Navigating Identity Politics and Political Messaging

This week, Matt and Brian discuss the unexpected final (?) twist of the 2024 campaign: The immense backlash to Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden.

* Why did a bad comedian’s offensive comments about Puerto Rico break through, when he and other speakers made equally racist comments about black people, Jews, Palestinians, and others?

* After a campaign in which Democrats largely downplayed race politics in favor of cross-cutting democracy, abortion, and health care appeals, how did racism become the disqualifying thing that broke through the MAGA din?

* Are Democrats like Pete Buttigieg right that the Madison Square Garden controversy is “bait,” and a distraction from those other issues, when it’s visibly tearing Republicans apart, and they’re desperate to change the subject?

Then, behind the paywall, Matt and Brian take a comprehensive look at the immense, organic backlash to Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post after Bezos scuttled the paper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris to preemptively appease Donald Trump. To what extent was this a canary in the coal mine of for the country’s drift into authoritarianism? Is the boycott itself a leading indicator that the anti-Trump resistance is a sleeping giant awakened? Will campaign reporters push back against Bezos-style thinking by closing out the election with the kind of adversarial coverage that Trump deserved all along.

All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

Further reading:

* Matt’s 27 takes on the election, one week out.

* Brian on the awakening of America’s pro-democracy majority.

* Kamala Harris, For Men! by Sarah Lazarus.

* Jeff Bezos “explains” himself.

* Michelle Obama’s plea to male voters.