Is This Democracy

Since early March, the Trumpist assault on the rule of law and the constitutional order has been most visible in the radicalizing attempt to purge the nation from anyone this regime deems unwelcome or “undesirable.” Foreign students who are labeled a threat to American foreign policy, Venezuelan migrants who are declared foreign “invaders,” innocent people like Kilmar Abrego Garcia who are treated as “terrorists.” Every day brings new horror stories of the Trump administration’s complete disregard for the fundamental rights of people who live in the United States, of the gleeful cruelty with which the government is destroying their lives. What is happening to these people isn’t adequately described as “deportation”: The U.S. government strips them of all rights and imprisons them in a brutal labor camp in a foreign country. A regime that so aggressively curtails and ignores fundamental rights for one group today will not hesitate to violate and suspend them for others tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow. It’s never far from “illegal aliens” and “alien enemies” to “the enemy within.” We talk about how all these cases are connected, about the role of the courts and what to make of the Supreme Court’s interventions, about the response from Democrats and the American public. And we discuss why this constitutes such an acute threat to constitutional government – a threat to the very survival of the Republic. To what extent is the constitutional order still in effect? If we must ask, we are fully in a crisis situation; once we don’t have to ask anymore, the constitutional order will have already been overthrown. Show notes:“He Was Deported by Administrative Error. We Talked to His Lawyer,” Amicus Podcast, April 5 https://slate.com/podcasts/amicus/2025/04/trump-tariffs-are-they-legal Mark Joseph Stern, “The Crisis Over Trump’s Salvadoran Gulag Has Reached a Terrifying Breaking Point,” Slate, April 14 https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/04/trump-defying-supreme-court-el-salvador-bukele.html Trump v J.G.G, 5-4 Podcast, April 15 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trump-v-j-g-g/id1497785843?i=1000703569102 Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, “In Kilmar Abrego Garcia Case, Trump Administration Escalates Its War on Due Process,” Immigration Impact, April 16 https://immigrationimpact.com/2025/04/16/kilmar-abrego-garcia-case-trump-due-process/ Chris Geidner, “Supreme Court blocks some Alien Enemies Act removals in Texas-based case,” Law Dork, April 19 https://www.lawdork.com/p/supreme-court-aea-april-late-night-orderFollow LilyFollow ThomasFollow the podcast on social mediaRead Thomas’ weekly newsletter Democracy Americana

Are you feeling “liberated”? The long-dreaded “Liberation Day” saw America declare a trade war on the rest of the world. We discuss why Trump loves tariffs and what to make of the different rationales emerging from the regime. Most importantly, we unpack the politics of the tariff madness, what it can tell us about how this government operates, and how it all fits (or doesn’t) with the broader political project of Tumpism. There is no cunning masterplan, no coherent policy process – but that doesn’t mean these actions aren’t rooted in a worldview of hierarchies and tied to a broader political project seeking domination. Finally, it wasn’t all bad lately: “Liberation Day” was preceded by what has been termed “Resistance Day” and, crucially, followed by the “Hand Off” mass protests. The Trumpist regime’s main justification for its authoritarian assertion of power - that Trump has a “mandate,” that he’s enacting the “will of the people,” that his agenda represents a broad consensus - is a dangerous lie that we must not perpetuate.Follow LilyFollow ThomasFollow the podcast on social mediaRead Thomas’ weekly newsletter Democracy Americana

The podcast dives into alarming political escalations, highlighting the Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants without due process. It addresses the growing fear among vulnerable communities and the troubling capitulation of universities to authoritarian pressures. The discussion also critiques the erosion of judicial independence and civil liberties for foreign scholars, emphasizing the detrimental effects on academic freedom and innovation in the U.S. The urgent need to resist these trends is a central theme throughout.

A little over six weeks since Trump returned to the White House – and the assault on democratic self-government and the modern state is not slowing down. We start with Trump’s speech before a joint session of Congress. On the one hand, he didn’t say anything he hasn’t said many times before. But on the other, the whole spectacle revealed so much about Trumpism as a political project – and about a Republican Party that is entirely defined by its devotion to it. Similarly, the Democratic (non-)response offered a window into America’s nominal opposition party: Split between those who still cling to politics-as-usual, dreams of bipartisan “unity,” and impotent accommodation – and those who understand the emergency we face. We then talk about the Supreme Court intervening this week, siding against the Trumpist regime’s egregious attempt to freeze all foreign aid funding and simply not pay the government’s bills. The good news: The Court narrowly held that the rule of law and the constitutional order still somewhat matter. The bad news: This should not have been close at all, and yet it was. And, crucially, we must resist the temptation to legitimize John Robert’s idea of judicial supremacy – even when he occasionally tells the most extreme rightwing forces to knock it off. The Roberts Court is the spearhead of the reactionary mobilization against modern democracy. Finally, One Big Thing we have been thinking about lately: Lily brings up the pushback Republicans have been getting from the base in town halls around the country. Is a reverse-Tea Party a possibility? Thomas has been asked the same question over and over again: Don’t the Trumpists understand how much they are weakening America at home and abroad? The most plausible answer: What they are doing to America is not an accident or an unintended consequence. They really mean it. Show notes: ‘Trump’s 2025 joint session address, fact checked and annotated,’ CNN, March 5, 2025 https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2025/03/politics/transcript-speech-trump-congress-annotated-dg/ The Exploding Heads, ‘Historians Will Forever Remember When We Held Up Very Small Signs,’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5ZbiR0003Q Chris Geidner, ‘The Supreme Court, barely, upholds our three-branch system of government,’ Law Dork, March 5, 2025 https://www.lawdork.com/p/supreme-court-usaid-payments-orderFollow LilyFollow ThomasFollow the podcast on social mediaRead Thomas’ weekly newsletter Democracy Americana

In a striking analysis, the hosts discuss Donald Trump's claims of absolute power and their implications for democracy. They delve into the troubling article on American authoritarianism, connecting historical patterns to current events. The conversation touches on government tactics of reward and punishment, exploring how loyalty is fostered while dissent is stifled. Lastly, they highlight the alarming erosion of state capacity, urging citizens to engage actively in defending democracy during these precarious times.

Explore the gripping issues surrounding the escalating constitutional crisis and the influence of tech moguls like Elon Musk. Discover the potential implications of a government lacking checks and balances, and the controversial rise of unconventional governance tactics. Delve into the critical role of USAID in global humanitarian efforts and the complexities of U.S. foreign aid amid autocratic threats. Witness the internal struggles within the Republican Party and the urgent call for a more proactive Democratic response to safeguard democracy.

Is This Democracy is back! And what a time to be discussing the conflict over how much democracy, and for whom, there should be in America. We reflect on the Inauguration and the first 72 hours of the Trump regime: What stood out from the transfer of power on Monday and Trump’s speech(es)? Most importantly: What have we learned from the onslaught of presidential executive orders and proclamations? We try to establish a framework for how to think about what is happening around us: This is not merely a presidential transition, but an attempted regime change. The Trumpists want to change the rules of how the system works and how power is being wielded; they seek to roll back the post-1960s civil rights order; and they aggressively set out to redefine the boundaries of who gets to belong in America, who has a right to be part of the polity. This is an inflection point - a test for the Constitution, the courts, the system. In the regime’s early initiatives, MAGA has, once again, revealed its true face: An ideologically driven project seeking to roll back much of the racial and social progress of (at least) the past century. Follow Lily Follow Thomas Follow the podcast on social media Read Thomas’ weekly newsletter Democracy Americana

We continue our conversation about “Landslide,” the fantastic new NPR podcast series – and about the transformation of politics in the 1970s, the emergence of a new kind of populist politics, how the Republican Party was taken over by rightwing radicalism that ultimately rose to power with Ronald Reagan in 1980, and how all that relates to what we are experiencing today.   In last week’s Part I, we already talked about the process of partisan sorting and party realignment – certainly one of the key stories in recent U.S. history; about the reaction of the Republican establishment to the Reagan-led rightwing insurgency that oscillated between arrogance, helplessness, and complicity; we discussed Reagan as a radical figure in U.S. history and why we can only understand the rise of these rightwing insurgents if we focus on the racial and cultural grievances around which their political project was organized.   In this Part II, we start by tackling the question of how to reconcile individual agency and structural contexts, presidential politics and grassroots activism, the contingencies of the political process and broader cultural and ideological shifts when we think about and try to explain history. We also reflect on the question of how to relate Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump – on the relationship between the political styles, promises, and projects they embody: Reaganism and Trumpism; on the similarities and echoes, but also the differences between these two brands of reactionary politics. And finally, we reflect on the lessons we ought to learn (or not learn) from the 1970s for our own political moment, and whether the story of Gerald Ford and is best interpreted as a role model for a more moderate politics oriented towards compromise – or as a cautionary tale of what happens when the Republican establishment tries to appease and harness, rather than oppose, the forces of rightwing extremism.   Show notes: “Landslide” at the NPR podcast network: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510376/landslide   Nuance Tales – Ben Bradford’s podcast production studio https://www.nuancetales.com/home

“Landslide” is a new NPR podcast series that tells the story of American politics in the 1970s, specifically of the 1976 and 1980 presidential elections, of Jimmy Carter’s unlikely path to the White House and, most importantly, of how Ronald Reagan and the New Right rose to power. And as you will hear in our conversation with our guest Ben Bradford, the man who created, hosted, narrated, and produced “Landslide,” it is also so much more. For this episode, I recruited the help of Seth Cotlar, professor of history at Willamette University (and our first returning guest on the show), who is currently writing a book about the relationship between establishment Republicanism and far-right activism in Oregon since the 1950s. Together, we discuss the story of “Landslide” with Ben Bradford – and the many questions of fundamental historical and political importance it tackles. We investigate the Republican Party’s radicalization to the Right and the role Ronald Reagan played in this process; the emergence of a new kind of politics and political culture; the relationship between Reagan and Trump – and between the political styles, promises, and projects they embody: Reaganism and Trumpism. And we reflect on the lessons we ought to learn (or not learn) from the 1970s for our own political moment, and whether the story of Gerald Ford and is best interpreted as a role model for a more moderate politics oriented towards compromise – or as a cautionary tale of what happens when the Republican establishment tries to appease and harness, rather than oppose, the forces of rightwing extremism. If you are interested in the pre-historie(s) of our present and how we got to where we are today, I promise this conversation is for you. We actually had so much to talk about that we are releasing the conversation in two episodes – look out for Part II early next week.     Show notes: “Landslide” at the NPR podcast network: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510376/landslide Nuance Tales – Ben Bradford’s podcast production studio https://www.nuancetales.com/home

Analysis of the GOP primaries reveals Trump's dominance but weak general election prospects. The podcast explores divisions within the Republican Party, Nikki Haley's strategies, and challenges faced by Republican officials. Biden's State of the Union address is dissected, along with reactions and critiques in the political landscape. The episode also delves into justice delivery in a polarized era and initiatives promoting collaboration.