Background Briefing: October 13, 2024
With the Fateful Election 3 Weeks Away, an Update on Polls and Predictions
We begin with the fateful election three weeks away and get an update on the polls and predictions which now have Kamala Harris slightly ahead in most swing states but within the 1% margin of error meaning that spoilers like Jill Stein and Cornel West could swing the election to Trump. Joining us is Bill Scher, the politics editor of the Washington Monthly. He is the host of the history podcast When America Worked and the co-host of the bipartisan online show and podcast The DMZ. We will discuss his latest article at The Washington Monthly, “The Harris and Trump Media Strategies Tell Us How They Each View America: One Candidate uses media to fuel political polarization. The other is trying to cure us of it.”
Is America Itself on Trial in This Election and Could it Soon Descend Into Darkness Like Germany in the 1930’s?
Then, with Trump’s closing argument in the campaign an anti-Trans media blitz along with increasingly vile anti-immigrant rhetoric at his rallies, we examine the extent to which America itself is on trial and could soon descend into darkness as Germany did in the 1930’s. Joining us is Sidney Blumenthal, the former assistant and senior adviser to President Bill Clinton, and senior adviser to Hillary Clinton. He has been a national staff reporter for The Washington Post, Washington editor and staff writer for The New Yorker and his books include the bestselling The Clinton Wars, The Rise of the Counter-Establishment and The Permanent Campaign. His latest book is All the Powers on Earth, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln 1856-1860, and we discuss his latest articles at The Guardian, “Donald Trump’s Hitlerian logic is no mistake” and “Trump and his allies are whipping up a whirlwind of lies about the hurricane.”
The Political Violence Spilling Out of Red States in Our Vigilante Nation
Then finally we speak with David Noll, the associate dean for faculty research and development and a professor of law at Rutgers Law School. An academic fellow of the National Institute for Civil Justice, he clerked on the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, and his new book, coauthored with Jon Michaels, is Vigilante Nation: How State-Sponsored Terror Threatens Our Democracy. We discuss his article at The American Prospect, “The Political Violence Spilling Out of Red States.”