Is This Democracy

An ongoing conversation with Lily Mason on the struggle over democracy in American politics and history

Yesterday, Lily Mason and I released Episode 27 of “Is This Democracy,” a podcast where we discuss the ongoing struggle over how much democracy, and for whom, there should be in America. About a year ago, Washington Post columnist Perry Bacon, Johns Hopkins University political scientist Lily Mason, and I started this project. Perry had to leave earlier in the year, as we couldn’t make the schedules work. But Lily and I are committed to continuing this endeavor to sort through the dangerous mess that is American politics. After a longer-than-expected summer break (life intervened!) “Is This Democracy” is back – our goal is to provide a bi-weekly big-picture check in on the state of democracy in this country, with additional guest conversations on key issues that shape U.S. society, politics, and culture sprinkled in.

I’m guessing quite a few of you will already listen – or at least be aware that the podcast exists. I’m embedding the episode here because since we last recorded, a lot of new subscribers have joined. I hope you’ll allow me this bit of cross-promotion: After all, if you think Democracy Americana offers something of value, I’d say there’s a really good chance you will also be interested in “Is This Democracy”:

To me, the newsletter and the podcast are very much complimentary undertakings – actually, they are the same project, in different vessels. Both follow the same guiding perspective and are built on the same underlying diagnosis: The question of what kind of democracy the United States should be, who would get to participate as equal and who would be relegated to secondary status or excluded entirely, has defined the American project since the beginning. It has, in many, ways, always constituted the central fault line in American politics, society, and culture. Democracy being highly contested is, therefore, not at all a new phenomenon. What is, however, a relatively recent development is democracy becoming a partisan issue, in the sense that the fault lines in the struggle over democracy, over whether or not the democratic experiment should continue, map so clearly onto the conflict between the two major parties. That’s the fundamental reality of American politics today, and it means that the struggle over democracy defines the political confrontation in basically all areas. We often like to pretend to be having just policy discussions over taxes, or social welfare, or regulations – but these are all too often shaped by and infused with this overriding conflict over who gets to participate as equals in the political process, who gets to define what does and does not count as America or American, and who gets to shape the polity in their own image.

That is why it is so vitally important to approach the big political, social, and cultural conflicts of our moment through the lens of this ongoing struggle over democracy. In the podcast, we want to do that by providing a regular check-in on the state of democracy. In most episodes, we scan the news and latest developments and provide a big-picture reflection on how they relate to this overarching struggle, offer some context both from a historical as well as a political science perspective, and situate them in the bigger picture. What we are trying to do is to remind ourselves and everyone listening to not miss the forest for the trees, even when so much is happening on the federal, state, and local levels, all at the same time.

In this struggle over whether or not America should finally become the land it never has been yet and realize the promise of a truly egalitarian multiracial, pluralistic democracy – a society in which the individual’s status is not significantly determined by race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or wealth – we are not “neutral.” We are committed to getting the diagnosis right, to being analytically and intellectually as fair, accurate, and precise as possible. But we are not looking for the middle ground between the two sides, wherever that may be, so that we can plant our flag there and declare ourselves to be supremely “balanced,” “nonpartisan,” and above the fray. No “both sides” obfuscation or vague laments over “polarization” on this podcast, no equidistance-from-either-side “neutrality.” We want egalitarian multiracial, pluralistic democracy to succeed. “Is This Democracy,” just like Democracy Americana, is decidedly pro-democracy.

So, here it is, Episode 27 of “Is This Democracy” – available wherever you get your podcasts:

Reflections on the Israel-Hamas war – and what the latest Speaker drama can tell us about the dangerous state of Republican politics

We start with a reflection on the terrorist attack on Israel and the ensuing Israel-Hamas war, how it’s being discussed in the U.S., and the moral, political, and intellectual obligations that shape our own perspective.

We then tackle the latest round of Speaker drama: It took Kevin McCarthy 15 tries to get elected – and just 269 days later, he is out. Can we learn anything new from this Republican chaos? Maybe not – but it is a crucial reminder of what defines and animates today’s GOP. We talk about the dogma of rightwing politics that regards Democrats as not just a political opponent, but a fundamentally illegitimate, “Un-American” enemy that must not be allowed to govern; about the underlying dynamic that explains why moments of chaos almost inevitably result in a further radicalization of the Republican Party; about the GOP’s structural weakness, that makes it so hard to discipline individual members like Matt Gaetz; and about the politics and ideology of Steve Scalise who, at the time of recording on Thursday, looked like he might become the next Speaker, and what he meant when he described himself as “David Duke without the baggage.” Finally, we talk about recurring themes that shape mainstream media coverage of these events in predictably misleading fashion: There is the idea that only Democrats have agency – and therefore are ultimately to be blamed for the chaos; and the pervasive trope of government “dysfunction” that entirely obscures the actual issue, but allows the media to take a “neutral” position from which it can blame “both sides.”

Show notes – articles that have particularly shaped this week’s discussion (not necessarily endorsements, mind you!):

Gideon Levi, Israel can’t imprison 2 million Gazans without paying a cruel price, Haaretz, October 9, 2023

The Hamas Attacks and Israeli Response: An Explainer, Jewish Currents, October 10, 2023

Emily Tamkin, What Does It Mean to Stand with Israel?, Slate, October 10, 2023

Eric Levitz, A Left That Refuses to Condemn Mass Murder Is Doomed, New York Magazine, October 11, 2023

Steven Erlanger, As War Rages, Netanyahu Battles for Reputation and Legacy, New York Times, October 10, 2023

Ronald Brownstein, The Only Sin that Republicans Can’t Forgive, The Atlantic, October 3, 2023 

Moira Donegan, McCarthy ouster shows Republicans don’t want to govern - and they don’t want anyone else to either, The Guardian, October 4, 2023

Osita Nwanevu, The McCarthy debacle barely scrapes the surface of how dysfunctional Congress is, The Guardian, October 6, 2023

What is Broken in American Politics Is the Republican Party, Politico, October 6, 2023