#1701 Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way: Installing the Backbone Democrats Need
Air Date: 4-2-2025
Love them or loathe them, the Democratic Party is the political institution available to the left to structurally take on Trumpism but we need a whole lot of new energy and new commitments to the fight to turn them into an opposition worthy of the moment we face.
Read more#1698 Resistance is Not Futile: Support the collective revolt against Trumpism (Special Podcasthon!)
Air Date: 3-18-2025
SUPPORT INDIVISIBLE WITH A DONATION AND SIGN UP WITH YOUR LOCAL CHAPTER!
In this special Podcasthon episode, we're joining thousands of podcasts around the world in taking the opportunity this week to support a cause or organization that we believe in. In this time of fighting fascism, Best of the Left has chosen to support Indivisible, the grassroots organizing team that's working to resist Trumpism and pressure Democrats to do the same. Follow the link in the description of this episode to make a donation but also take a moment to find and join your local Indivisible chapter to stay engaged.
Read more#1685 Faux Populism and Neoliberalism: Working People Are Stuck Between Oligarchy and Disregard
Air Date: 1-21-2025
Decades ago, the conscious decision was made to exacerbate inequality for the sake of economic growth that would supposedly lift all boats. What probably wasn't understood at the time is that the logical conclusion of that choice would be to break democracy and usher in oligarchy. Now working people are left with only bad choices and empty promises.
Read more#1678 Trump's Total Dominance Over the Republican Party and the Resistance Efforts Already Underway
Air Date: 12-20-2024
There's no denying that things are about to get bad, Trump and company have had years to prepare for their next turn in office, but those preparing to resist also have the benefit of past experience resulting in a response to Trumpism that looks very different this time around.
Read more#1677 Dems Can't Have Their Billionaires and Beat Them Too: The politics of anti-elitism
Air Date: 12-17-2024
Changing the direction of a political party doesn't happen overnight and it usually takes a major disrupting event to shake it out of its well-wore groove. The loss of the Harris campaign to Trump and the evident desperation people have for a new economics that works for people might finally be enough to put Democrats on track to a more full-throated support of economic populism.
Read more#1661 Immigration is Actively Good for the Country Unless You're Racist
Air Date: 10-8-2024
Immigration dominates our politics in the worst way because one side benefits from lying about it and the other can't get their messaging together to create an effective rebuttal. Opposing immigration and stoking blatantly racist arguments doesn't just make the right bad or unsavory, it also makes them wrong on literally all of the facts.
Read more#1654 Demographics of Democracy: Decoding cohorts of voters that will decide the election
Air Date: 9-10-2024
It's said that we live in a melting pot here in the United States. Perhaps it's more of a salad bar, who knows? In any case, there are a lot of people coming from a lot of different backgrounds, cultures, histories, and geographies all about to vote in a few weeks. Today, we try to understand, at least roughly, how people's backgrounds influence their vote.
Read more#1629 Hitting Where it Hurts in Our Era of Negative Partisanship: Messaging left-wing politics amid cultish politics
Air Date: 5-15-2024
In an age of cultish in-group/out-group politics and media, we seek to find messaging for progressive partisans to achieve electoral success
Read more#1621 How Democrats Lost Their Way On Economics And Are Starting To Find It Again
Air Date: 4-9-2024
The neoliberal legacy of the New Democrats continues to loom large but it really does seem like the progressive wing of the party and the broader demand for populist economic policies has had an impact. Now people just need to know that it's happening.
Read more#1569 Winning Progressive Policies with Better Messaging
Air Date: 7–4-2023
Today, we take a look at the difference between the kind of political messaging that feels like the right thing to say and the reframed messages that actually get political results that allow for progressive policies to get passed.
Read more
