Is This Democracy

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Episodes

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Is This Democracy

Lilliana Mason and Thomas Zimmer•podcasters.spotify.com

Welcome to Is This Democracy, the podcast where we discuss the ongoing conflict over how much democracy, and for whom, there should be in America. Hosted by Lilliana Mason and Thomas Zimmer

Episodes

10. Republican Extremism, MAGA Nihilism, and the rise of Ron DeSantis

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 obscu...

Jan 13, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast

9. Chaos in the House! And What We Expect from American Democracy in 2023

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...

Jan 05, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast

8. How Do We Save Democracy from Donald Trump? (And a proper dissection of the terms “culture wars” and “identity politics”)

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! Ident...

Dec 23, 2022•1 hr 23 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast

7. We Need to Talk About Centrism

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 c...

Dec 16, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast

6. Where to Put Trump in the History of Modern Conservatism (and Why Republicans Don’t Do “Soul-Searching” After Lost Elections) – with Nicole Hemmer!

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, ...

Dec 09, 2022•1 hr 21 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast

5. What Does “Democracy” Even Mean, And Why Conservatives Don’t Want to Be Conservatives Anymore (Oh, and the meeting of white supremacists at Mar-a-Lago)

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 ega...

Dec 02, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast

4. The Rogue Court, the Threat of Rightwing Political Violence – and Discussing Politics Over Thanksgiving

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:...

Nov 25, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast

3. Elon Musk, Donald Trump – and Should Journalists Be Rooting for Democracy?

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 ...

Nov 18, 2022•1 hr 15 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast

2. The State of Democracy After the Midterms (Still bad; Could have been way worse)

A big-picture reflection on the midterms (what else!) and what they can tell us about the state of American democracy – Why the result, while heartening, doesn’t simply prove that “the system works” and why democracy is still very much in danger – What to make of Republican elites clamoring for DeSantis and why Trumpism without Trump is far more likely than a pivot to the center - What Democrats can learn and why the idea of neatly separating “kitchen table” from “culture war” issues is deeply m...

Nov 11, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast

Episode 1 - November 4, 2022

Our mission statement: Podcasting about a democracy on the brink – Joe Biden says democracy is on the ballot: Is he right? – Midterm primer: Why the election is close (when maybe it shouldn’t be?) and what people are voting for; media coverage; Democratic messaging; and what worries us most going forward. Follow Thomas   Follow Lily   Follow Perry...

Nov 04, 2022•1 hr 21 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast