The Chris Hedges Report Podcast with Historian Paul Street

What are we to make of a Democratic Party that has embraces an election strategy that includes demobilizing the majority working-class non-Republican electorate; legitimizing right-wing agendas and narratives; seeks bipartisan cooperation with right-wing politicians such as Liz Cheney; refuses to attack archaic minority rule institutions including the Electoral College and the Senate filibuster; repeatedly backs down from hauling Donald Trump into court and funds far-right Republican candidates in this year’s primary elections, repeating the disastrous Hillary Clinton campaign’s “Pied Piper” ploy of promoting the supposedly “more beatable” Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries? Why is the Democratic Party lavishly funding Trump stooges such as John Gibbs, a former Trump administration official who claimed that Joe Biden’s 2020 victory was “mathematically impossible,” by giving his campaign $ 425,000 dollars, investing more money in one pro-Gibbs television ad than Gibbs raised for his campaign? Why do they see the stoking of fascist fire as an effective campaign strategy? Even The New York Times has called the tactic of funding far right pro-Trump candidates a “Cynical Low for the Democratic Party.” Joining me to discuss what is taking place on our bizarre political landscape as we head towards the mid-term elections – elections the cultist Trump Republic Party looks set to win – is the historian Paul Street. Paul has taught at numerous Chicago-area universities and is the author of This Happened Here: Neoliberals, Amerikaners, and the Trumping of America (New York: Routledge, 2021).  He also writes regularly for Counterpunch.

[Editor’s note: After this episode aired, a representative from the Socialist Rifle Association contacted TRNN with the following statement: “The Socialist Rifle Association is a 501(c)(4) non-profit education and advocacy organization dedicated to providing marginalized communities and the working class with the education, the skills, and the advocates necessary to be effectively armed for self and community defense. As an organization we seek, advocate for, and advance an inclusive, safe, and healthy firearms culture in America to combat the toxic, right-wing, and exclusionary firearm culture present in our society and represented by organizations such as the National Rifle Association. By no means is our organization a ‘militia.’ and we make this abundantly clear to our prospective members and the public. Our organization's bylaws specifically state that participation in illegal activities is grounds for the expulsion of a member.”]