Democracy as a trust exercise
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 November 2021
⏱️ ? minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this Election Day, we talk about how the events of Jan. 6 have affected our elections. Plus, what nations participating in COP26 will have to give up to avoid more climate change catastrophes.
Read more:
For months, journalists at The Washington Post have been trying to understand: How did the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6 happen? And what’s happened to the country since then?
As part of a three-part investigative series by The Washington Post, Rosalind S. Helderman has been reporting on how a deep distrust of the voting process has taken root across the country.
“Democracy is in some ways a trust exercise,” she says. “We all go into it together and we make an agreement with each other that we are going to trust each other enough to hold an election, and if we lose, to accept the will of the majority. And if you don’t trust that anymore — if the bonds of that trust erode — you just can’t have a democracy.”
Then we turn to climate reporter Sarah Kaplan for an update on COP26 in Glasgow — the massive climate change summit of almost 200 countries where she says “humanity tries to figure out once again how we are going to tackle climate change.”
If you value the journalism you hear in this podcast, please subscribe to The Washington Post. We have a deal for our listeners: one year of unlimited access to everything The Post publishes for just $29. To sign up, go to washingtonpost.com/subscribe.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Democracy is in some ways a trust exercise, right? |
| 0:07.0 | We all go into it together and we make an agreement with each other that we are going to trust |
| 0:12.2 | each other enough to hold an election and if we lose to accept the will, the majority. |
| 0:20.0 | And if you don't trust that anymore, if the bonds of that trust erode, you just can't |
| 0:25.2 | have a democracy, it is the underpinning foundation of what it means to live in a society |
| 0:31.8 | with other people and to democratically elect our leaders. |
| 0:38.8 | Rosalind Helderman is a politics reporter for the post. |
| 0:42.3 | She is one of many journalists in our newsroom who have been reporting on what's happened |
| 0:46.1 | to the country since January 6th and especially what's happened to our elections. |
| 0:51.5 | I feel like I've learned that like in so much of American life, we sort of live in two |
| 0:55.8 | worlds. |
| 0:56.9 | There is this world of people who are taking really seriously the need to hold people accountable |
| 1:02.0 | for that day. |
| 1:03.0 | That includes our legal system where you can see the nation's largest criminal investigation |
| 1:09.0 | ever happen underway more than 650 people charged with crimes. |
| 1:13.9 | For six months we've been watching the growing number of criminal cases made in the riot |
| 1:18.7 | on the US Capitol January 6th. |
| 1:20.8 | More than 500 people have been charged. |
| 1:23.0 | There's also this world of people who are really traumatized by what happened on that |
| 1:26.7 | day and are kind of dealing in their own lives with its impact. |
| 1:31.5 | Then you have this other world where every day what happened on January 6th is being rewritten. |
| 1:39.7 | It's being retold as a story of patriotism. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Washington Post, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Washington Post and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.