WCPT 820 Interview: Simon Rosenberg

Edwin Eisendrath is joined by Simon Rosenberg, Democratic strategist and author of the Hopium Chronicles.

Rosenberg discussed the rise of political violence on the right, citing the Charlie Kirk shooting and ideology on the right "that encourages violence," including the QAnon, whose end state, Rosenberg points out, is "the assassination and killing of Democratic leaders on the mall and the hanging of people like Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats."

He added: "There is an incredible body of language and thought and argumentation around encouraging violence on the right against those other people. There is no such ideology on the left. It just doesn't exist. We don't have a radical left movement in America. In fact, our movement is desperately, ferociously fighting to preserve rule of law and democracy battle illiberalism. Battling illiberalism is the central undertaking of our collective project, and we've seen millions and millions and millions of people this year, tens of millions people protest legally, without any incident. It's incredible how many people have been on the street this year, peacefully, literally with no incidents of any kind." 

Rosenberg emphasized the need for Democrats to expand their coalition into red states and to address voter apathy, particularly in the Black community. He proposed a four-part agenda for Democrats:

"One is to roll back the tariffs that are causing so much harm to the American people and to our economy, our standing in the world. It's taxation without representation, it's illegal, unconstitutional, and we need to roll them back. 

"Second is that we should be fighting with everything we can to roll back the ICE increase and to keep troops off of our streets. This creation of a private, political police force for the president is un-American, illiberal, and we have to fight it with all the bones in our body, as you guys are doing in Chicago.

"Third is: This assault on science and higher ed and public health, the cutting of Medicaid and [the Affordable Care Act] is destructive. It's sabotage for the United States. 

"And then, finally, fourth is that we need to be standing with Ukraine and our European allies, and and not with Putin, and we need to be defending democracy here and all around the world. 

"These are the four pillars of what I think could become an offensive agenda for the Democrats as we go into ideological and rhetorical battle with Trump and the right, as a set of guideposts for how we're going to engage."

Watch the conversation on Substack Live.

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