Podcasts about thunderdome politics

Our guest today is Greg Sargent. He's a columnist at The Washington Post and author of the book An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics. Our discussion digs into the state of the American right, its conflicting constituencies, and its fringe and conspiratorial elements, as well as how the press has covered all of it.Reactionary Minds is a project of The UnPopulist. Hosted by Aaron Ross Powell. Produced by Landry Ayres. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theunpopulist.net

Greg Sargent is one of America's most prolific and insightful political opinion journalists. He is co-author of the Washington Post's The Plum Line blog (along with Paul Waldman) and is the author of the 2018 book An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in An Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics. Although his columns tend to respond to the most heated and prominent issues of the moment, his column is notable for drawing upon a wide range of experts who help connect the political stories to a larger social and political reality. Sargent's work includes a particular focus on the American right and the particular dangers it has come to pose, in an era of Trump-inflected populism, to American democracy. An Uncivil War examines the history of the counter-majoritarian tendencies on the right and concludes that "the plight of our democracy is the result of deep structural factors and problems that go well beyond Trump and long predate him." In this podcast episode, Greg discusses the deeper significance of recent national stories (including several primary elections and the Buffalo and Uvalde mass shootings), the shifting bases of both the Republican and Democratic Parties, and the evolving forms of post-liberalism on the right. He raises what he considers the Democrats' "fundamental failure to reckon with the Republican Party of today," and his view of what needs to happen to avert emerging authoritarian threats. He also talks about his education and journalistic experiences before coming to the Post, and reveals the obscure meaning of "The Plum Line."

Democrats have the narrowest of majorities in the House and Senate. And after a few months of a presidential honeymoon for Joe Biden, they really are feeling the constraints of their tiny margin for error. The Senate is split 50 50 with a tie breaking vote going to Vice President Kamala Harris, which means the Democrats there have to reach unanimous agreement in order to do anything that Republicans in the chamber are against. And with Mitch McConnell as their leader, Republican senators are pretty much against everything Democrats want to do. So what's the plan and how are they moving forward in the face of such obstruction?  And that obstruction is a formidable obstacle outside of domestic politics. Because nine months after the January sixth Capitol riot, so much about what happened on that day and why it happened is still unknown. Law enforcement officials have been conducting many investigations of various people, but none of their findings become public unless they're relevant to a trial. And after several months' delay, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi decided to launch a Select Committee to investigate what happened. In this episode of Theory of Change, we feature Greg Sargent, an opinion columnist with the Washington Post and a blogger there as well. And prior to that, he wrote for the American Prospect and Talking Points Memo and New York magazine. He's also the author of a book that came out a few years ago called "An Uncivil War, Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics." Beyond discussing why Democrats don't talk about far-right radicalism more, host Matthew Sheffield talks about some of his own experiences in Republican politics and why he left. (00:50:00) Full transcript and links to articles mentioned in episode: https://flux.community/matthew-sheffield/2021/10/why-far-right-obstruction-assumed-be-fact-american-politics GUEST INFO Greg Sargent on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS His column archive at the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/greg-sargent/ ABOUT THE SHOW Theory of Change is hosted by Matthew Sheffield and is part of the Flux network, a new content community of podcasters and writers. Please visit us at flux.community to learn more and to tell us about what you're doing! We're constantly growing and learning from the great people we meet. Theory of Change website: https://flux.community/podcasts/theory-of-change Theory of Change on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheoryChange Matthew Sheffield on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattsheffield SUPPORT THE SHOW PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/theorychange Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/discoverflux If you're not able to support financially, please help us by subscribing and/or leaving a nice review on your favorite podcast app. Thank you very much!

This week, our team met up for a conversation with Greg Sargent, author of The Washington Post's Plum Line blog. We cover Biden's first 100 days, what's left to tackle and some crystal ball predictions about those items, the current behaviors and priorities of political bases, and other trends that will likely shape the decade's politics and policies.

[Explicit Language] My guest today is one of my favorite political writers going all the way back to Blogosphere 1.0. Of course I’m talking about the great Greg Sargent from the Washington Post. Today we’ll talk with Greg about the Democratic Convention, and what to expect in the Republican Convention next week. We’ll also dig into Trump’s latest attempt to cheat in the election by attacking absentee ballots, the Postal Service, and a whole lot more. Buy Greg's latest book: An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics.

Can Fox News be sued for endangering people's lives with their entertainment product they pass of as news? Thom is joined by Washington State citizen Arthur West- his group WASHLITE - Washington League for Increased Transparency and Ethics has Fox News in court over their months-long insistence that Covid was some kind of 'Democrat Hoax', and urging people to take plane flights and otherwise endanger themselves.For the Book Club, Thom reads portions from his book "Threshold" and also Greg Sargent's "An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics."

California lawmakers pass bill banning private prisons. A VERY good thing!! ~ Thom reads from "An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics" by Greg Sargent ~ Adam Green from Bold Progressives offers his thoughts on the Democratic Debate. Did Progressive candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders come off on top? Making solid arguments for Medicare for All that can convince moderate voters on the fence about bold progressive ideas to vote their way. ~ Listeners call in with topics from Socialism to the Gold Standard. ~ Book Club reading "The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence" by Michael D'Antonio ~ Talk Media News correspondent Bob Ney clarifies the importance of the recent formalization of an impeachment inquiry by the Congressional Judiciary Committee.

This week we kick off our Get Un-Gaslit Summer Reading Series with Greg Sargent, the author of the 2018 book An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics. Sargent is also known for writing The Plum Line blog for The Washington Post.

As the trade war with China heats up, President Trump is trying to convince Americans that it's actually a good thing. It's not. This week, Tara discusses the consequences of Trump's tariff increases, his recent twitter rants and the latest in the ongoing Mueller Report saga. She also talks about her recent appearance as a guest host of The View.This week, Greg Sargent, writer of the Washington Post's The Plum Line blog, joins Tara to talk the dangers of Trump's disinformation campaign surrounding his economic policies, his attempts to manipulate the Mueller Report, the 2020 Democrats and more. Are Trump's lies working? Does Elizabeth Warren stand a chance? What did George Conway recently discuss with Greg? Listen and find out!Greg is also the author of "Uncivil War: Democracy In an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics."

Greg Sargent’s new book, An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics (HarperCollins, 2018), dives into an analysis of the strength and fragility of American democracy, and surveys a lot of the research by political scientists assessing the question of the stability, longevity, and perseverance of the United States’ democratic structures and the health of the overall republic. Sargent, a writer and columnist at The Washington Post, takes seriously this broad question about democratic health, and follows a variety of the threads of research and consideration in terms of understanding what contributes to and makes up a healthy democracy, and what may be the causes of weakness and concern. An Uncivil War begins with the concept of democratic backsliding, and analyzes what, as Sargent writes, were some of the problems already facing American democracy before Donald Trump’s election to the presidency. Sargent notes that Trump’s election has magnified many of these fault lines and brought them into clearer relief. The book then examines issues like fair play in politics in contrast to thunderdome politics and constitutional hardball. A substantial focus of the book is on voter access, protection of the franchise, and arguments for expanding voter registration. The efforts made to suppress and limit voters and voting are interrogated and explored. Sargent also engages with readers and citizens in thinking about how to change the dynamic in the United States and to move towards implementing ideas and plans to strengthen and fortify American democracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Greg Sargent’s new book, An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics (HarperCollins, 2018), dives into an analysis of the strength and fragility of American democracy, and surveys a lot of the research by political scientists assessing the question of the stability, longevity, and perseverance of the United States’ democratic structures and the health of the overall republic. Sargent, a writer and columnist at The Washington Post, takes seriously this broad question about democratic health, and follows a variety of the threads of research and consideration in terms of understanding what contributes to and makes up a healthy democracy, and what may be the causes of weakness and concern. An Uncivil War begins with the concept of democratic backsliding, and analyzes what, as Sargent writes, were some of the problems already facing American democracy before Donald Trump’s election to the presidency. Sargent notes that Trump’s election has magnified many of these fault lines and brought them into clearer relief. The book then examines issues like fair play in politics in contrast to thunderdome politics and constitutional hardball. A substantial focus of the book is on voter access, protection of the franchise, and arguments for expanding voter registration. The efforts made to suppress and limit voters and voting are interrogated and explored. Sargent also engages with readers and citizens in thinking about how to change the dynamic in the United States and to move towards implementing ideas and plans to strengthen and fortify American democracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Greg Sargent’s new book, An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics (HarperCollins, 2018), dives into an analysis of the strength and fragility of American democracy, and surveys a lot of the research by political scientists assessing the question of the stability, longevity, and perseverance of the United States’ democratic structures and the health of the overall republic. Sargent, a writer and columnist at The Washington Post, takes seriously this broad question about democratic health, and follows a variety of the threads of research and consideration in terms of understanding what contributes to and makes up a healthy democracy, and what may be the causes of weakness and concern. An Uncivil War begins with the concept of democratic backsliding, and analyzes what, as Sargent writes, were some of the problems already facing American democracy before Donald Trump’s election to the presidency. Sargent notes that Trump’s election has magnified many of these fault lines and brought them into clearer relief. The book then examines issues like fair play in politics in contrast to thunderdome politics and constitutional hardball. A substantial focus of the book is on voter access, protection of the franchise, and arguments for expanding voter registration. The efforts made to suppress and limit voters and voting are interrogated and explored. Sargent also engages with readers and citizens in thinking about how to change the dynamic in the United States and to move towards implementing ideas and plans to strengthen and fortify American democracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Greg Sargent’s new book, An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics (HarperCollins, 2018), dives into an analysis of the strength and fragility of American democracy, and surveys a lot of the research by political scientists assessing the question of the stability, longevity, and perseverance of the United States’ democratic structures and the health of the overall republic. Sargent, a writer and columnist at The Washington Post, takes seriously this broad question about democratic health, and follows a variety of the threads of research and consideration in terms of understanding what contributes to and makes up a healthy democracy, and what may be the causes of weakness and concern. An Uncivil War begins with the concept of democratic backsliding, and analyzes what, as Sargent writes, were some of the problems already facing American democracy before Donald Trump’s election to the presidency. Sargent notes that Trump’s election has magnified many of these fault lines and brought them into clearer relief. The book then examines issues like fair play in politics in contrast to thunderdome politics and constitutional hardball. A substantial focus of the book is on voter access, protection of the franchise, and arguments for expanding voter registration. The efforts made to suppress and limit voters and voting are interrogated and explored. Sargent also engages with readers and citizens in thinking about how to change the dynamic in the United States and to move towards implementing ideas and plans to strengthen and fortify American democracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Playboy political writer and CNN analyst Brian Karem joins us, along with Washington Post op-ed columnist Greg Sargent, for a blazing new episode of the #StrangeDaysPodcast. Enjoy and leave a review! Buy Greg Sargent’s Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics, https://amzn.to/2WgiHlx Become a Patreon subscriber to gain access to exclusive bonus content such as my interview with David Pearson, author of JFK and Bobby, Arnie and Jack…and David! www.patreon.com/strangedays

On The Gist, news networks should do us a favor and not air Trump’s prime-time speech on Tuesday night. In the interview, Greg Sargent is an indispensable voice for anyone looking to grasp the inner workings of American democracy. In his new book, he argues that compromise is possible even on issues as stark as voter suppression (the implementers are all Republican on this one, folks). Sargent’s book is An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics. In the Spiel, likability in 2020? It’s overrated.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On The Gist, news networks should do us a favor and not air Trump’s prime-time speech on Tuesday night. In the interview, Greg Sargent is an indispensable voice for anyone looking to grasp the inner workings of American democracy. In his new book, he argues that compromise is possible even on issues as stark as voter suppression (the implementers are all Republican on this one, folks). Sargent’s book is An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics. In the Spiel, likability in 2020? It’s overrated.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s change afoot in Congress, and Greg Sargent—writer for The Washington Post’s must-read blog, The Plum Line—has some tips for the new leaders in town. His new book, “An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics,” is both a deep dive into the Trump effect on our political system and a manual for how the new Congressional majority should seek to restore faith in democratic institutions. Sargent joined Daniella and Ed on the pod to get into the weeds of all of that and more and to explain what, exactly, he means by "thunderdome politics."

Donald Trump’s presidency has been unsettling to some, often spurring controversy while testing our country’s political institutions. Some argue he is at the root of the problem while others say he is simply a symptom of an already broken system. To unravel this a bit more and to offer possible ways out, Greg Sargent of the Washington Post’s Plum Line Blog joins this episode of Politics & Polls with Julian Zelizer and Sam Wang. Sargent has written a new book on the subject, “An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics.” Sargent is an opinion writer covering national politics at the Washington Post. Previously, he wrote for New York magazine, the New York Observer, Talking Points Memo and numerous political websites. He lives in Maryland with his family.

The Washington Post's Greg Sargent has a new book out-- "An Uncivil War: Taking Back our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics" -- and he joins Nicole Sandler to discuss it, and the ramifications from the 2018 midterm elections.

Just how fragile or resilient are our democratic institutions? For two years we’ve heard that the fundamental institutions, like the courts, the rule of law, and the so-called grown-ups and the permanent govt. would provide guardrails against the worst authoritarian impulses of this presidency. We are told that we’ve been through bad times before. It may be, however, that, in the often scary words of wall street, “this time it's different.”  What we face now is less about ideology than about the exercise of raw power. Fed by fear of change and appealing to white nationalism, hate, and racism. All in an environment that is hyper-pressurized, piped in 24/7 and brilliantly fueled by the lowest appeals to human behavior. In that way, maybe this time is different. Trying to pull all these strings together is Washington Post Plum Line columnist Greg Sargent, in his new book An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics My conversation with Greg Sargent:

Thom exposes Trump's lies about the asylum seekers and shares the intense new videos from Immigrant Film Company. Greg Palast joins the conversation and answers listener phone calls about voting as Election Day inches closer. Chris Massicotte of Victory Fund discusses election activism for the LGBTQ community and how to defend freedoms for all. Thom reads from An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics by Greg Sargent.

With many Americas fearing that democracy itself is in trouble, the Washington Post's Greg Sargent explores remedies to reserve the democratic decline in An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics (Custom House, 2018). Sargent first diagnoses the problem, arguing that democracy was in... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With many Americas fearing that democracy itself is in trouble, the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent explores remedies to reserve the democratic decline in An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics (Custom House, 2018). Sargent first diagnoses the problem, arguing that democracy was in trouble well before the ascent of Donald Trump. He delves into the substantive debates among academics and activists regarding how best to restore representative democracy, focusing on combatting voter suppression, expanding voter registration, eliminating partisan gerrymandering, and protecting the independent media from attempts by politicians to discredit it. Sargent also considers the question whether Democrats should be seeking to restore “fair play” or zealously pursuing and wielding power to achieve its policy goals. Bill Scher is a Contributing Editor for POLITICO Magazine. He has provided political commentary on CNN, NPR and MSNBC. He has been published in The New York Times, The New Republic, and The New York Daily News among other publications. He is author of Wait! Don’t Move to Canada, published by Rodale in 2006. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With many Americas fearing that democracy itself is in trouble, the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent explores remedies to reserve the democratic decline in An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics (Custom House, 2018). Sargent first diagnoses the problem, arguing that democracy was in... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With many Americas fearing that democracy itself is in trouble, the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent explores remedies to reserve the democratic decline in An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics (Custom House, 2018). Sargent first diagnoses the problem, arguing that democracy was in trouble well before the ascent of Donald Trump. He delves into the substantive debates among academics and activists regarding how best to restore representative democracy, focusing on combatting voter suppression, expanding voter registration, eliminating partisan gerrymandering, and protecting the independent media from attempts by politicians to discredit it. Sargent also considers the question whether Democrats should be seeking to restore “fair play” or zealously pursuing and wielding power to achieve its policy goals. Bill Scher is a Contributing Editor for POLITICO Magazine. He has provided political commentary on CNN, NPR and MSNBC. He has been published in The New York Times, The New Republic, and The New York Daily News among other publications. He is author of Wait! Don’t Move to Canada, published by Rodale in 2006. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Greg Sargent, author of the Washington Post's Plum Line, talks about "An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics."