Donald Trump is waging war on the American republic. Why don’t more people care?
Today I had a conversation I won’t easily forget that sought answers to this question.
Are we living through the familiar, well-worn descent into authoritarianism? Or are we witnessing a new phenomenon, specific to modern life, in which people have enough of a subjective feeling of freedom in their personal lives that they are willing to carve out political freedoms they tell themselves they don’t need? Years ago, I found this attitude reporting in China. I asked my guests if it was now happening here.
What is freedom, really? Does a world of broad consumer choices and job options and infinite scrolling somehow cause people not to recognize they’re in a slow-motion emergency? And what does this mean for how defenders of democracy should make their case? I talked about all of this and more with the scholar of fascism Ruth Ben-Ghiat of Lucid and journalist Andrew Marantz, who has a great piece in The New Yorker about the parallels between Hungary and what the U.S. is headed towards.
More Live conversations this week!
Tomorrow, Tuesday, May 13, at noon Eastern, we’ll speak with former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. On Wednesday, May 14, at 12:15 p.m. Eastern, we’ll talk to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. And then on Thursday, May 15, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we’ll welcome the return of messaging guru Anat Shenker-Osorio. You won’t want to miss any of these!
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