Is This Democracy

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.

Joe Biden is “too old” and should step aside – at least that is what many of the nation’s most prominent commentators are telling us. But do their arguments actually hold up to scrutiny? Is Joe Biden too old and unfit to be president? Is he incapable of campaigning and defeating Donald Trump in the 2024 election? And if he were to step aside, what should be the plan going forward? Specifically, is an open convention in the summer, as Ezra Klein has argued, the best path towards a Democratic victory in November? We discuss why this discourse, although frustrating and exhausting, matters; we evaluate the arguments of those who describe Biden as manifestly unfit; and we explain why, even though we are concerned too, we remain staunchly unconvinced by the arguments and suggestions the “Biden too old” camp has presented. Finally, we reflect on the case against voting for Biden that is coming from the Left, where “Biden too old” is often seen as merely a distraction from what are supposedly the much more significant reasons to reject the president, especially his stance on Gaza. We offer our thoughts on how people should approach an election in which we are confronted with a binary choice between either, in all likelihood, Joe Biden – or Donald Trump as the extremist leader of a party fully controlled by a radicalizing anti-democratic movement that is seeking to impose a vengeful authoritarian order on the country.   Show notes: Ezra Klein, “Democrats Have a Better Option Than Biden,” New York Times, February 16, 2024 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/16/opinion/ezra-klein-biden-audio-essay.html   Perry Bacon, “Biden’s Democratic Party is to the left of Obama’s. Thank a progressive,” Washington Post, July 13, 2023 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/13/why-progressives-winning-inside-democratic-party/   Thomas Zimmer, “What the ‘Biden too old’ discourse is really about,” Democracy Americana, February 13, 2024 https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/what-the-biden-too-old-discourse

What would a second Trump presidency look like? We explore the detailed plans of the Right for when they regain power, including expanding presidential power, purging federal employees, and transforming American government into a revenge machine. We delve into the controversial views expressed by the president of the Heritage Foundation and the radical values that underlie these plans. The chapter further discusses the plan to replace personnel with loyalists aligned with the Trump administration's ideology and the implications of transforming the American government by removing experts.

Claudine Gay, Harvard's first black president, resigned after a rightwing campaign that attacked diversity and progress at institutions like Harvard.The campaign was financed by a billionaire donor and pushed by MAGA Republicans like Elise Stefanik.Media coverage of the campaign legitimized dangerous false allegations of plagiarism against Gay.Mainstream media deliberately joined the campaign, indicative of the media's role in normalizing attacks on higher education.The hypocrisy and lack of humanity in the plagiarism accusations were revealed.An analysis of the racist and sexist culture in American universities, highlighting the isolation and lack of protection for marginalized students in social science fields.

Michael Podhorzer, a political analyst, discusses the confusion around poll data and the dynamics of American politics. He challenges the perception of Trump's abilities and the limitations of data analysis. The growth of the anti-Maga coalition and education polarization are also explored.

Discussion on polling data and election results, examining attitudes towards political violence, cultural priorities in American politics, public sentiments on history teaching and abortion, exploring the deep acceptance of a narrative in evangelical churches, and a survey on American political behavior.

The podcast discusses the new Speaker of the House who rejects democracy and the role of threats of violence in politics. It also analyzes the state of the 2024 presidential race, focusing on Trump's popularity and Biden's age.

The podcast reflects on the Israel-Hamas war and the dangerous state of Republican politics. It discusses the chaos and division within the GOP, the role of media in distorting political discourse, and the lack of trust in the Republican Party's ability to govern. The podcast also explores the media's focus on chaos and controversy, as well as the weakness of the party and concerns about governing.

Let’s survey the political landscape and take stock of where things stand almost halfway through 2023. We started this podcast a little over half a year ago, just a few days before the midterms. The election ended in a better result for Democrats than most people expected. That led to a lot of commentary about how the guardrails were supposedly holding, the system was working. Then in early December, the January 6 Committee referred Trump to the Department of Justice for prosecution. All that convinced a lot of commentators that 2022 had been a good year, that the ship had been turned around, that democracy was winning.   It says a lot about our current predicament that, in June 2023, such a big-picture look at the political landscape still has to start with Donald Trump. What are we to make of the fact that Trump, despite all the recent legal trouble, is still the clear favorite to be the next Republican presidential nominee? We also look at his wannabe-authoritarian challengers, particularly at Ron DeSantis, and why there seems to be little appetite on the rightwing base for his kind of Trumpless Trumpism.   We then look at the escalating assault on equality and the post-1960s civil rights order – on women’s rights; on the lgbtq community and the rights of trans people, in particular; on public education, academic freedom, and freedom of speech. There are signs of an anti-reactionary counter-mobilization – against rightwing book bans, specifically – and we’ll need a lot more of that, as it’s difficult to see how America’s slide into authoritarianism could be stopped without a mass mobilization of pro-democratic civil society forces outside and beyond the established political institutions.   We look at those institutions next – and the Democratic Party’s response, in particular. We specifically discuss why Democrats have been unable and/or unwilling to hold Clarence Thomas accountable for the cartoonish level of corruption in which he has engaged, and why there is still no plausible Democratic answer to the problem that the Supreme Court acts as the spearhead of the reactionary assault on democracy and the modern state.   It's obviously not all the Democrats’ fault. The mainstream media is also not coming to the rescue of democracy. We talk about what to make of the disastrous CNN Trump town hall and the way the “both sides” coverage of the debt ceiling crisis once again displayed all the usual, harmful tropes of the “Dysfunction in Washington” narrative that only serves to obscure the extent of Republican sabotage.   We then turn our attention to the problem of political violence. Across the political spectrum, the percentage of people describing political violence as potentially acceptable has significantly increased. But in practice, the rise in actual violence has almost entirely come from the Right. And, crucially, the reactions to the killing of Jordan Neely on the NYC subway were a reminder that all strands of the Right – Republican elected officials, the media machine, the reactionary intellectual sphere, the conservative base – are now openly and aggressively embracing rightwing vigilante violence. Finally, we reflect on where that all leaves us. As we are heading into summer, normalcy bias is destined to take over even more than it always does. One of the key challenges since the start of the Trump era has been how to communicate effectively to the American public that something other than “politics as usual” is going on, that the threat of democratic erosion is real. The crucial question remains: How do we pierce that sense of “normalcy”? How do we create moments of meaningful disruption? Follow The Show⁠ ⁠Follow Thomas⁠ ⁠Follow Lily⁠ This episode was produced by ⁠Connor Lynch

Let’s tackle the philosophy and culture of Silicon Valley, and how they help us explain the politics of reactionary-to-far-right tech titans like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. In 2020, Adrian Daub published “What Tech Calls Thinking: An Inquiry into the Intellectual Bedrock of Silicon Valley.” In the book, he applied his skills as a literary and cultural scholar, as someone who is trained to dissect and analyze the stories that help us make sense of the world, to his immediate surroundings. Adrian is a Professor of Comparative Literature and German Studies at Stanford University, where he specializes in culture and politics of the nineteenth century, as well as questions of gender and sexuality – he works in a place that is shaped and dominated by the tech industry like probably no other in the world.   We talk about why it is important to dissect the philosophies Silicon Valley is built on, the stories it likes to tell about itself, the narratives surrounding the tech industry. We then try to outline the philosophical and ideological universe that shapes the imaginary of Silicon Valley and discuss why figures like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk are so fixated on certain thinkers, how these philosophies and ideas translate into politics, and what to make of the very pronounced tech libertarian to far-right pipeline.   Finally, we talk about why so many people in the liberal camp, specifically, have been, at least until recently, under the misguided impression that these tech giants were political allies, when they have so clearly never been on board with the idea of leveling traditional hierarchies of wealth, race, or gender. And why have so many people in positions of power and influence been willing to accept them not just as entrepreneurs, but as thinkers in their own right whose grand ideas about the world matter somehow, whose guidance we should seek? Why has our culture glorified them as visionaries – and is that finally changing, as the reactionary mask has slipped?   Show notes: What Tech Calls Thinking: An Inquiry into the Intellectual Bedrock of Silicon Valley Dreams in the Witch House – Adrian’s newsletter Keep up with Adrian’s work via his personal website “The Sabotage of Twitter Is a Disaster for Democracy” – Thomas’ reflection on the politics of Elon Musk and tech oligarchs as a threat to the democratic public square  Follow The Show⁠ ⁠Follow Thomas⁠ ⁠Follow Lily⁠ This episode was produced by ⁠Connor Lynch