Is This Democracy

We asked for your questions – and you delivered. We tried our best to answer some of them. The result is a wide-ranging discussion on a bunch of crucial issues, including: Why “economic anxiety” is not what fuels Trumpism or the rightwing radicalization, and why the eagerness with which some people cling to this narrative despite all the empirical evidence to the contrary is indicative of a tendency to sanitize the political discourse; how Democrats should react to the GOP’s radical abandonment of all norms, and what the pitfalls of “hardball” politics (or the lack thereof) are; the inter-and transnational dimension of the reactionary counter-mobilization against democracy, and how the political struggle in the U.S. relates to the situation across the “West” and beyond; how we would address people who are frustrated by the state of national politics, don’t think their voice matters, and might believe both sides are the same anyway; and finally, what myths about America’s past or present we would like to dispel once and for all. Oh, and we also talk a little bit about how we got to know each other and how the podcast came together. Follow The Show Follow Thomas Follow Lily Follow Perry This episode was produced by Connor Lynch

Every year, MLK Day brings a lot of shallow proclamations of admiration for a man whose actual vision and political project are often sanitized and sterilized to such extent that even Republicans whose mission it is to undo any of the racial progress since the 1960s will happily (and shamelessly) “celebrate” the legacy of Martin Luther King. But the racial reckoning King envisioned has never happened. It seemed possible, perhaps, in the summer of 2020, during the mass protests after the public murder of George Floyd. But it never materialized. We dive deep into the reasons behind the unprecedented mobilization of 2020 – and examine the factors that explain why there has been so little structural change since: the reactionary counter-mobilization on the Right, the widespread longing among white liberals and centrists for a return to pre-Trump “normalcy,” the rise of “popularist” arguments within the Democratic Party that have discouraged any serious focus on race and racism. We also discuss how racial attitudes in the U.S. have changed recently, and why that, ultimately, might be reason for a tiny bit of optimism – Also: Our take on the latest “scandal” involving classified documents, and what the news media coverage reveals about the fallacies of “both sides” journalism that mistakes “neutrality” for objectivity and values “balance” over accuracy. Follow The Show Follow Thomas Follow Lily Follow Perry This episode was produced by Connor Lynch

It took 15 votes, and in the end, the insurrectionists finally captured the House: Our takeaways from how the speaker drama played out and what has transpired since, what it all tells us about the Republican Party, and how the rightwing fringe has moved to the center of conservative politics – Nihilism. Chaos agents. Burning it all down. To many observers, the speaker spectacle confirmed that’s basically all there is to the MAGA Right. We discuss the “nihilism” interpretation, why it risks obscuring the ideological core of the rightwing political project, and why it falls short of explaining what, exactly, holds all the different factions on the Right together – We need to talk about Ron DeSantis: According to Never Trump conservatives and quite a few centrists, DeSantis is a less dangerous, more “normal” alternative to Trump. We dive into his actual record as governor of Florida, which is staunchly anti-democratic and concerningly authoritarian, and discuss why “He is better/worse than Trump” is not a very helpful framework to look at DeSantis and the political project he is pursuing. Follow The Show Follow Thomas Follow Lily Follow Perry This episode was produced by Connor Lynch

We are witnessing a historic spectacle in the House. A deep dive into the Republican inability to elect a speaker from all angles: How to explain it, what the fault lines are, why it’s misleading to present the McCarthy camp as “moderates,” what it means for government and governance going forward – Whatever happened to “moderate” Republicans? We look at the case of Elise Stefanik and reflect on the lure of Trumpism, the relationship between opportunism and ideology, and the personal dynamics of a radicalization that is shifting the GOP ever further to the right – We look back, we look ahead: There is a striking sense of optimism among commentators from the left all the way to the center-right who mostly agree that 2022 was a good year for democracy and 2023 will be even better. We are more skeptical. Our review of what happened last year, and our expectations for what is to come next. Follow The Show Follow Thomas Follow Lily Follow Perry This episode was produced by Connor Lynch

The January 6 Committee is recommending prosecution: Justice is (maybe) coming for Donald Trump. We discuss the larger implications of this decision, the potential pitfalls, and the role of legal procedures in solving a political problem like Trumpism – Now that the Committee has finished its work, we reflect on what it has and has not achieved, about the story the Committee has decided to tell, and on the dangers of focusing too narrowly on Trump as the threat to democracy – Culture wars! Identity politics! We dissect the origins, meaning, and political implications of these terms, assess their utility to make sense of the current situation, and discuss how they have been weaponized in service of reactionary political projects to obscure more than they illuminate. Follow The Show Follow Thomas Follow Lily Follow Perry This episode was produced by Connor Lynch

A deep dive into “centrism,” inspired by Kyrsten Sinema leaving the Democratic Party: What is centrism (as an ideology, a political project, a brand)? Who are the centrists? And what do they actually want? – The centrist critique of the democracy discourse: Why do certain centrists reject the focus on the crisis of American democracy? What kind of democracy do centrists envision for the country? – Anti-“Left” centrism: The centrist critique of “wokeism” and the reactionary sensibilities of the centrist mind. Follow The Show Follow Thomas Follow Lily Follow Perry This episode was produced by Connor Lynch

What the Georgia runoff tells us about American politics, why Republicans mostly stuck with Walker, and why “hypocrisy” is really not a very useful (albeit well-deserved) criticism of conservative politics – What to expect next from the GOP, and why our default assumption based on the evidence of the past several decades of Republican politics should not be “soul-searching” leading to moderation, but further escalation – How to situate the rise of Trumpism in the history of modern conservatism, why Trump is not an aberration, but the manifestation of long-standing anti-democratic tendencies, and why we still need to grapple with a significant radicalization of conservative politics in recent years. Follow The Show Follow Thomas Follow Lily Follow Perry This episode was produced by Connor Lynch

Trump hosted a leading Holocaust denier and white power activist for dinner: What to take away from this latest reminder of who Trump is and what the Republican base wants, and why we must not be lulled into a false sense of security by the ridiculousness of it all – And we dive deep into the question of how to best capture and describe the defining political conflict: Why we are experiencing a counter-mobilization, rather than a backlash; by reactionaries, rather than conservatives; against egalitarian multiracial, pluralistic democracy, rather than simply democracy. Follow The Show Follow Thomas Follow Lily Follow Perry

Conservative justices are leaking decisions, but more importantly, they have made the Supreme Court the spearhead of a reactionary counter-mobilization against democracy: What is to be done about a Rogue Court? – The Assault on the LGBTQ community in Colorado Springs: America’s gun cult(ure), the escalating rightwing demonization of vulnerable groups, and why the reactions to the latest shooting are indicative of a significant radicalization of conservative politics – Thanksgiving politics talk: Here are some political statements that you might encounter over the weekend, and how we think you should respond. And a little bonus discussion at the end: Why it’s absolutely fair and necessary to judge people, even polite people, by their politics. Follow The Show Follow Thomas Follow Lily Follow Perry

The fate of Twitter: The democratic stakes of having so much of our media infrastructure in the hands of billionaires; the fraud relationship between the libertarian-to-far-right tech oligarchy and democracy; Twitter’s importance as an essential part of the virtual public square – Midterms fallout: The major storylines and key narratives that have emerged; the deepening chasm between “red” and “blue” America; and why Donald Trump remains an acute threat – The relationship between journalism and democracy: Should the media be explicitly pro-democracy? What would this look like in practice? And what does it mean to prioritize “neutrality” when democracy itself has become a partisan issue? Follow The Show Follow Thomas Follow Lily Follow Perry