The Gist Not Even Mad: Jonah Goldberg & Zee Cohen-Sanchez
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Oct 16, 2025 
Join Jonah Goldberg, a conservative commentator and co-founder of The Dispatch, alongside Zee Cohen-Sanchez, founder of Soul Strategies, as they dive into pressing political issues. They dissect the impacts of the government shutdown and how it affects local services, tourism, and public perception. The duo debates the implications of Trump's style on authoritarianism and the recent release of Hamas hostages. They even share humorous gripes about cultural annoyances, keeping the discussion both insightful and entertaining.
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Trump's Unconventional Autocracy Puzzle
- Ben Readersdorf's framing: Trump may be pushing straight to visible repression before consolidating power, unlike other competitive authoritarians.
- That raises the puzzle of whether his tactics or lack of strategy will succeed in building a competitive-authoritarian regime.
Counter Normalization Early
- Do watch for incremental normalization: small provocations followed by gradual escalation can shift public tolerance.
- Pressure institutions and voters early to reject those normalized steps before they calcify into policy.
Unpopularity Can Constrain Authoritarianism
- Jonah argues Trump's unpopularity limits his ability to consolidate classic authoritarian power, because he craves headlines over durable institutions.
- Trump's laziness and desire for spectacle make him easier to manipulate and less like historical effective authoritarians.