Background Briefing: November 10, 2024
With the Blame Game Underway, the Democrats Need to Focus on Accountability and a Coherent Strategy
We begin with the blame game underway with Nancy Pelosi blaming Biden for not stepping down earlier and look into the need for accountability as the Democrats are dazed and confused following such a resounding defeat by a disastrous former president who should be in jail, not back in the Oval Office. Joining us is Timothy Shenk, an assistant professor of history at George Washington University. A senior editor at Dissent magazine, he has written for the New York Times, the Nation, the New Republic, and Jacobin, among other publications. His new book, just out, is Left Adrift: What Happened to Liberal Politics, and we discuss his article at The New York Times, “It’s Time to Resist the Resistance.”
The Failure of the Legal System to Bring a Career Criminal to Justice Before he Took Over the World
Then we assess the failure of the legal system to bring a career criminal to justice before he took over the world and speak with Sean Wilentz, the George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History at Princeton University whose books include The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln, The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008, Bob Dylan in America, and The Politicians and the Egalitarians. His latest book is No Property in Man: Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation’s Founding. We discuss his article at Rolling Stone, “Trump’s Plot Against America.”
The Global Implications of the Enormous Power Trump Will Wield
Then finally we examine the implications of the enormous power Trump will wield as he joins with kleptocratic leaders and autocrats to enrich cronies and empower a global oligarchy as his bromance with Elon Musk has the world’s richest man sharing phone calls with Trump and Putin and Erdogan. Joining us is Robert Benson, a senior policy analyst for National Security and International Policy at The Center for American Progress. Previously he worked as a global relations consultant at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris and as a research fellow at the Social Science Center in Berlin.