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It's been a while since we've had our friends from the 5-4 podcast on KYE, and we thought there was no better time to do so than the weeks before Donald Trump is inaugurated, again, as president. As listeners might guess, we wanted to talk to them about what opportunities Trump might have during his second term to reshape the federal judiciary—and if he can secure the confirmations of Kash Patel at the FBI and Pam Bondi as Attorney General, perhaps a lot more than that. Topics include: President Biden's successes, and failures, when it comes to the courts, and what he's handing off to Trump; what kind of judges Trump is likely to appoint; if there's a MAGA wing of the conservative legal movement now, akin to Project 2025 or the America First Policy Institute; whether Justice Alito is a Fox News uncle or an OAN uncle; and more.
Further Reading:
Myah Ward & Betsy Woodruff Swan, "Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship could be decided by the Supreme Court," Politico, Dec 14, 2024.
Pema Levy, "How Much More Radical Could the Supreme Court Become? Look to the Fifth Circuit." Mother Jones, Oct 8, 2024.
Michael Hall, "Is James Ho Too Brash for Even Trump to Make Him a Supreme Court Justice?" Texas Monthly, Aug 15, 2024.
...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!
Or give the gift of Know Your Enemy this holiday Season.
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We wanted to offer something of a palette cleanser for our subscribers, so we decided to watch the recent movie, Reagan, with our intrepid producer, Jesse Brenneman. Even better, it's based on the 2006 book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, by Paul Kengor—who just happens to have been Matt's close mentor as an undergraduate student. Reagan clocks in at over two hours and twenty minutes, and it's a wild, even fantastical ride that offers a revealing glimpse into the conservative psyche and a faithful rendition of the most hagiographic version of the Reagan mythology, especially his personal responsibility for ending the Cold War and finally putting the Soviet Union on the ash heap of history.
Sources:
Reagan (2024)
Paul Kengor, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism(2006)
— God and Ronald Reagan: A Spiritual Life(2004)
— A Pope and a President: John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Extraordinary Untold Story of the 20th Century(2017)
Edmund Morris, Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan (1999)
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This is a conversation we've wanted to have for a while, and it seemed like there was no better time than now, as many people on the broad center-left are asking tough questions about Donald Trump's strength in rural America—according to one post-election analysis, he won 62 percent of rural voters. To unpack what's happening in these parts of the country, we talked to Luke Mayville of Reclaim Idaho, a grassroots organization that, among other things, helped win a ballot referendum that expanded Medicaid in the state. Why, when an initiative like that can succeed, or voters in red states reject school vouchers or approve hikes to the minimum wage, does the party that opposes these measures tend to clean up in such places? What can be gleaned from talking to voters from all over a state like Idaho about how they view the two major political parties, understand the role of government, and explain the problems facing them in their lives? We take up these questions and more!
Sources:
Luke Mayville, "Do Something Big," Commonweal, Sept 22, 2020
— "The Battle Against School Vouchers," Commonweal, Dec 11, 2023
— John Adams and the Fear of American Oligarchy (Princeton University Press, 2016)
Paul Demko, "The Ballot Revolt to Bring Medicaid Expansion to Trump Country," Politico, Oct 19, 2018
Daniel Nichanian, "How Organizers Are Defending Direct Democracy," Bolts, Aug 16, 2023
Dana Goldstein and Troy Closson, "Voters Poised to Reject Private School Vouchers in Three States," New York Times, Nov 7, 2024
Keith Orejel, "The Political Economy of the Urban-Rural Divide," Law & Political Economy Project, Nov 11, 2024
...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to access all of our bonus episodes!
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The second Trump administration hasn't started, but it's already proving chaotic, disturbing, and downright bewildering. (Not unlike the first!) Trump's picks for key staff and cabinet positions display a discordant, if not altogether surprising, mix of ideologies, experience, and scandalous baggage. (Indeed, one of his picks, Matt Gaetz for Attorney General, withdrew from consideration between the time we recorded our interview and when we recorded the intro.)
For this episode, we're focused on Trump's national security team, which is shaping up to be divided against itself: neoconservatives like Marco Rubio (State) alongside quasi-isolationists like Tulsi Gabbard (Director of National Intelligence) alongside bellicose TV personalities like Pete Hegseth (Defense). To make sense of it all, we're joined by Curt Mills, a longtime foreign policy reporter and executive director of The American Conservative. A semi-enemy, Curt hails from the paleoconservative school of foreign affairs, which prioritizes realism and restraint. (That is to say, he's not thrilled about Rubio...) Based on Trump's appointments thus far, we ask Curt to assess, from his perspective, the relative strength of various factions of the Trump coalition: Will Trump listen to the warmongers in his midst? Will he side with the America Firsters? Or will he ignore everyone and just make some deals? Listen to find out.
Further Reading:
Curt Mills, "What a Trump Cabinet Might Look Like," The American Conservative, Oct 18, 2024.
— "What Trump Could Do in Foreign Policy Might Surprise the World," NYTimes, May 13, 2024.
Patrick Smith & Peter Alexander, "Police report details alleged sexual assault by Trump's defense pick Pete Hegseth," NBC News, Nov 21, 2024.
Baker, Haberman, Swan, "Gaetz’s withdrawal follows revelations in a sex-trafficking inquiry." NYTimes, Nov 21, 2024.
Dave Phillips and Carol Rosenberg, "The Metamorphosis of Pete Hegseth: From Critic of War Crimes to Defender of the Accused," NYTimes, Nov 21, 2024.
David Frum, "Unpatriotic Conservatives," National Review, Mar 25, 2003.
...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!
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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
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As the reality of Donald Trump's decisive victory sets in, we wanted to talk to Politico's Ian Ward, who's done some of the very best reporting on post-liberal intellectuals, JD Vance, and MAGA-world, in addition to spending time on the campaign trail this fall. After breaking down the results of the presidential election, we discuss Vance's role in the campaign, his standing with Trump, and friendship with Don Jr.; how the Trump transition is taking shape and who's likely to influence his decisions at the start of his second term; whether Project 2025 will actually be implemented; if the Republican Party will actually govern in a pro-worker way; and much more!
Sources:
Ian Ward, "Trump Loves Her. His Allies Don’t Trust Her," Politico, Oct 25, 2024
— "What the Mainstream Media Can Learn from 'Bro Podcasters,'" Politico, Oct 24, 2024
— "The Seven Thinkers and Groups That Have Shaped JD Vance’s Unusual Worldview," Politico, July 18, 2024
— "Is There Something More Radical than MAGA?" Politico, Mar 15, 2024
— "The Socialists Who Love Talking to Conservatives," Politico, Feb 4, 2022
Sam Adler-Bell, "The Shadow War to Determine the Next Trump Administration," NYT, Jan 10, 2024
Matthew Sitman, "The Morning After," Liberties, Nov 7, 2024
...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!
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If you're on the left and you've spent time on the internet in the past few weeks, you've probably observe or participated in debates about the strategic value and moral status of voting in the 2024 election: Is it okay to vote for Kamala Harris even though her administration is complicit in a genocide? Is voting an exercise in signaling one's moral convincetions and identity? Or merely a tactical decision calculated to create better or worse terrain on which to organize in the future? Or is it something else altogether?
Perhaps these debates have stimulated you; perhaps they've filled you with despair; or perhaps (like Sam) they've driven you nuts. The intention of this conversation — with three of my favorite writers and thinkers — is to help us see further: past the stale categories and tendentious arguments that leave us, on the left, feeling frustrated and mistrustful, rather than mobilized and oriented toward a future beyond November 5th.
Our guests include: Astra Taylor, filmmaker, writer, organizer, and cofounder of The Debt Collective; author and organizer Malcolm Harris; and Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, author, political philosopher, and co-editor of Hammer & Hope — a new magazine of black politics and culture.
Further Reading/Viewing/Listening:
Malcolm Harris, Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World, (2023)
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else), (2022)
Astra Taylor, The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart, (2023)
— "What is Democracy?" (Zeitgeist Films, 2019)
Josie Ensor, "They voted Democrat for years — but the war in Lebanon changes everything," The Times, Oct 25, 2024.
"Arizona Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and Progressive Democrats and Community Leaders Statement on Presidential Election," Oct 24, 2024.
KYE, The Uncommitted Movement (w/ Waleed Shahid & Abbas Alawieh), Sept 4, 2024.
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If you're on the left and you've spent time on the internet in the past few weeks, you've probably observe or participated in debates about the strategic value and moral status of voting in the 2024 election: Is it okay to vote for Kamala Harris even though her administration is complicit in a genocide? Is voting an exercise in signaling one's moral convincetions and identity? Or merely a tactical decision calculated to create better or worse terrain on which to organize in the future? Or is it something else altogether?
Perhaps these debates have stimulated you; perhaps they've filled you with despair; or perhaps (like Sam) they've driven you nuts. The intention of this conversation — with three of my favorite writers and thinkers — is to help us see further: past the stale categories and tendentious arguments that leave us, on the left, feeling frustrated and mistrustful, rather than mobilized and oriented toward a future beyond November 5th.
Our guests include: Astra Taylor, filmmaker, writer, organizer, and cofounder of The Debt Collective; author and organizer Malcolm Harris; and Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, author, political philosopher, and co-editor of Hammer & Hope — a new magazine of black politics and culture.
Further Reading/Viewing/Listening:
Malcolm Harris, Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World, (2023)
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else), (2022)
Astra Taylor, The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart, (2023)
— "What is Democracy?" (Zeitgeist Films, 2019)
Josie Ensor, "They voted Democrat for years — but the war in Lebanon changes everything," The Times, Oct 25, 2024.
"Arizona Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and Progressive Democrats and Community Leaders Statement on Presidential Election," Oct 24, 2024.
KYE, The Uncommitted Movement (w/ Waleed Shahid & Abbas Alawieh), Sept 4, 2024.
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The author of several excellent books about the history of American conservatism, including The Invisible Bridge, Nixonland, and Reaganland, Rick Perlstein makes his triumphant return to Know Your Enemy. Drawing on Rick's wealth of historical knowledge, as well as his American Prospect column — entitled "The Infernal Triangle" — we explore the failures of American media elites and the Democratic Party to reckon with Donald Trump and his antecedents on the far right. What are the habits and genres of American journalism that inhibit an adequate accounting of Trump's rise and influence? Why do Democrats tend to adopt "conservatism lite," when faced with a far right opponent? How has Rick's perspective on studying the right changed since he began his work in the 1990s? And how will future historians make sense of these times? Listen to find out!
Further Reading
Rick Perlstein, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, (2009)
— "I Thought I Understood the American Right. Trump Proved Me Wrong." New York Times, Apr 11, 2017.
— "The Polling Imperilment," American Prospect, Sept 25, 2024.
— "The Election Story Nobody Wants to Talk About," American Prospect, Aug 28, 2024.
— "Project 2025 … and 1921, and 1973, and 1981," American Prospect, Jul 10, 2024.
W. Joseph Campbell, Lost in a Gallup: Polling Failure in U.S. Presidential Elections, (2020)
Isaac Arnsdorf, Finish What We Started: The MAGA Movement’s Ground War to End Democracy, (2023)
Phoebe Petrovic, "Right-Wing Activists Pushed False Claims About Election Fraud. Now They’re Recruiting Poll Workers in Swing States." ProPublica / Wisconsin Watch, Oct 16, 2024.
Clare Malone, "The Face of Donald Trump’s Deceptively Savvy Media Strategy," New Yorker, Mar 25, 2024.
Matthew Sitman, "Will Be Wild: Reading the January 6th Committee Report," Dissent, Apr 18, 2023.
Listen Again:
"On the Road to Reaganland" (w/ Rick Perlstein and Leon Neyfakh), Oct 21, 2020
"The History of the History of the Right" (w/ Kim Phillips-Fein), Jan 17, 2024
...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to all of our bonus episodes!
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In this episode, Matt is joined by journalist Talia Lavin to discuss her new book, Wild Faith: How the Christian Right is Taking Over America, one of the most fascinating and unique books published on the Christian right during the Trump-era. Lavin takes her subjects seriously, but not uncritically, and especially focuses on the wrecked and ruined lives left in the wake of conservative evangelicalism's more conspiratorial and authoritarian elements, from the Satanic Panic to James Dobson's parenting manual on how to beat a "strong-willed child" into compliance. Along the way, they talk about the triumph of QAnon, End Times theology, the importance of the New Apostolic Reformation, and more—all with an eye toward how these religious views and practices help explain conservative evangelicals' overwhelming support for Donald Trump.
Sources:
Talia Lavin, Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America(2024)
— Culture Warlords: My Journey Into the Dark Web of White Supremacy (2020)
— "The Sword and the Sandwich"
Listen again:
"The Prayers and Prophecies of Pat Robertson," Know Your Enemy, July 17, 2023
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Historian Timothy Shenk joins us for a conversation about his new book, Left Adrift: What Happened to Liberal Politics, a timely look at political strategy on the liberal-left as the New Deal Consensus cracked up in the late 1960s and 1970s through Bill Clinton's presidency and beyond. He tells the story of how Democrats responded to class dealignment through the careers of two consultants, Stan Greenberg and Doug Schoen—a story that, following these two men, also takes us to the UK, Israel, and South Africa. We discuss what happened to the New Deal coalition, arguments about how to appeal to working class voters drifting right, the limits—and necessity—of polling and even focus groups, why Bill Clinton's role in the rise of neoliberalism is more complicated than you might believe, lessons for the American left from their being crushed in Israel, and what all this might mean for 2024.
Sources:
Timothy Shenk, Left Adrift: What Happened to Liberal Politics(2024)
Douglas E. Schoen, Enoch Powell and the Powellites(1977)
Stanley B. Greenberg, Race and State in Capitalist Development(1980)
"Explaining McCarthy," TIME, April 18, 1969
Listen again:
"Realignments (w/ Timothy Shenk)," Know Your Enemy, Feb 27, 2023
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This conversation is a little different. We thought that exploring the life of, say, Russell Kirk might not be the best way to spend the weeks before such a consequential election, so this is the first of a few episodes that won't be about a text or a life, but about the 2024 elections—hopefully digging a little deeper than most, and with a special concern for the themes and topics of Know Your Enemy. To help us get started, we had on a great friend of the podcast, playwright and screenwriter Dorothy Fortenberry, to talk about a presidential campaign that "smacks of gender," from declining sperm counts to abortion to the lives of moms, dads, and children today. In short, it's an unguarded discussion of how we can better care for each other in a world that's making it harder and harder to do just that
Sources:
Dorothy Fortenberry, "The J.D. Vance sperm cups were probably a troll. But they got me thinking," Slate, Aug 23, 2024
— "'One of Those Serious Women': Andrea Dworkin's Radical Feminism," Commonweal, April 29, 2019
Mollie Wilson O'Reilly, "When Abortion Isn't Abortion," Commonweal, Mar 21, 2022
Listen again:
"Suburban Woman," Oct 29, 2019
"Living at the End of Our World" (w/ Daniel Sherrell), Sept 2, 2021
"'Succession,' 'Extrapolations,' & TV Writing Today" (w/ Will Arbery), May 4, 2023
...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to all of our bonus episodes!
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Matt and Sam continue the 100th episode extravaganza by answering more truly excellent listener questions and hear from more friends of the show. Topics include: leftwing politics and orthodox Christianity, how to maintain hope (especially on the socialist left), learning to love Freud, complicated family politics, and more! Plus: Dissent co-editor Tash Lewis sings "Happy Birthday" to Matt in Welsh.
Sources:
Charles Péguy, Portal of the Mystery of Hope (1911)
Wesley Hill, "After Boomer Religion," Commonweal, April 29, 2019
Herbert McCabe, "The Class Struggle and Christian Love," in God Matters (2012)
Matthew Sitman, "Against Moral Austerity: On the Need for a Christian Left," Dissent, Summer 2017
Dan Walden, "Gender, Sex, and Other Nonsense," Commonweal, March 1, 2021
Peter Gay, Freud: A Life for Our Time(1988)
Pat Blanchfield, "Death Drive Nation," Late Light, Nov 1, 2022
Casey Blake and Christopher Phelps, "History as Social Criticism: Conversations with Christopher Lasch," Journal of American History, Mar 1994
Sam Adler-Bell, "Beautiful Losers," Commonweal, Mar 11, 2020
— "Jews in the diaspora must resist the inhumanity being done by Israel in our name," New Statesman, Nov 29, 2023
— "Good Enough," The Baffler, April 2024
Kim LaCapria & David Mikkelson, "Does This Photograph Show Bernie Sanders at a 1962 Civil Rights Sit-In?" Snopes, Mar 3, 2016
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To celebrate the 100th episode of Know Your Enemy, Matt and Sam decided to open up the mailbag and field listener questions—which, as always, proved to be incredibly intelligent and interesting, with topics ranging from what they've learned along the way to the politics of guns. Plus, past guests from the podcast stop by to offer their commentary on this auspicious occasion.
Sources:
John Lukacs, The Hitler of History (1997)
— Confessions of an Original Sinner (1989)
— A New History of the Cold War (1966)
Michael Oakeshott, Notebooks, 1922-1986 (2014)
Christopher Smart, "from Jubilate Agno," written between 1759-1763, published 1939
...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to all of our bonus episodes!
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Your intrepid hosts watched the first, and possibly only, presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump so you didn't have to—and then stayed up late to talk about it. After a somewhat wobbly start, Harris seized the momentum with a visceral, deeply affecting answer about the consequences of the GOP's assault on abortion rights, then baited Trump into a rambling rant about the size of his crowds. He never really recovered, and spent much of the rest of the debate running his mouth about the debunked story of Haitian immigrants stealing and eat pets in Ohio or claiming that Harris was responsible for every policy of the Biden administration. What did we learn about the candidates and their priorities? Did Harris break with Biden in any significant ways? What does the Trump-Vance obsession with immigrants reveal about their campaign? What firearm does Harris own? And what about foreign policy? Make sure you listen to the very end!
Sources:
Sam Roberts, "Noel Parmentel Jr., Essayist, Polemicist and Apostate, Dies at 98," New York Times, Sept 6, 2024
Watch the entire Harris-Trump debate (YouTube)
Nate Cohn, "New Poll Suggests Harris’s Support Has Stalled After a Euphoric August," New York Times, Sept 8, 2024
Huo Jingnan and Jasmine Garsd, "JD Vance Spreads Debunked Claims about Haitian Immigrants Eating Pets," NPR, Sept 10, 2024
Mike Catalini, et al, "Trump Falsely Accuses Immigrants in Ohio of Abducting and Eating Pets," Associated Press, Sept 11, 2024
B.D. McClay, "The Taylor Swift Endorsement Fantasy," New York Times, Sept. 8, 2024
"Taylor Swift Derangement Syndrome," Know Your Enemy, Mar 26, 2024
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Matt and Sam interview Waleed Shahid and Abbas Alawieh, two organizers of the Uncommitted Movement, about their experiences in the months following October 7 as well as before, during, and after the Democratic National Convention. As an Arab-American from Michigan and one of the state's two Uncommitted delegates to the DNC, what has Abbas heard from the people in his community, and what has he heard from his party? Why try to work within the Democratic Party to change its approach to Israel-Palestine? What were the Uncommitted Movement's "asks" at the convention, and why were they all refused? How does the Democratic Party, institutionally, need to change to better reflect the broadly pro-ceasefire views of its voters? And is there any hope that a possible Harris administration will be an improvement on the dreadful status quo?
Sources:
Waleed Shahid, “Why the Uncommitted Movement Was a Success at the DNC,” Jacobin, Aug 27, 2024
"'The Uncommitted Movement Is the Floor of What’s Possible:' An Interview with Waleed Shahid," Dissent, Aug 16, 2024
Ben Terris, "A 'Ceasefire Delegate' Finds Lots to Do but Little to Celebrate," Washington Post, Aug 21, 2024
Akbar Shahid Ahmed, "Gaza War Critics Are Inspired By The 1964 DNC — And They're Playing The Long Game," HuffPost, Aug 23, 2024
Noah Lanard, "Why Were Democrats Afraid to Hear a Palestinian?" Mother Jones, Aug 31, 2024
— "Here Is the Speech That the Uncommitted Movement Wants to Give at the DNC," Mother Jones, Aug 23, 2024
Ta-Nehisi Coates, "A Palestinian American’s Place Under the Democrats’ Big Tent?" Vanity Fair, Aug 21, 2024
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Matt and Sam interview Waleed Shahid and Abbas Alawieh, two organizers of the Uncommitted Movement, about their experiences in the months following October 7 as well as before, during, and after the Democratic National Convention. As an Arab-American from Michigan and one of the state's two Uncommitted delegates to the DNC, what has Abbas heard from the people in his community, and what has he heard from his party? Why try to work within the Democratic Party to change its approach to Israel-Palestine? What were the Uncommitted Movement's "asks" at the convention, and why were they all refused? How does the Democratic Party, institutionally, need to change to better reflect the broadly pro-ceasefire views of its voters? And is there any hope that a possible Harris administration will be an improvement on the dreadful status quo?
Sources:
Waleed Shahid, “Why the Uncommitted Movement Was a Success at the DNC,” Jacobin, Aug 27, 2024
"'The Uncommitted Movement Is the Floor of What’s Possible:' An Interview with Waleed Shahid," Dissent, Aug 16, 2024
Ben Terris, "A 'Ceasefire Delegate' Finds Lots to Do but Little to Celebrate," Washington Post, Aug 21, 2024
Akbar Shahid Ahmed, "Gaza War Critics Are Inspired By The 1964 DNC — And They're Playing The Long Game," HuffPost, Aug 23, 2024
Noah Lanard, "Why Were Democrats Afraid to Hear a Palestinian?" Mother Jones, Aug 31, 2024
— "Here Is the Speech That the Uncommitted Movement Wants to Give at the DNC," Mother Jones, Aug 23, 2024
Ta-Nehisi Coates, "A Palestinian American’s Place Under the Democrats’ Big Tent?" Vanity Fair, Aug 21, 2024
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Today, we're joined by one of our favorite writers and thinkers, Vinson Cunningham, to discuss his excellent debut novel, Great Expectations, which tells the story of brilliant-but-unmoored young black man, David Hammond, who finds himself recruited — by fluke, folly, or fate — onto a historic presidential campaign for a certain charismatic Illinois senator. A staff writer at the New Yorker, Vinson also worked for Obama's 2008 campaign in his early twenties. (He bears at least some resemblance to his protagonist.) And his novel provides a wonderful jumping-off point for a deep discussion of political theater, the novel of ideas, race, faith, the meaning of Barack Obama, and the meaning of Kamala Harris.
Also discussed: Christopher Isherwood, Saul Bellow, Garry Wills, Ralph Ellison, Marilynne Robinson, Paul Pierce, and Kobe Bryant! If you can't get enough Vinson, check out his podcast with Naomi Fry and Alexandra Schwartz, Critics at Large.
Sources:
Vinson Cunningham, Great Expectations: A Novel (2024)
— "The Kamala Show," The New Yorker, Aug 19, 2024
— "Searching for the Star of the N.B.A. Finals," The New Yorker, June 21, 2024
— "Many and One," Commonweal, Dec 14, 2020.
Saul Bellow, Ravelstein (2001)
Garry Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg (1992)
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)
— Shadow and Act (1964)
David Haglund, "Leaving the Morman Church, After Reading a Poem," New Yorker Radio Hour, Mar 25, 2016.
Phil Jackson, Sacred Hoops: Spiritual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior (1995)
Glenn Loury, Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative (2024)
Matthew Sitman, "Saving Calvin from Clichés: An Interview with Marilynne Robinson," Commonweal, Oct 5, 2017
...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon so you can listen to all of our premium episodes!
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Four days in Chicago, dozens of speeches by Democratic luminaries and backbenchers, and a spotlight on Kamala Harris, who reintroduced herself to America — your favorite podcast co-hosts endured watching the Democratic National Convention and are here to report on what they saw.
It was, in many ways, a highly successful convention: massive crowds, palpable energy for the Harris-Walz ticket, and orations met with pundits' plaudits. But the Democrats' refusal to feature a speaker from the Uncommitted delegates, and the general lack of evident concern for Palestinian suffering, was profoundly disappointing — and morally grotesque. As were the choices to feature cops and ex-CIA agents on the convention stage, and the broad affirmation, from Democrats, of the right's positions on crime and the border. What to make of it all? We discuss how Kamala tried to define her career and candidacy, what we make of Tim Walz (so far), how Democrats talked about Trump (including the shifts from how they've done so in the past), and the state of the presidential race now that both conventions are, blessedly, over.
Sources:
Watch Kamala Harris's full DNC speech (YouTube)
Watch Tim Walz's full DNC speech (YouTube)
Watch Michelle Obama's full DNC speech (YouTube)
Liliana Segura, "Democrats Abandoned Their Anti-Death Penalty Stance. Those on Federal Death Row May Pay the Price," The Intercept, Aug 23, 2024.
Josh Leifer and Waleed Shahid, "The Uncommitted Movement Is the Floor of What’s Possible,” Dissent, Aug 16, 2024
Noah Lanard, "Here Is the Speech That the Uncommitted Movement Wants to Give at the DNC," Mother Jones, Aug 23, 2024
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Why are American political parties so ineffectual? Why do they seem, simultaneously, so frantically active and so incapable of achieving specific objectives? Why have the Democrats tended to seem listless, uncertain of their own ideological identity; while the Republicans are increasingly dominated by a radical, lunatic fringe more interested in becoming famous on television, radio, and social media than in governing? Why, in other words, are the political parties seemingly "everywhere and nowhere, overbearing and enfeebled, all at once?"
In their new book, The Hollow Parties: The Many Pasts and Disordered Present of American Party Politics, political scientists Daniel Schlozman and Sam Rosenfeld set out to untangle this paradox. Theyargue that much of the discord, dysfunction, and democratic deficit which characterize contemporary politics can be attributed to the "hollowing out" of American political parties — a process which began, in earnest, in the 1970s, with the neoliberal dismantling of New Deal civil society, the rise of the New Right, and reforms to the party system in the wake of the 1968 conventions. In the wake of these changes, our parties have become unrooted from the communities where their constituents live; they are nationalized instead of locally oriented; they are swarmed by para-party groups and networks (the "party blob") which are both unaccountable and parasitic on the Party's aims; and they are lacking in legitimacy — mistrusted and often treated with contempt, even by their own members.
What has this hollowness wrought in our politics? And can anything be done about it? Sam and Danny are here to explain.
Here's a link for 25 percent off print subs to Dissent magazine through August 31: https://www.ezsubscription.com/dis/subscribe?key=DEKYE
Sources:
Daniel Schlozman and Sam Rosenfeld, The Hollow Parties: The Many Pasts and Disordered Present of American Party Politics (2024)
Sam Rosenfeld, The Polarizers: Postwar Architects of Our Partisan Era (2017)
Daniel Schlozman, When Movements Anchor Parties: Electoral Alignments in American History (2015)
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