highest honor to former President Donald Trump. According to Morton Klein, who runs the Z.O.A., the award commemorated Trump as the “best friend Israel ever had in the White House.” Last week, at Mar-a-Lago, Trump had dinner with Ye—formerly known as Kanye West—and the white supremacist Nick Fuentes, setting off the biggest firestorm over Trump’s bigotry since his response to the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville (which Fuentes attended) … I recently spoke by phone with Klein. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed his confusion over Trump’s dinner, why Trump has got close to bigots in recent weeks, and Klein’s questions about Barack Obama’s birthplace.

“Black Turnout in Midterms Was One of the Low Points for Democrats” by Nate Cohn, New York Times

In Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Detroit, turnout fell 10 percent to 12 percent beneath 2018 levels. At the same time, turnout increased in the rest of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. Obviously, there are plenty of voters of other races and ethnicities in Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Detroit, but the relatively lower Black turnout in these places is part of a broader nationwide pattern: In areas where Black voters represented a larger share of the population, the turnout sank by more.