The Bulwark Podcast Ta-Nehisi Coates: This Is Armed Identity Politics
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Jan 29, 2026 
Ta-Nehisi Coates, journalist and author known for writing on race and American identity, discusses the origins and risks of Homeland Security language and its power. He revisits Viola Liuzzo and white allyship, critiques media consolidation and the CBS fallout, and condemns Jared Kushner’s exclusionary Gaza plan. Short, incisive conversations about trust, storytelling, and political danger.
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Homeland Language Shapes Policy
- Ta-Nehisi Coates argues the term "homeland" carries blood-and-soil, Teutonic connotations that reshaped security policy.
- He links the Department of Homeland Security's creation to long-term normalization of militarized domestic policy.
Norms Aren't A Safeguard
- Coates and Tim Miller note early critics warned norms wouldn't stop a determined leader from abusing DHS powers.
- Feingold predicted norms alone are insufficient to prevent institutional violation and today that concern looks prescient.
Feingold's Town Hall Memory
- Russ Feingold recalled town halls degrading rapidly after Obama's election and warned of institutional fragility.
- Ta-Nehisi Coates relayed Feingold's sense that even he did not foresee how far degradation would go.
