All Bets Are Off: Enemies List Q&A

Rick Wilson's The Enemies List

Lincoln Square

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.9 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"All bets are off if they start snatching judges." Judges are being threatened, civic institutions are under assault, and authoritarian tactics are becoming normalized. The right’s strategy is relentless: show up, take over, and silence dissent. Meanwhile, apathy and disengagement from the left have created a vacuum that fascists are more than willing to fill. Fighting back won’t come from Washington—it starts with showing up at the most local levels and refusing to cede ground. The time is now, people. You are the heroes of this story...if you show up. Rick takes your questions on everything from Little Marco, the new Pope, the backslide of American Democracy, and the non-doctor, non-expert Trump wants for Surgeon General. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The reaction we've gotten every time we've done a Q&A is tremendous, and we get more questions every time we do a Q&A.
0:20.4	So we're doing another Q&A. I'm traveling today, so questions every time we do a Q&A. So we're doing another
0:21.3	Q&A. I'm traveling today, so I'm not in my normal studio, but I am in a hotel room in New York
0:25.9	because I'm recording this on Sunday, the 11th. We're about to go to the Webby Awards tomorrow
0:31.3	night to receive an award for the Lincoln Project podcast and for some of Lincoln Projects
0:35.5	advertising from the 2024 election. Great honor, as always,
0:39.1	we're delighted to be here. I'm going to bang right into the questions and see what I can do for
0:43.1	you. And I'm going to have to read them off my phone because, again, not at my normal studio.
0:46.3	What can people do now to prevent the backslide of democracy? Any active steps people can take.
0:51.5	What would you advise? Look, we are facing an extraordinary challenge
0:56.1	to American democracy and to the American Republic. And by the way, Republicans who go out with the
1:00.9	usual, we don't live in a democracy, we live in a republic. It is the most facile, dumb, shallow
1:06.3	thing you could ever hope to imagine. They really, really, really like to think that they're
1:10.0	extraordinarily clever by making this little argument. We do live in a republic. It is informed by and defined by
1:15.9	democratic principles. A system defined by democratic principles, hopefully in execution, is a democracy.
1:22.2	The fact that it is a representative democracy and a republic is a secondary question. But how do you
1:27.2	stop the backsliding? It literally
1:29.2	comes down to you and me and everybody. You have to vote. You have to be an involved and engaged
1:33.9	citizen. You have to go to town hall meetings. You have to go to your congressman's office when you
1:38.6	can't get an answer over email or a letter. You have to write them. You have to call them.
1:43.0	You have to talk to your friends about what's going on. You can't pretend that politics isn't interesting or fun, and therefore
1:49.1	you're just going to ignore it. First Diet Coke of the day, by the way, I'm down to about two a day,
	...

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