Know Your Enemy - What's Wrong with the Democrats? [TEASER]

Matt and Sam provide an election post-mortem, and ponder the state of our souls.

Duration: 3m
Broadcast on: 16 Nov 2024
Audio Format: other

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In our first episode after the 2024 elections, we briefly considered what the results revealed about how Donald Trump won, and why Kamala Harris lost, before discussing what Trump's first picks for his White House staff and Cabinet meant for his second terms as president. This conversation is different—a proper "post-mortem" of the results and a bit of a group therapy, mixed with wide-ranging reflections on what it all says about the state of Democratic Party, the country, and perhaps even our souls. Topics include: a (long) list of all the reasons that might account for Harris's defeat, the deranged attempt to keep Biden as the nominee despite his obvious decline, the Democrats' decades-long defensiveness on "cultural issues," why Trump's felony convictions didn't seem to hurt his campaign, the lost promise of 2020 and a politics of care and solidarity, the debate over "Bidenomics," and much more!

One small note: we mention the controversy over Harris not appearing on Joe Rogan's podcast, and after we recorded further reporting came out on the decision. Rather than re-recording that section or deleting it altogether, we thought we'd keep it in, with listeners determining for themselves what explanation makes the most sense.

Sources:

Zack Beauchamp, "The Global Trend that Pushed Donald Trump to Victory," Vox, Nov 6, 2024

Shane Goldmacher, Maggie Haberman, and Jonathan Swan, "How Trump Won, and How Harris Lost," New York Times, Nov 7, 2024

Matthew Sitman, "The Morning After," Liberties, Nov 7, 2024

Gabe Winant, "Exit Right," Dissent, Nov 8, 2024

Tim Barker, "Dealignment," Sidecar, Nov 11, 2024

Sam Adler-Bell, "Can Liberalism Stop Being So Darn...Liberal?" New Republic, June 20, 2024

- You know, one of the things I found really disgusting, I don't know how widespread this is, but I've seen a number of clips from cable news where they're interviewing, say, a Latino guy. And he says, "I voted for Trump." And there's been a lot of responses to that kind of thing, like, "Oh, you fucked around now you're gonna find out." - Oh God, that's disgusting. - I mean, Arab-American voters, like you withheld your vote from Kamala Harris. Now Trump's gonna come in, Mr. Muslim ban, and it's like, "Okay, now you're gonna get what you wanted. "You fucked around now you're gonna find out." I just really hate that. - It really is liberals who are mad about the outcome of the election, mad that their team lost, but also perhaps genuinely mad about what it will mean for the country, who are getting to indulge in Trumpian transgressive cruelty. They're taking their share of what it seems like the other side gets to do all the time, which is to wish misfortune upon people who are your political opponents. And indulging in that is soul destroying, and there's no way that getting out of this is going to pass through liberals and leftists becoming inorded to the pain of our neighbors. There's no way that getting out of this is gonna be by indulging in the kinds of ecstatic and lebidity satisfying cruelty that Trump offers. That's not gonna be how it goes. That's not gonna be the solution. - It is soul destroying. There was a line of Thomas Mertens. I just wanna read it. Free by nature in the image of God, I was nevertheless the prisoner of my own violence in my own selfishness and image of the world into which I was born. And this is a Strausian insight that has been important to me, like the idea of certain political regimes, certain political and economic orders, produce certain kinds of people. Like pay attention to the state of your soul. You are not somehow in this political moment, which is already so much kind of violent rhetoric and actual violence, so much just kind of miserliness, right? And like ungenerosity. - Emotional and otherwise.

Transcription truncated.

Matt and Sam provide an election post-mortem, and ponder the state of our souls.