Daniel Bessner – Managing American Decline in the Trump Era
Episode description
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Video Links
0:00 Intro
1:10 Glenn meets the young Marx
2:32 The new wokeness of the political right
8:30 What is the democratic counterpart of foreign policy and national security run by experts?
17:04 Russia’s motivations: Fear of NATO or imperial ambitions
21:41 Danny: Zelenskyy made a huge misstep in the Oval Office
26:12 Does China have global security ambitions?
35:09 Ending the Middle East’s post-Ottoman redefinition
39:42 Danny: It’s gotta be rough to be Peter Beinart
43:46 Why we don’t need Hitler to explain Trump’s authoritarianism
56:29 Danny: We’ve been in the midst of a constitutional crisis since the 1940s
57:58 Can the nuclear taboo hold?
Recorded April 19, 2025
Links and Readings
Danny’s podcast, American Prestige
Karl Marx’s Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
Walter Lippmann’s book, Public Opinion
Danny’s book, Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual
Transcript of Matt Lauer’s 1998 interview with Madeline Albright
Paul Thomas Chamberlain’s book, The Cold War Killing Fields: Rethinking the Long Peace
Lindsey O’Rourke’s book, Covert Regime Change: America’s Secret Cold War
Peter Beinart’s book, Being Jewish after the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning
Glenn’s conversation with Peter Beinart
Glenn’s memoir, Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative
Danny’s Jacobin piece, “This Is America”
James Whitman’s book, Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law
Carl Schmitt’s book, The Concept of the Political
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