Somehow the GOP Is Getting Worse

You just knew they were going to fly in formation. As 2023 became 2024, the terms of the oaths of allegiance became clear. These, mind you, are the two most thoroughly washed-in-the-blood-of-the-Lamb alleged competitors challenging the former president* in the Republican presidential primary process. And they've already abandoned an incredibly rich deposit of oppo research, let alone any commitment to the rule of law and the continued existence of the American republic. It would be one thing if these two didn't know how to run against the former president*, but it's quite another to realize that they...don't...want...to. So Chris Christie is out there on the island alone, telling his pet volleyball how utterly corrupt and profoundly vile his party's frontrunner obviously is. Meanwhile, the best strategy Nikki Haley can come up with is drowning me in TV ads during bowl games pointing out that the president* and the former president* is, well, old. [View in Browser]( [Esquire]( [SHOP]( EXCLUSIVE [SUBSCRIBE]( [It's Not Just That Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis Don't Know How to Beat Trump, It's That They Don't Want To]( [It's Not Just That Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis Don't Know How to Beat Trump, It's That They Don't Want To]( You just knew they were going to fly in formation. As 2023 became 2024, the terms of the oaths of allegiance became clear. These, mind you, are the two most thoroughly washed-in-the-blood-of-the-Lamb alleged competitors challenging the former president* in the Republican presidential primary process. And they've already abandoned an incredibly rich deposit of oppo research, let alone any commitment to the rule of law and the continued existence of the American republic. It would be one thing if these two didn't know how to run against the former president*, but it's quite another to realize that they...don't...want...to. So Chris Christie is out there on the island alone, telling his pet volleyball how utterly corrupt and profoundly vile his party's frontrunner obviously is. Meanwhile, the best strategy Nikki Haley can come up with is drowning me in TV ads during bowl games pointing out that the president* and the former president* is, well, old. [Read More](   [The 15 Best Workout Pants to Get You Moving]( [The 15 Best Workout Pants to Get You Moving]( Start sweating in style. [Read More]( [I Hate Tablets, Love Paper, and Want Digital Notes—This Is the Answer]( [I Hate Tablets, Love Paper, and Want Digital Notes—This Is the Answer]( Moleskine's Smart Writing Set is the perfect marriage of old and new tech. [Read More](     [It's Time to Rewrite the Rules of Historical Fiction]( [It's Time to Rewrite the Rules of Historical Fiction]( When you write a historical novel, one of the most common questions you get asked is, how did you research your book? How, readers and writers alike ask, did you learn about the time you were writing about? Did you visit the places you wrote about? Did you conduct mountains of interviews with sobbing survivors? Did you pore through grainy archival footage to find little factoids no one had written about while locked in the bowels of library basements? There is a curious, almost voyeuristic desire to peer into an author’s process. Historical fiction is lived experience, often traumatic, made legible and digestible by the novelist, and people want to know what kind of instruments the author used to excavate said experiences. They want to see the way the pudding is made; they want to understand the ways you stitched the broken shards of history together. [Read More](   [Kickstart Your New Year With the Best Workout Equipment on Sale at Amazon]( [Kickstart Your New Year With the Best Workout Equipment on Sale at Amazon]( We're getting ripped this year, folks. [Read More]( [The Refresh: Your Go-To Cold-Weather Grooming Routine]( [The Refresh: Your Go-To Cold-Weather Grooming Routine]( When temps are down, here's how you change things up. [Read More](     [Dumbscrolling in Wartime]( [Dumbscrolling in Wartime]( It was on track to be the dumbest year on record before it became a horrifying one. You know you’re in trouble when you find yourself longing for the more dignified days of Rick Perry, Harambe T-shirts, and Mike Posner’s “I Took a Pill in Ibiza.” But here we are, dizzy and sore at the end of a year when stupid and outlandish things came too fast and too furious to lodge themselves in even our short-term memory. Like, did you know there was a tenth Fast & Furious movie in cinemas this calendar year? True story! Fast X, I want to say! [Read More](   [RUN 2024 Wall Calendar]( [LiveIntent Logo]( [AdChoices Logo]( [How satisfied are you with the content of this newsletter?]( Follow Us [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Notice]( | [CA Notice at Collection]( Esquire is a publication of Hearst Magazines. ©2024 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This email was sent by Hearst Magazines, 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019-3779