Background Briefing: May 23, 2021

On By gram

 

Alarming Poll Finds Republicans in an Alternate Universe Believing Trump Lies

We begin with the latest Ipsos/Reuters poll which finds that 53% of Republicans say Trump is the “True President” with 56% of Republican believing the 2020 election was either rigged or a result of illegal voting and that 54% agree that the Capitol riot was led by “violent left-wing protesters trying to make Trump look bad.” Joining us in an attempt to understand the new Republican Party’s mindset and its divorce from reality is Lloyd Green, a Republican who was opposition research counsel to George HW Bush’s 1988 campaign and served in the Justice Department from 1991 to 1992 and is a contributing writer to The Guardian. We discuss the even more alarming finding that 87% of Republicans in the survey believe new limits should be placed on voting to protect future elections from fraud

 

An Analysis of Biden’s Meeting with South Korean President Moon

Then we get an analysis of the White House meeting Friday between President Biden and South Korean President Moon and speak with Sung Yoon Lee, a Professor of International Affairs at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a Faculty Associate at the US-Japan Program at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. He joins us to discuss Biden’s revival of Obama’s tilt towards Asia and Biden’s call for a denuclearized Korean peninsula.

 

Best-Selling Author and Filmmaker Sebastian Junger on His New Book Freedom

 

Then finally we speak with best-selling author and documentary filmmaker Sebastian Junger about his new book, just out, Freedom, which explores the American myth of rugged individualism to find that enjoying freedom from oppression does not mean you have freedom from obligation. We discuss Sebastian’s 400 mile journey along railroad tracks through cities and backwoods from the perspective of vagrants or homeless men, observing America as outsiders from the shadows.