Trump won’t deliver for voters, but do Democrats actually want to defeat him?

Episode Summary

As Donald Trump’s second presidential administration takes shape with a host of controversial and unpopular executive orders and numerous unqualified and bizarre nominees like Fox News weekend host Pete Hegseth, it raises the question, is this what his voters asked for?

That question is actually a lot more difficult to answer than it may seem, because people voted for Trump for a variety of different reasons, some of which were even contradictory.

We'll get into that on today’s episode and also discuss why Democrats have been unwilling and unable to offer a different alternative to the politics of credentialism that they've been creating for the past several decades. My guest on today's episode is Chris Lehmann, the Washington bureau chief for The Nation magazine. He's also the author of the 2016 book, “The Money Cult: Capitalism, Christianity, and the Unmaking of the American Dream.”

The video of our December 17, 2024 discussion is available, the transcript is below. Because of its length, some podcast apps and email programs may truncate it. Access the episode page to get the full text.

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--Lehmann article: What happened to the Democratic Party?

Audio Chapters

00:00 — Introduction

06:09 — Ultra-libertarians and religious zealots think the same way

09:09 — Friedrich Nietzsche is the ultimate inspiration for today's tech oligarchs

15:51 — Democrats don't know how to advocate against religious zealotry

19:55 — Far-right people lost in the marketplace of ideas, so they're trying to overthrow the marketplace

24:38 — Hypocrisy isn't a vice to rightwingers, and the left should stop using it as an argument

27:58 — Democrats refuse to retire failed leaders

31:01 — Despite Democrats' problems, progressives have not learned to persuade

36:03 — Democrats want to win at politics, but hate actually engaging i