#1770 Getting in the Fight Against ICE and Authoritarianism
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 10 February 2026
⏱️ 188 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date 2/10/2026
Today we explore what effective resistance actually looks like. We'll hear why Jamelle Bouie says the panic of those in power signals that opposition is working, what abolitionists teach us about fighting without knowing the ending, and how Minneapolis proved that democratic force can overwhelm physical force.
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TOP TAKES
KP 1: What I've Learned From Reading History - Takes™ by Jamelle Bouie - Air Date 1-28-26
KP 2: Five Ways to Fight Trumps Fascism - Robert Reich - Air Date 8-19-25
KP 3: Abolish ICE! No Brainer. Then What? Also, How? - Matthew Cooke - Air Date 1-27-26
KP 6: Gadgets For People Who Don't Trust The Government - Benn Jordan - Air Date 1-4-26
KP 7: What Does Minnesota Today Tell Us About What Resistance Requires? - Tad Stoermer - Air Date 1-24-26
KP 8: What Is a General Strike (and Why Did the U.S. Outlaw Them) - More Perfect Union - Air Date 5-1-25
KP 10: We Don't Need Irony. Just Make It Good - Jessie Gender - Air Date 1-26-26
(00:49:16) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
On the war on empathy
A Time to Be Cringe: Why Gen Z Needs Some Millenial Humor (SOLVED! #29 - 12-12-25)
DEEPER DIVES
(00:59:25) SECTION A: WHAT DO WE WANT
A3: The Kids Aren't Alright - The Majority Report W/ Sam Seder - Air Date 1-25-26
(01:21:40) SECTION B: WHAT DID WE WANT
B2: The Black Labor Movement Part 1 - Against the Grain - Air Date 1-20-26
B3: Policing the Civil Rights Movement - Against the Grain - Air Date 1-26-26
(01:50:25) SECTION C: HOW DO WE DO IT
C2: The 3.5 Percent Rule - Erica Chenoweth - You Are Not So Smart - Air Date 5-11-25
(02:24:10) SECTION D: WHAT WORKS
D3: The Black Labor Movement Part 2 - Against the Grain - Air Date 1-20-26
D4: 1946 Oakland General Strike - Stuff You Missed in History Class - Air Date 3-24-25
D5: Confronting Capitalism: Why the US Never Got a Labor Party - Jacobin Radio - Air Date 1-21-26
SHOW IMAGE CREDITS
Description: Photo of a protest in Minneapolis showing people holding signs that say "ICE is not welcome!" And "FUCK ICE" and "ICE OUT OF MN", etc.
Credit: "Protest against ICE in Minneapolis" by Fibonacci Blue via Flickr | CC BY 4.0 | Cropped
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of the Left podcast. Today we explore what |
| 0:07.9 | effective resistance actually looks like. We'll hear why Jamal Bowie says the panic of those in power |
| 0:13.8 | signals that opposition is working. What abolitionists teach us about fighting without knowing |
| 0:20.0 | the ending? and how Minneapolis proved |
| 0:22.8 | that Democratic force can overwhelm physical force. For those looking for a quick overview, |
| 0:28.2 | the sources providing our top takes in about 45 minutes today includes takes by Jamal Bowie, |
| 0:33.6 | Robert Reich, Matthew Cook, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Kat Abugusaila, Ben Jordan, Tad Stormer, |
| 0:40.5 | More Perfect Union, The Humanist Report, and Jesse Gender. Then, in the additional deeper dives |
| 0:46.1 | out of the show, there will be more in four sections. Section A, What Do We Want, |
| 0:50.6 | followed by Section B, What Did We Want, Section C, How Do We do it, and section D, what works. But first, a reminder to check out our new show solved on the best of left YouTube channel. We're really proud of the show we're making, and you're going to get real value out of it. And you checking it out actually helps us find viewers on YouTube. So thanks in advance for all of your views, likes, subscribes, and comments. |
| 1:11.7 | That's all on the Best of Love YouTube channel, linked in the show notes. And now, on to the show. |
| 1:18.5 | I've read a lot about the history of slavery, American slavery specifically, about the abolition movement. |
| 1:29.1 | A book I will recommend right here and now is called The Slave's Cause by Manisha Sinha, |
| 1:33.9 | a wonderful historian, and this is a wonderful book that is sort of maybe the best single-volume |
| 1:38.9 | on the history of American abolitionism. But it's a broad subject and an important subject. |
| 1:43.6 | You want to read books by Eric Foner and Ira Berlin, among others. It's a broad subject and important subject. You want to read books by |
| 1:44.4 | Eric Foner and Ira Berlin, among others. It's a wonderful book by an historian Kate Mazur |
| 1:49.1 | about the efforts of free Black Americans before the Civil War to fight for their rights, |
| 1:54.5 | called Until Justice Be Done. A lot of books. And as always, I will try to leave |
| 1:59.9 | the actual books I recommend in the |
| 2:02.8 | description of this video. But I've read a lot about this subject. I've thought a lot about |
| 2:07.1 | this subject. And the thing that I find remarkable about this subject is just the basic |
... |
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