#1668 We Are Going Back: Team post-election analysis
Air Date: 11-8-2024
The Best of the Left team holds a special post-election discussion available to all listeners to present the initial takes on the election as well as our own reactions and suggestions for how to move forward.
Read more#1648 Power Grabs, Elections Optional: The threat of minority rule through election denialism
Air Date: 8-13-2024
Spirits among Kamala Harris supporters, Democrats, and anyone opposing Trumpism are at an all-time high right now. That's both fortuitous and crucial to the upcoming election. By the very nature of Trumpism, this election will be the most flagrantly contested in history with far more Trump loyalists in place ready to throw wrenches in the works wherever they can. Nothing short of an overwhelming victory for the Harris/Waltz ticket is necessary to stave off a constitutional crisis.
Read more#1642 A Tumultuous Year of Democracy: Left-Wing victories in the UK, France and Mexico with lessons for the US
Air Date: 7-17-2024
Recent elections in the UK, France and Mexico spanned the spectrum from confirming inevitabilities to completely upending expectations but they each have lessons for politics in the US
Read more#1590 Red Caesar and Project 2025: A fascist fever dream being given a vaguely respectable coat of paint by the Claremont Institute and the Heritage Foundation (Throwback)
Original Air Date: 10-23-2023
The people who want to pull the country in directions that are only supported by a small minority of the population have to develop very intricate plans to have any hope of succeeding. This is the story of the latest plan to establish unchecked rule to implement unpopular policies supported only by the far right.
Read more#1637 Shifting Populations, Shifting Politics: The European elections show a marginal shift toward the hard right over fears of immigration and scarcity
Air Date: 6-21-2024
The European elections could have been worse but they weren't great. Shifting politics among mainstream parties is legitimizing far-right policies at the same time as people's concerns over immigration is being reflected in a willingness to vote for far-right parties.
Read more#1606 Biden's Barriers and Boons to Reelection
Air Date: 1-26-2024
In an election year where, more than ever before, democracy itself is on the ballot, there is less democracy happening in the lead-up to the election than at any time in recent memory. And with two profoundly disliked candidates running, the supporters of democratic ideals have a hard uphill push ahead of them.
Read more#1604 The Border Crisis is Manufactured for Political Opportunity
Air Date: 1-17-2024
It is evident that the immigration debate is more about acquiring raw power than about immigration as demands from the Republican Party change along with whatever strategies they feel are most likely to get Republicans elected and in the age of Trump, that means the most draconian, harmful and, ultimately, pointless demands to date.
Read more#1601 Christian Nationalism is not Christianity, it is Fascism
Air Date: 1-2-2024
Trump's greatest impact has been to bring the fringes of the conservative movement into the center and, by strongly courting the Evangelical Christian vote, helped accelerate the Christian Nationalist movement to merge religion with patriotism.
Read more#1532 Accelerationism is the Brick on the Gas Pedal of the Runaway Car of Society (Repost)
Original Air Date: 12–17-2022
Today, we take a look at the fringe philosophy of accelerationism that is having a bigger impact on society than you will likely have realized as it's been behind some of the worst terror attacks in recent years and is likely behind attacks on infrastructure targeting society as a whole.
Read more#1597 The rise of fascism around the world driven by economic insecurity
Air Date: 12-8-2023
Neoliberalism has created a lot of economic suffering and insecurity in addition to weakened social ties over the past few decades. And now, in what may be the most devastating result of the ideology yet, neoliberalism may be leading much of the world toward fascism bolstered by legitimate grievances about economic precarity which are coopted by the false promises of right-wing populism.
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