Eric Posner on ‘The Demagogue's Playbook'
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 29 June 2020
⏱️ 59 minutes
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Summary
Jack Goldsmith sat down with Eric Posner, the Kirkland & Ellis Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, and the author of the new book, "The Demagogue's Playbook: The Battle for American Democracy from the Founders to Trump." They discussed why demagogues are a characteristic threat in democracies, how the founders of the U.S. Constitution tried to ensure elite control and prevent a demagogue from becoming president, how these safeguards weakened over time and how Donald Trump's demagoguery helped him win election as president. They also explored how Posner's perception of Trump as a threat to American democracy fits with his writings in support of a powerful president.
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Transcript
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| 0:53.0 | There's nothing inevitable about Trump, but the conditions were ripe for a demagogue. |
| 1:04.0 | The Republican establishment had done a really bad job, you know, running the country. |
| 1:11.0 | Under Bush, the country entered into this ruinous war with Iraq, |
| 1:17.0 | which was really just a war of choice. |
| 1:20.0 | And then the financial crisis. I don't think the financial crisis was entirely the fault of the Republicans. |
| 1:27.0 | And certainly not Bush. This is he inherited the system we have. |
| 1:31.0 | But certainly, people are very unhappy by 2016 with the lingering effects of enormous recession, |
| 1:39.0 | the financial crisis, military defeat, and so on. |
| 1:43.0 | And so, you know, when the elites and power have done a bad job, that's the chance for the demagogue to come in and say the elites are corrupt. |
| 1:55.0 | I'm Jack Goldsmith, and this is the LawFair podcast, June 29, 2020. |
| 2:01.0 | Last week, I sat down with Eric Posner, a Kirkland in Ellis Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, |
| 2:09.0 | who is the author of the new book, Demagogues Playbook, the Battle for American Democracy from the Founders to Trump. |
| 2:17.0 | We discussed why demagogues are a characteristic threat in democracies, |
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