If the past week — and past four years — have proven anything, it’s that we are not as different as we believed. No longer is the question, "Can it happen here?" It’s happening already.

Ch. 2: Is Democracy in Danger? Legal Experts Dahlia Lithwick and Ian Bassin On Trump, Barr and The Abuse of the Criminal Justice System - The Al Franken Podcast - Air Date 2-23-20

Dahlia Lithwick of Slate and Ian Bassin of Protect Democracy discuss Trump's sickening lurch toward autocracy post-impeachment with the cooperation of Bill Barr.

Ch. 3: Trump's Authoritarian Lineage w/ Ruth Ben-Ghiat - The Majority Report - Air Date 11-12-20

Sam speaks with Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat), professor of History and Italian studies at New York University, about her new book "Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present."

Ch. 4: Check Your Blindspot 12-4-20

Today's episode of America's favorite political game show!

Ch. 5: From Dictator to Demigod - Power Corrupts - Air Date 8-1-19

We explore the strategic logic of cults of personality with stories that you won’t believe but are all too real.

Ch. 6: Juan González The Media Has It Wrong. Record Latinx Turnout Helped Biden. White Voters Failed Dems Part 2 - Democracy Now! - Air Date 11-5-20

“How come none of the experts are asking why white voters underperformed the Democratic Party?”

Ch. 7: How Trump Hacked the Presidency - Trumpcast - 11-13-20

Why Donald Trump’s violation of norms come with more social or political penalties than legal ones

Ch. 8: The Secret Code of the Proud Boys - Trumpcast - Air Date 10-1-20

Virginia Heffernan talks to historian Nicole Hemmer about the Proud Boys—breaking down their hazing and hyper-masculinity, how to be initiated, conservative cults, and how Trump incites them.

VOICEMAILS

Ch. 10: Call to increase existing membership pledges - Josh from Wilmington, DE

Ch. 11: Responding to Rutger Bregman - Linda from Illinois

FINAL COMMENTS

Ch. 12: Final comments on utopian thinking and criticizing ideas and implementation separately

MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions):

Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr
Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent
Activism Music: This Fickle World by Theo Bard
Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent

Produced by Jay! Tomlinson

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Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to this episode of the award winning Best of Left Podcast in which we shall learn
0:07.2	about what's behind Trump and his autocratic instincts, the enablers, the supporters, and
0:13.8	the long lineage of authoritarianism.
0:17.1	Before we get started on that though, just quick reminder, we announced in the last episode,
0:21.7	we are in a no kidding at all, not having fun or joking around kind of way of saying that
0:29.6	we are in a break glass in case of emergency sort of financial situation.
0:35.7	We lost our Amazon affiliate program, which was a huge chunk of money for us every month,
0:40.8	the equivalent of about 400 paying members.
0:45.6	And so ever since then, we have been in full blown panic mode.
0:51.8	For instance, this episode is a day late.
0:56.1	The previous episode was a day late.
1:00.4	All because we have been working 12-15 hours a day trying to put together some ideas and
1:11.1	campaigns to get ourselves back on track.
1:15.0	So quick refresher.
1:16.9	We have launched a merch store, which coincidentally we were going to do anyway, but we made sure
1:21.9	to get that up and going.
1:23.5	So our merch is merch with a purpose.
1:27.6	It has the QR code show share built into it, meaning that it's exceptionally excellent
1:33.7	at helping share the show, which is our real priority.
1:37.6	You know, merch like maybe it'll make it a little bit of money, and that would be great.
1:41.4	But if we could expand the size of the audience by sharing it with as many people as possible,
1:46.9	that's the real key.
	...

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