Start Making Sense

Bloomberg can’t win the primaries, but he might try to get the nomination if Bernie doesn’t go to the convention with a majority of delegates.  Jeet Heer argues that nominating Bloomberg would destroy the Democratic Party and assure Trump’s reelection. Plus: political pundits are supposed to put forward strong opinions – that’s their job.  The rest of us may be confused and uncertain and anxious, but the pundits are full of convictions and arguments.  Today we depart from that rule and talk to Rick Perlstein – although he has argued for social democracy for decades, he’s got some doubts of his own about Bernie, while he acknowledges all that Bernie has achieved. Also: the Cold War was fought in many ways: it was a traditional political and military confrontation, but it was also a cultural contest on a global scale – and one of the most important arenas in the cultural contest was sports. Historian Robert Edelman explains: he’s co-editor of the new book The Whole World Was Watching: Sport in the Cold War.

Pundits have declared that Elizabeth Warren is finished, but we’re not so sure. Joan Walsh points out that, while Warren came in third in Iowa and fourth in New Hampshire, only 64 delegates have been selected—there are more than 1,900 delegates still to be picked. The case for Warren at this point remains potent, especially given the success of progressive women in the 2018 midterms. Also: Bernie has already won the ideas primary in the Democratic Party. That’s what Bob Borosage argues—he sets the agenda for the race and the other candidates define themselves in relations to his positions. Plus: John Sayles has directed two dozen films, including Matewan and Lone Star. Here he talks about his new novel, Yellow Earth—it’s about what happens when shale oil is discovered underneath an Indian reservation in the North Dakota badlands—and outsiders descend. Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy &

New Hampshire’s primary has reshaped the Democratic race: Progressives are coalescing around Bernie, and moderates are abandoning Biden in favor of Mayor Pete and Amy Klobuchar.  John Nichols reports. Plus: How the Democrats can win in rural America: Jane Kleeb talks about strategies for winning in red states.  She’s a grassroots organizer based in Hastings, Nebraska, and she put together the coalition of ranchers, farmers, Native Americans, and environmentalists that stopped the Keystone XL Pipeline. She’s chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, and her new book is Harvest the Vote. Also: another episode of The Children’s Hour: stories about Ivanka, Jared, Don Junior, and little Eric.  Today: Don Junior writes a best-seller!  Just like his father, his mother, and his sister: a  family of literati.  Amy Wilentz reports. Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privac

The problem in reporting the results in Iowa isn’t just a delay; it’s a disaster—that’s what John Nichols says—for the Democrats, and especially for Bernie, who so far appears to have won at least the popular vote. And if Biden did as badly as reports suggest, that’s a huge boost not just for Pete Buttigieg but also for Michael Bloomberg. But there is one excellent result: This may very well be the last of the Iowa caucuses. Also: there are many other ways elections can go wrong—for example, we could have a cyberattack on the power grid on election day that could cause blackouts in big cities the Democrats need to win. Rick Hasen explains that and other potential threats—his new book is Election Meltdown: Dirty Tricks, Distrust, and the Threat to American Democracy. Plus: Sunday is the Oscars—Hollywood’s own elections. And the nominees for best director are all men. Is that because there are no good women directors? John Powers thinks there are some other explanations. He’s critic at large on Fresh Air

Republican Senators in swing states are falling in their approval ratings back home as the Senate impeachment trial unfolds.  In Maine, Arizona, Colorado, and North Carolina, 63 percent of voters want the Senate to allow witnesses and subpoenas in the impeachment trial.  Joan Walsh comments on the politics of impeachment, and on the losing arguments Trump’s attorneys have offered in his defense. Plus: This Sunday is the Superbowl, the biggest sports event in America- a hundred million people watch the Superbowl these days. The Superbowl—and all of football—is sort of like Donald Trump: both of them provide mass entertainment that promotes tribalism and toxic masculinity while keeping violence in vogue.  The legendary sports writer Robert Lipsyte explains.  Also: the Border Patrol, it turns out, has a youth group – ‘Border Patrol Explorers,’ an extension of the Boy Scouts.  Morley Musick went to the Arizona border to find out who signs up and what they do once they’re in the organization. Subscribe to The Nati

51 per cent of Americans now think Trump should be removed from office, according to the new CNN poll (and 45 per cent think he shouldn’t).  That, John Nichols argues. shows impeachment has succeeded—and if Republicans in the Senate block Trump’s removal from office, voters can do it in November. Also historian Andrew Bacevitch argues that America has squandered its Cold War victory – and considers where Trump fits into the history of the US since the collapse of the USSR.  His new book is The Age of Illusions. And we talk about climate change –as seen from the perspective of the Pentagon.  Trump may deny that the world is getting warmer, fast, but the Pentagon has been preparing for that for several years now—and is making disaster relief part of its mission.  Michael Klare reports—his new book is All Hell Breaking Loose. Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/priv

It’s been ten years since Haiti was devastated by the earthquake that killed more than a hundred thousand people.  Amy Wilentz, who has been reporting on Haiti for three decades, returned to the island and found the country oddly calm, despite deepening poverty, violence, and corruption.  She also found “little sprouts of possibility everywhere.” Also: We have a lot of experts on what to do about poverty -- academics and policy makers.  Mia Birdsong has been working with a different sent of experts: poor people themselves.  She’s a Senior Fellow of the Economic Security Project, and her TED talk “The Story We Tell About Poverty Isn’t True” has been viewed almost two million times.  Now she has a new 4-part podcast at The Nation – it’s called “More Than Enough.” Plus: Democratic socialism, American style: Kate Aronoff and Michael Kazin talk about socialism in America today—they are co-editors with Peter Dreier of “We Own the Future,” which includes chapters on sports, banks, work, health care, campaign financ

Trump’s Iran strike continues a long, failed history of American actions based on the idea that the U.S. military can shape the mideast in accord with our wishes.  That’s what Andrew Bacevich argues—his new book is The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered its Cold War Victory. Plus: Henry Louis Gates discovers slave-owners – and also slaves—in the family histories of some surprising people--on the PBS series “Finding Your Roots.”  On this season’s premiere, Anjelica Houston learned that one of her ancestors, who died in Maryland in 1811, was a slaveowner, and that in his will he acknowledged fathering four slave children.  Gates, the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University, also talks about his collaboration with historian Eric Foner on the award-winning PBS documentary on Reconstruction.  Also: Joe McCarthy as a predecessor of Donald Trump: the connections and similarities (“McCarthy was willing to assert things that he knew weren’t true, and did it with aplomb”) are traced by Jelan

The 2020 election will liberate us from Donald Trump and Republican hegemony. A sweeping Democratic victory will make it possible at last for us to address our most serious problems—because 2020 will bring the death of the Republican party as we’ve known it. That’s what Stan Greenberg says—he’s a longtime pollster and adviser to presidents from Clinton to Obama. He’s also a bestselling author, with a new book out—it has the wonderful title R.I.P. G.O.P.: How the New America is Dooming the Republicans. Plus: Naomi Klein on the Green New Deal—she says we need to follow the example of the New Deal era of the 1930s, when nothing would have happened without “massive pressure from social movements” that “changed the calculus of what was possible.” Naomi is the author of several number one bestsellers, including This Changes Everything. Also: movies and politics. No political figure has blurred the line between them more than Ronald Reagan—and no president understood the power of collective fantasy better than R

Capitalism is broken – that's why socialism is on the agenda for 2020.  Katrina vanden Heuvel explains - she's publisher and editorial director of The Nation. We also look back at some of the big events of 2019, and some of our favorite interviews, starting with the terrorist attacks by white nationalists,   in El Paso and elsewhere.  Historian Kathleen Belew says they are NOT isolated events  carried out by loners; in fact they are connected, the work of a movement, with tens of thousands of active members. Also 2019 of course has been the year of impeachment -- historian Rick Perlstein has comment and analysis. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The British Labour Party suffered a historic defeat last week—working class people who voted Labour their entire lives have now switched sides.  Centrists in the Democratic Party say this means that the socialist program doesn’t work as an alternative to racism and xenophobia--in other words, it’s bad news for Bernie.  And for us at The Nation.  They say Boris Johnson is a lot like Donald Trump, and that Boris’s victory suggests Trump will win in 2020—the way Brexit foretold the 2016 vote in the US.  D.D. Guttenplan disagrees, and explains why. Plus: the end of the year brings The Nation’s progressive honor roll for 2019 - honoring those who’ve done the steady work of advancing economic, social and racial justice.  John Nichols names the elected officials and also activists, organizations, and ideas that are shaping our future. Also: this week India is on fire--with massive protests, and massive repression, of Muslim students saying “no” to the government’s move toward making India a Hindu nation – the great

Some analysts criticize progressives who urge Democrats to focus on turning out their core base—people of color, unmarried women, and younger voters—they say it’s a big mistake to give up on working class whites. And many progressives reply that it would be a disaster for the Democrats to try to “win back” working class white Trump voters by not talking about discriminatory policing, reproductive health care, and LGBTQ rights. Joshua Holland examines the actual evidence—and concludes that Democrats have already won back enough white working-class voters to defeat Trump in 2020. Also: What happens to pregnant women when anti-abortion state legislatures grant legal personhood to fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses? What happens when pregnant women’s behavior is criminalized? Katha Pollitt reports. Also: Brett Kavanaugh was not on the list of candidates for the Supreme Court that Trump released during the campaign—how did Kavanaugh end up ahead of everybody else? Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post has th

Democrats need to learn the lessons of their historic victory last month, when Virginia became the first Southern state in the post–civil-rights-movement era to entirely flip back to Democratic control.  Virgina Democrats now hold the governorship AND both houses of the state legislature.  How did they do it?  Joan Walsh says one key was that Republican attacks on abortion didn’t send Democrats running scared. Also: Trump’s pardons for war criminals: Jeet Heer says the military is right to stand up for the laws of war, but the basic issue is a political one, and the military can’t make this a political fight.  But the voters can. And Bryce Covert has been examining strikes in America over the last couple of years.  More workers went on strike last year than at any time since 1986 – more than 20 years ago.  They include public sector workers, like teachers and nurses, and corporate employees, like auto and hotel workers – and even low-paid, part-time and temporary people who don’t have unions—like fast food wo

Bernie Sanders says it will take a movement to change America: “It can’t all be Bernie.”  John Nichols comments on his interview with the candidate, who is now back in second place in the polls.  And we play clips from the interview, originally broadcast on the Next Left podcast.  Also: deporting the immigrants called “undesirable”--now, under Trump, and a hundred years ago.  Historian Adam Hochschild notes that  it’s the 100th anniversary of the Palmer Raids, where J Edgar Hoover got his start rounding up and trying to deport immigrant radicals—and when one heroic Labor Department official blocked thousands of deportations. Plus: Martin Scorcese’s new film “The Irishman” opens on Netflix this week; it claims to tell the true story of the murder of Jimmy Hoffa, the head of the Teamsters Union, who disappeared in 1974.  But nobody who’s studied that history thinks the movie is right about what happened to Hoffa.  Does that fact change our judgement about the film?  John Powers comments; he’s critic at large fo

The adventures of older women in America: Ruth Bader Ginsburg for example is 86,and Nancy Pelosi just turned 80. But where are the prominent Republican women in politics today who are older?  Gail Collins has been thinking about that; of course she’s the New York Times op-ed columnist.  Her new book is No Stopping Us Now.  Also: Rick Perlstein says the Nixon impeachment limited the charges against the president in order to win a Republican majority in the Senate; since that’s not going to happen with Trump, the Democrats might as well include all his high crimes in their articles of impeachment.  And historian Eric Foner talks about the New York Times’s “1619 Project,” which argues that the legacy of slavery is central to all of the American past and present. Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Sherrod Brown, the senior senator from Ohio, was re-elected in 2018. He won by 7 points—in a state Hillary Clinton had lost—by 8 points—just 2 years earlier. What are the lessons for 2020? “You need to talk to workers,” he says, “and you need to fight for workers—all workers.” Now he has a new book out: Desk 88 – Eight progressive senators who changed America. Also: why Joe Biden is the wrong candidate to take on Donald Trump: D.D. Guttenplan, The Nation’s editor, explains why the magazine has published an “anti-endorsement.” Plus: this week the Supreme Court heard arguments about the fate of DACA residents—whether those young people brought here as small children should be deported. But why should that be decided by the nine justices on the Supreme Court? In a democracy, shouldn’t that be decided democratically? That’s Thom Hartmann’s argument—not just about DACA, but about all of judicial review. His new book is The Hidden History of the Supreme Court. Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our po

Where do we stand one year out from the election? The best polls this week show Trump losing the popular vote by around 15 points—but also show that he’s still “highly competitive” in the swing states Democrats must carry in order to defeat him. John Nichols has our analysis. Also: Trump is trying to knock off Joe Biden because he wants to run against Elizabeth Warren—he thinks he can win by campaigning against “socialism.” And more young people have favorable views of socialism than they do of capitalism these days—but what is socialism? Paul Adler explains; his new book is The 99 Percent Economy: How Democratic Socialism Can Overcome the Crises of Capitalism. Also: One of our favorite writers, John le Carré, has a new book out: Agent Running in the Field—they’re calling it his “Brexit Book.” It’s number five on the best seller list. He’s now 88 years old, he’s written 26 books, which have been published in over 50 countries and 40 languages. The books are about loyalty and betrayal, and many are about

Joe Biden may be the frontrunner, but he’s slipping, and it seems doubtful that he will get better at this.  Big donors are pulling away from him.  But do the “moderates” in the party–-the Wall Street Democrats--have a Plan B? A backup candidate?  A viable alternative?  Jeet Heer evaluates the possibilities—there are a lot of them, but none are very promising. Also: Republicans in the Senate--we will need 20 of them to vote to convict Trump if he’s going to be removed from office.  Is that possible?  Elie Mystal runs the numbers--and concludes, “maybe—if we the people work really hard.”   Plus: Haiti is at the brink of collapse—Amy Wilentz reports on one of Trump’s “shithole countries.” Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

We all know Trump got famous on TV with The Apprentice – but how many of us ever watched The Apprentice?  Reality TV was a key force in making Trump president.  Tom Carson talks about “Audience of One” by James Poniewozik.  Tom, a longtime writer on pop culture and politics, won two National Magazine Awards during his time as Esquire‘s “Screen” columnist; now he writes for BookForum. Also: Ilhan Omar has endorsed Bernie for president – how does she deal with Trump’s vicious attacks?  David Perry has spent the last few months with her in her Minneapolis district—he says he’s never seen a politician talk as little about themselves as she does in her town halls. Plus: Pico Iyer has lived in Japan part-time for the last 30 years – he says it’s hard to imagine how different that country is from our own.  His new book is “A Beginner’s Guide to Japan.” Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Trump’s increasingly reckless efforts at intimidation reveal the increasingly desperate situation he has created for himself, where even Fox News has become an inconsistent and unreliable defender of his actions.  Sasha Abramsky separates Trump’s efforts at distraction from the political reality he now faces. Also: With the Supreme Court back in session, we turn our attention to the most right-wing and longest-serving Justice, Clarence Thomas.  Is he a self-hating sell-out?  Corey Robin says he’s something else: a conservative black nationalist.  His new book is The Enigma of Clarence Thomas. Plus: The political promise of the abortion pill: Despite the fact that more than 75% of Americans favor Roe v. Wade, abortion rights face increasing jeopardy at the Supreme Court, and the right finally succeed at defunding Planned Parenthood.  But there’s one immensely promising factor at work: abortion drugs, especially misoprostol, which is easily obtained on the Internet, despite the FDA’s attempts to prevent online