Welcome to this throwback edition of the award-winning Best of the Left podcast

where we remember the past and choose to repeat it. Today's episode was

originally published in March of last year,

2023. The effort to subvert the 2024 election

for authoritarian purposes on the national level

had not yet gotten into full swing, but the states had already been putting on a very clear preview of what things end up looking like when far-right politics manages to seize power in a way that allows it to ignore public opinion.

Taking away child labor laws that protect all minors, but particularly vulnerable minors and

immigrants, was a real highlight. Sources today include The David

Pacman Show, More Perfect Union, the Al Franken podcast, The Takeaway, the

Ralph Nader Radio Hour, Prince William, Texas, Isaiah Martin, Democracy Now, the Young Turks,

the PBS News Hour, and Alex Wagner tonight. I'd say my biggest concern is that we focus on some of the most prominent people

like Trump and we should but my biggest worry is the other side that has you

know some of the players have been at this for a long time and while we focus on the

high profile people and the things that make a lot of

noise and the bright shiny objects like a barge Taylor Green, they're focused on the

institutions that either support democracy or if weakened could usher in, you know, the lack of

democracy or ultimately something that I think is referred too often as competitive autocracy.

And the reason I wrote the book is to say,

you know, it reminds me of the movie,

Don't Look Up, which I was afraid to watch

with then glad I did.

It's saying, don't only look at Washington. The institutions that shape our democracy in so many ways are states

...