Philip Klinkner's Warning: Democracy Doesn't Defend Itself
Guy Kawasaki's Remarkable People
Guy Kawasaki
4.6 • 667 Ratings
🗓️ 19 March 2025
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"Is American democracy more fragile than we realize?" This question anchors Guy Kawasaki's riveting conversation with Philip Klinkner, professor of government at Hamilton College. Throughout this eye-opening episode, Klinkner dissects the current challenges facing our constitutional system, comparing today's expansion of executive power with historical precedents during the Civil War and Great Depression. What makes our current moment unique, he argues, is the absence of comparable national emergencies to justify such dramatic governmental shifts. Klinkner examines how supposedly fixed constitutional guardrails often exist merely as norms that can rapidly erode, places American challenges within the global context of democratic backsliding, and addresses the troubling normalization of political violence. Despite his sobering analysis, Klinkner concludes with a powerful call for citizen action, emphasizing that this "plastic" moment in American political history offers both danger and opportunity for those willing to engage.
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Guy Kawasaki is on a mission to make you remarkable. His Remarkable People podcast features interviews with remarkable people such as Jane Goodall, Marc Benioff, Woz, Kristi Yamaguchi, and Bob Cialdini. Every episode will make you more remarkable.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In my years of entrepreneurship, I've seen countless startups. And here's the truth. |
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| 0:39.8 | The idea that, I don't know, when we were younger in, say, when Ronald Reagan was president, |
| 0:46.2 | one day the United States president would ally with Russia on the independence of Ukraine. |
| 0:55.0 | It was just impossible to think of that. |
| 0:58.0 | And that happened in essentially 70 years, 80 years, |
| 1:04.0 | of a sort of post-war Western sort of order and alliance structure |
| 1:10.0 | in a matter of weeks who's gone. |
| 1:14.5 | I'm Guy Kawasaki. This is the Remarkable People podcast, and we have another remarkable |
| 1:20.9 | guest for you. His name is Philip Klingner, and he is a professor, or he is the professor, |
| 1:27.3 | of government at Hamilton College. |
| 1:29.6 | Welcome to Remarkable People, Philip. |
| 1:31.9 | Thanks, Guy. |
| 1:33.2 | I have so much to ask you because you're an expert in government, |
| 1:37.3 | and I'm having such a difficult time wrapping my mind around what's happening here. |
| 1:42.8 | First of all, join the club. |
| 1:45.1 | You're not alone. |
| 1:46.7 | It's been quite a few weeks. |
| 1:49.6 | Do you think we are living in maybe the most interesting period in American history? |
... |
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