These days it seems that nobody is satisfied with American democracy. Critics across the ideological spectrum warn that the country is heading toward catastrophe but also complain that nothing seems to change. At the same time, many have begun to wonder if the gulf between elites and ordinary people has turned democracy itself into a myth. The urge to defend the country’s foundations and to dismantle them coexist―often within the same people. How did we get here? Why does it feel like the country is both grinding to a halt and falling to pieces?
In Realigners: Partisan Hacks, Political Visionaries, and the Struggle to Rule American Democracy (FSG, 2022), the historian Timothy Shenk offers an eye-opening new biography of the American political tradition. In a history that runs from the drafting of the Constitution to the storming of the Capitol, Shenk offers sharp pen portraits of signal characters from James Madison and Charles Sumner to Phyllis Schlafly and Barack Obama. The result is an entertaining and provocative reassessment of the people who built the electoral coalitions that defined American democracy―and a guide for a time when figures ranging from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to MAGA-minded nationalists seek to turn radical dreams into political realities.
In an era when it seems democracy is caught in perpetual crisis, Realigners looks at earlier moments when popular majorities transformed American life. We’ve had those moments before. And if there’s an escape from the doom loop that American politics has become, it’s because we might have one again.
Seattle city councilmember & Socialist Alternative member Kshama Sawant joins Bad Faith to debate the strategy, adopted by most of the squad, to vote for the union-crushing tentative agreement that averted a legal railworkers strike. Ryan Grim has been accused of "running cover" for the squad members' strategy, while Kshama Sawant argued their vote for a union voting bill was a clear betrayal. Is Ryan right to say it made sense for the squad to follow the advice of some union members who wanted them to adopt that strategy? Or is Kshama right to call that "political gaslighting?" Ryan joins the conversation about half an hour in, and it's a hot but productive conversation. you wont want to miss it.
The Washington Post reported that a team hired by former President Donald Trump’s lawyers found at least two documents marked “classified” inside a storage unit in West Palm Beach, Florida. It’s the first indication that more potentially sensitive material was, or could still be, at one of Trump’s properties.
China is reportedly easing some of its strict “zero COVID” policies, following mass protests over the government’s response to the pandemic. But there are questions about how the rollback will be implemented, as China faces an increasing number of new infections.
And in headlines: Peruvian lawmakers swore in their first female president after ousting her predecessor, German authorities arrested 25 people accused of plotting a far-right coup, and hundreds of New York Times journalists will stage a historic 24-hour strike.
Show Notes:
NPR: Japan's Disney store sells merchandise of Winnie the Pooh supporting China's protests – https://tinyurl.com/nhk3pdh8
Crooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffee
What to know about newly-reported classified documents in former President Trump's possession. It was Trump's lawyers who turned them over.
Also, one nation's president was arrested, and the new leader is making history as she takes his place.
Plus, which state is now suing one of the most popular apps in the world and why, the phrase to tell 'Alexa' if you want to help an Amazon delivery driver, and one of the biggest contracts in baseball's history.
Those stories and more news to know in around 10 minutes!
Today, there are believed to be more people trapped in slavery than at any other time in history. These are individuals who are victims of sex trafficking and forced labor. They are women, men, and children.
There are “27.6 million people [who] are estimated to be victims of trafficking,” John Richmond, the former U.S. ambassador to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons during the Trump administration, says.
Tragically, governments around the world are “identifying less than half of 1% of all those victims every year," Richmond says. “We are failing to actually identify, protect, and care for the victims of trafficking, and the traffickers are moving around with impunity.”
At the end of the day, human trafficking will only be stopped when the traffickers are stopped, he says.
“The root cause of the problem are the individuals who decide to exploit inherently valuable people just because they're vulnerable.”
Richmond, who also an attorney and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss the core issues driving human trafficking today, and what is being done to rescue victims.
Paris Marx is joined by Douglas Rushkoff to discuss why internet visions of the 1990s were wrong to ignore corporate power, how the dot-com boom was like a Ponzi scheme, and why we desperately need to stop elevating tech billionaires.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.
On this week’s episode of The Waves, Slate senior supervising producer of audio Daisy Rosario is joined by sisters and authors Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar. Amber and Lacey just released their second book, The World Record Book of Racist Stories, a collection of humorous and sometimes heartbreaking essays about the racism they and the people they know experience every day. Daisy, Amber and Lacey talk about needing to write a second book (because they didn’t fit all the stories in the first book), the importance of family in surviving micro and macro aggressions, and why humor is the only way to get through the pain.
In Slate Plus, Daisy, Amber and Lacey talk about why Omaha actually is a great place to live.
Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Daisy Rosario and Alicia Montgomery.
Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to thewaves@slate.com
