Show Notes
Donald Trump is just a symptom of our national disease. We have to--and we can--change the system that coughed him up. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/the-century-long-year Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/Mc_NuxKJ1AM TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews This week, Andrea Pitzer focuses on the U.S. attack on Venezuela, looking at what we know, how recent events fit into history, and why it's important to stop Trump. But she also dives into why the president is just a symptom of what ails the country. The episode speed-runs the last two centuries of U.S. policy in the Americas, and the long history of intervention. Andrea shows how Trump's administration is mired in the rhetoric and fixations of the last century, with control over oil and anti-Communist obsessions determining how his advisors respond to almost every situation. More importantly, she talks about Trump as merely the vessel of the real dysfunction afflicting the U.S. This illness could have wormed its way into the Democratic Party instead of the Republican Party, building a propaganda machine and bringing some virulent, billionaire-backed populism to power in some other form. But it didn't, and we are where we are. Which means we have to fight the Republicans' assault on democracy while simultaneously building a new kind of national governance that rejects the rot at the core of the current system. Andrea quotes her former editor Laura Helmuth arguing that we need to "move slow and build things." The episode closes by referencing a handful of the evidence-based policies that would transform everyday Americans' lives, and encourages listeners to work for one long-term change that matters to them.
More from Next Comes What
People are waking up to the profiteering at the heart of the administration. We can use the resulting fury to build a movement. Support Next Comes What + Get Andrea's posts FIRST: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/the-corruption-umbrella LISTEN Everywhere: https://pod.link/1779885475 WATCH TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DegenerateArtNewsletter This week's episode looks at the many ways that corruption underpins every part of Trump administration policies. Andrea Pitzer considers the deliberate choice to inflict suffering in the U.S. and abroad, which has been done across the board for direct personal or political gain. She notes that the catastrophic shifts in U.S. policy that set the stage for much of what is happening today took place in response to the 9/11 attacks, but that Trump 2.0 does not even have that flimsy fig leaf of a justification, given that the president has intentionally created the crises now engulfing the country. All this has led to illness, hunger, war, and death.
FIND A NO KINGS OCTOBER 17 VOTE EARLY EVENT NEAR YOU: https://www.nokings.org/ We can send the people pushing fascism on us back into their holes without buying into hate. Support Next Comes What + Get Andrea's posts FIRST: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/the-clampdown-continues LISTEN Everywhere: https://pod.link/1779885475
The roots of everything that ails the country go deeper than Trump, so we need to think beyond November 3rd. Support Next Comes What + Get Andrea's posts FIRST: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/killing-zombie-trumpism LISTEN Everywhere: https://pod.link/1779885475 WATCH
Authoritarians reveal themselves, even to followers who prefer not to see. And that leaves an opening for change. Support Next Comes What + Get Andrea's posts FIRST: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/opening-the-blinds LISTEN Everywhere: https://pod.link/1779885475 WATCH TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews/video/7692115338934127885 YouTube: https://youtu.be/p8YBYcAtXxs This week, Next Comes What looks at the disillusionment that eventually takes place for most people who succumb to the cult of personality in an authoritarian society. Andrea Pitzer looks at events in recent weeks that are providing the spark for that awakening among many Trump supporters. With higher gas prices driving the point home, we also see everyone from next-door neighbors to judges and Republican politicians beginning to stand up against Trump, or at least to edge away from association with him. Andrea compares this growing repudiation of the president and his policies to the case of Mitsuye Endo, a Japanese American U.S. citizen who was fired from her state job in California and detained in camps with her family during World War II. In other cases brought by Japanese Americans, a majority of justices on the Supreme Court rubber-stamped the bigotry of the day while rationalizing actions they understood were wrong. But when it came to Endo—a U.S.-born Christian with no ties to Japan or even the Japanese language—the judges could find no pretext at all to provide cover for what was, at root, a detention program based simply on racial exclusion. Seeing many recent examples of people recognizing that their faith in Trump was wrongheaded or even immoral, Andrea suggests that we've come to a similar moment in which Americans are being forced to choose. Not everyone will walk away from Trumpism, but many will, for reasons that may be ethical or practical—or both. The episode ends with suggestions on how to respond to those who do. 00:00 Introduction: Shifting Public Opinion & Political Dynamics 02:48 The Rising Costs of Living and Cracks in the GOP Coalition 05:36 Institutional Capitulation and the Defense of Democratic Norms 08:24 Leaving MAGA: Personal Realities and Disillusionment Stories 11:12 Human Toll: Immigration Crackdowns, ICE, and Affected Families 14:00 Legal Pushback: How Judges Are Challenging Federal Overreach 16:48 Historical Echoes: The Mitsuye Endo Case and Wartime Detentions 19:36 The Midterms and the Ripple Effects of Raging Unpopularity 22:24 Complicity, the Thanksgiving Table, and Long-Term Cultural Shifts 25:12 Conclusion: Guardrails for the Future and Continuing the Fight
Corrupt power will always inflict more harm if it can benefit from that additional suffering. But we don't have to let it happen. Support Next Comes What + Get Andrea's posts FIRST: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/there-is-always-a-box LISTEN Everywhere: https://pod.link/1779885475 WATCH TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews/video/7689199426488831246