This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm A blustery Donald Trump statement threatening large tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports (plus increased tariffs on Chinese goods) raises the question of why the outgoing Biden administration, the lame-duck Congress, and the broader civil society have taken few proactive steps to create obstacles to coming Trump abuses. Matt and Brian discuss: * Is the opposition simply exhausted? * Do Democrats and Trump-wary Republ...
Nov 27, 2024•31 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian take stock of Matt Gaetz, Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Tulsi Gabbard—Trump’s Fanatic Four nominees to head the Departments of Justice, Defense, Health and Human Services, and the national intelligence directorate. They discuss: * Why Hegseth’s personal mediocrity (C-list Fox News host) and depraved sexual conduct (pretty awful), combined with the complexity of running an organizati...
Nov 20, 2024•40 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian review the incoming Trump administration as it takes shape, and what if anything Democrats can do, without official power or a real media arm, to limit the damage. * Who has Trump nominated already, and who is he being gun-shy about, given that some of his loyalists would have a hard time getting confirmed by the incoming Senate? * Can Democrats quickly shift gears into productive opposition, w...
Nov 13, 2024•40 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian discuss the unexpected final (?) twist of the 2024 campaign: The immense backlash to Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden. * Why did a bad comedian’s offensive comments about Puerto Rico break through, when he and other speakers made equally racist comments about black people, Jews, Palestinians, and others? * After a campaign in which Democrats largely downplayed race politics in favo...
Oct 30, 2024•42 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian discuss the merits and drawbacks of field organizing, and why it’s worth knocking on doors or making calls if you care about the outcome of the election. They tackle questions including: * Can feel your own contribution to turnout, even if canvassing operations are expensive for the campaign? (Spoiler: Yes.) * Where to volunteer depending on your demographic traits. * How talking to real, margi...
Oct 23, 2024•42 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian examine the quadrennial liberal October panic, and think through practical ways for Democrats to close strong: * Is it possible to increase the salience of Democrats’ top issues (abortion, democracy, and health care) when Trump is hoovering up attention to his fascist freakshow? * Might the fascist freakshow, for perverse reasons, be helping Trump keep the race close? * To what extent should wo...
Oct 16, 2024•33 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian take a big-picture view of Republicans for Kamala, including: * Why the Emerging Democratic Majority thesis of the aughts and early 2010s made people assume that outreach to Republicans would lead to betrayal on policy grounds. * The academic basis for Harris to view support from influential conservatives as a critical safeguard against Democratic backsliding. * How a more concerted Trump-accou...
Oct 09, 2024•42 min
JD Vance is the more polished debater. And whether it was because he was jittery or prepped not to take a wrecking ball to anyone except Donald Trump, Tim Walz wasn’t generally able to convey that Vance is much more extreme than he pretended to be on stage Tuesday night. So how did he win? In this free post-VP debate episode, Matt and Brian discuss: * Whether Vance’s polish is really more appealing to a general audience than Walz’s plain-spoken delivery. * Was Vance able to simultaneously rehabi...
Oct 02, 2024•54 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian take stock of Donald Trump’s late pitch to young male voters, who are significantly more Republican curious than young men were in the Bush and Obama years: * Are young men really drifting in a more conservative direction? Or are they mostly attracted to Trump’s teflon libertinism? * Is America swinging back to a pre-Bush norm when partisanship wasn’t so stratified by age? * Will these voters t...
Sep 25, 2024•38 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian take stock of the many ways Republicans have flailed since Donald Trump lost last week’s debate against Kamala Harris: * If they’re trying to change the topic, or convince people Trump won, why are so many MAGA influencers still trying to “prove” ABC rigged the debate for Harris? * Is the discourse they’ve provoked by terrorizing Haitians in Springfield, OH, actually better for Trump than some ...
Sep 18, 2024•35 min
That was way better than the first one! In what may be their only debate Kamala Harris reduced Donald Trump to a smoldering mass of anger, deranged lies, and incoherent rambling. It’s fair to say everyone agrees she won, because pro-Trump influencers are already attacking the moderators. In this free post-debate episode, Matt and Brian discuss: * How Harris pivoted away from Biden’s failed debate strategy toward one designed successfully to provoke Trump into making big mistakes. * Why her polls...
Sep 11, 2024•1 hr
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Brian takes a much needed vacation and Matt is joined by The Atlantic’s Jerusalem Demsas to talk about housing and the 2024 campaign. * Barack Obama’s striking and unexpected embrace of the YIMBY diagnosis of the housing issue at the Democratic National Convention. * Kamala Harris’ more equivocal embrace of the same formula along with some other …...
Sep 04, 2024•28 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian look back at what went right at last week’s Democratic National Convention, how it maps on to the lead Harris built in her first month on the campaign trail, and what it augurs for the fall campaign: * How exactly did Harris build a lead so quickly? * Is maintaining or growing it really as simple as “keep on doing what you’re doing?” Is that even possible given how the dynamics of the race will...
Aug 28, 2024•33 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Semafor ’s Dave Weigel joins Matt and Brian from Chicago to assess the Dem convention in Chicago: * Is DNC’s treatment of credentialed journalists another sign that Democrats are consciously decoupling from the mainstream media? * Are there any politically meaningful differences between how the convention is playing out on national television and how people are experiencing it in person? * Can Harris get a po...
Aug 21, 2024•56 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian survey the news periphery for various black swans and Chekhov’s guns that might change the trajectory of the race. They discuss: * How Kamala Harris’s joy-themed campaign might affect economic sentiment, and whether the economy itself is at risk of contraction; * Donald Trump’s coverup of a $10 million bribe (or attempted bribe) dangled during the 2016 campaign by the Egyptian government; * The...
Aug 14, 2024•46 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian offer near-instant reaction to the news that Kamala Harris has nominated Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for the vice presidency. They discuss: * The pros and cons of this decision; * The factors that likely persuaded Harris to select Walz rather than a swing-state or red-state governor; * How adding Walz to the ticket might shape the race and the future of the Democratic Party. Then, behind the pa...
Aug 07, 2024•44 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian delve into the new discourse, ignited by vice-presidential shortlister Tim Walz, about the inherent weirdness of MAGA leaders. * What do Democrats mean when they say Republicans like Donald Trump and JD Vance are “weird”? * How normal are Democrats, actually? * Having drawn this line, can Democrats now concede anything to “weird” Republicans as they appeal to swing voters? Then, behind the payw...
Jul 31, 2024•26 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian discuss the Democrats brand new presumptive presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, and how she might end up on top after the dust from this shakeup settles. * What can and should Harris do to broaden her appeal relative to Joe Biden, given that she’s both inheriting his campaign and is viewed to be more left wing than he is. * Can she maintain renewed youth and non-white voter enthusiasm and disa...
Jul 24, 2024•44 min
After weeks of internal recriminations over the Democratic Party’s crisis of confidence in Joe Biden’s ability to mount a winning campaign against Donald Trump Biden announced that he will not accept the Democratic nomination for president. In short order, he announced his endorsement of Kamala Harris, making her the runaway favorite to top the Democratic ticket. In this emergency episode, Brian and Matt discuss: * Whether a contested convention would do more harm than good, even if it resulted ...
Jul 21, 2024•1 hr 7 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian assess a shocking week in politics. * Are we really going to move on from the Trump shooting attempt if it turns out, as seems possible, that the shooter was an accelerationist right-wing fanatic? * Will Democratic leaders use the attempted shooting as an offramp from their efforts to find a stronger presidential candidate? * Does Nancy Pelosi still have the clout and skill to help get Joe Bide...
Jul 17, 2024•23 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian assess the downward spiral of the Biden campaign and look for signs that Democrats won’t just give up on the race. * Has Biden really ruled out suspending his campaign, or is he just being pragmatic: 100 percent in until he’s 100 percent out? * Are the influential Democrats who’ve rallied to Biden’s side speaking definitively, or have they left themselves enough wiggle room to revisit the quest...
Jul 10, 2024•40 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm Just days after the first presidential debate, which has plunged Democrats into a crisis of confidence, the Supreme Court has intervened to declare that presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecutions for any actions they take with their exclusive and plenary powers, and even presumptive immunity for their other official acts. We’d viewed this case mainly with an eye to its impact on the criminal prosecutio...
Jul 03, 2024•14 min
Folks, it did not go well. Joe Biden definitively lost the first of two scheduled presidential debates against Donald Trump. Worse, he did so in a way that will inevitably rekindle questions about his candidacy, and not just from bloggers and columnists, but likely from some of the most influential Democrats in America. In this free post-debate episode, Matt and Brian discuss: * Who swapped out Biden’s PEDs for sugar pill? * Is there anything Biden, his campaign, the White House, and leading Dem...
Jun 28, 2024•48 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm Special announcement from Matt and Brian: We will be hosting a live chat during Thursday night’s debate for paid Politix subscribers. If you’d like to ride shotgun with us, or need moral support to get through the event, be on the lookout for an email invitation to joint the chat just as the debate begins at 9 p.m. ET Thursday. In that spirit, for this week’s regular episode, Matt and Brian rattled off a few debate pred...
Jun 26, 2024•44 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian take a wide-angle view of new data showing inflation and violent crime way down: * Why is good economic news so tricky for Joe Biden to capitalize on? * How can Biden remind voters that Trump handed him a depressed economy with broken supply chains, and that Biden fixed both unemployment and inflation? * Is it fair to tag Trump with the 2020 economic collapse and crime surge? Then, behind the p...
Jun 19, 2024•33 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian discuss the flood of support Donald Trump has seen from shady rich guys since his felony convictions two weeks ago: * Why do the owners and executives of big firms feel insulated from consequences for supporting a convicted white-collar felon who tried to overthrow the government? * Do they actually stand to gain anything from a corrupt, inflationary Trump presidency? * Can Joe Biden use their ...
Jun 12, 2024•36 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian discuss the solidifying Democratic response to Donald Trump’s felony convictions, and scratch their heads a bit: * Why are Democrats demurring when the facts are the ground are so advantageous to them? * How consistent is this with the party’s past practice of shrugging off Trump-accountability moments? * What if any role should data play in these kinds of rapid response moments, when Trump’s w...
Jun 05, 2024•40 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm SPECIAL EDITION: A New York jury declared Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts he faced, finding that he forged business records to cover up his illegal conduct in the 2016 election. Matt and Brian: * Review the case and the law and the controversy around it; * Discuss the relevance of the news—particularly to new voters who may have been too young to hear the Access Hollywood tape, or know that Trump paid hush money to...
May 31, 2024•19 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, with so many American liberals and leaders abroad worrying about what a second Trump term will mean for them, Matt and Brian examine the many political differences between fear and fearlessness. For instance: * If Trump’s threats have become more literal and less figurative, how can liberals most effectively oppose him without sounding like panicky wimps? * Have Trump-curious business elites taken leave of th...
May 29, 2024•43 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian explore the revelation that Justice Samuel Alito flew a Stop the Steal flag over his house in the days after January 6 as a window into broader differences between the right and left. For instance: * Why are Republican-appointed judges so often former Republican operatives, while Democratic-appointed judges hail from Big Law or academia or various prosecutors offices; * Is Alito remorseless bec...
May 22, 2024•36 min
