April 2025

The digital age takes embodied things and offers virtual substitutes, moving entire realms of human interaction and engagement from the physical marketplace to the computer screen. Some of these substitutes have meaningful upsides. But in many cases, the virtual substitutes are clearly inferior to what they’re replacing. But this substitution nonetheless succeeds and deepens because of the power of distraction.

For the past six years, Gavin Wax has held court as the president of the New York Young Republican Club, a group he helped turn from a small, stodgy establishment outfit into “a vanguard of the Trump movement.” Under his leadership, the club has moved far to the right.