The Bulwark Podcast

Joining me on today's podcast, Dana Milbank from The Washington Post, nationally syndicated columnist and author of The Destructionists, The 25-Year Crackup of the Republican Party.

his latest book is the deconstructionist the 25 year crack up of the Republican party I think you'll have to add on another eight years to that so the next edition when it comes out in paperback the 40 year crack up of the Republican party

author of a new book called The Destructionists, The 25-Year Crack Up of the Republican Party.

Both parties could have waves, the new crop of House GOP nominees make Jim Jordan and Paul Gosar look sane, and MAGA Musk may lose his urban, coastal Tesla-buyers. Plus, exceptions for rape, incest, and Herschel Walker. Dana Milbank joins Charlie Sykes.

The number keeps changing like, you know, strikeouts on the scoreboard. This could be like one of those textbooks that have to be updated every year, right? You know, revised editions. Tempted edition, the 40-year crack up of the Republican Party.

you should definitely read his new book The Destructionist the 25 year crack up of the Republican Party.

It's what was written about prophetically and it turns out prematurely in "Bowling Alone."

I end my campaign with the same words I began it from the book of Joshua. I direct them to all Americans, but especially to so many of the women and girls out there who put their faith in our campaign. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. For God will be with you wherever you go.

It is The Identity Trap by our good friend Yasha Mounk, and it's going to generate an awful lot of buzz because he goes at the whole question of illiberalism from the left and wokeism from the left, but from a center-left perspective.

America's academic, cultural, and political institutions went insane beginning around 2014. . . This new book, The Identity Trap, Yasha Mounk explains how a few powerfully bad ideas propelled through institutions by people with good intentions are causing systemic dysfunction and dangerous polarization.

This is among the most insightful and important books written in the last decade on American democracy and its current torments because it also shows us a way out of the trap.

In this indispensable book, Yasha Mounk proposes an alternative to the ceaseless combat between woke and anti-woke extremes, one that takes seriously the enduring malignant legacy of systemic discrimination yet correctly identifies the universal values, not group solidarity offer the surest path to justice, fairness, and enduring social peace.

The book is The Identity Trap by Yasha Monk. . . This is an immensely important book and I hope that it gets the hearing and starts the debate that I think we so desperately need.

I've got the co-author of Democracy or Else, How to Save America in 10 Easy Steps. Hopefully they're easy.

We really tried to make something that was entertaining and silly and joyful because we know how much of a slog politics feels like right now.

The number of doors you could personally knock on and talk to people about these races. And what the book is about, and it's actually funny, please check it out.

People should buy the book, Democracy or Else, How to Save America in 10 Easy Steps. We're going to need it, John. We're going to need it.

I want to talk about your new mind bending book, Fluke, Chance, Chaos and Why Everything We Do Matters, which I found a little bit alarming and scary, but you claim is uplifting.

What we have done is we've ignored that a lot and how we understand the world. And I think it's created this hubris, which leads into the second part of your question about the Black Swans, where I think we have engineered a world that is extremely prone to chaos, and prone to being shocked because of chaotic events.

The idea that you know, a vacation 19 years earlier can cause this massive shift in who lives and who dies in World War Two is the way that world actually works as part of chaos theory.

Because of the ripple effects of all the things that we do, it is totally wrong to say that we're unimportant.

The book is Fluke, Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters.

they got that yeah who was it who was sitting there reading the uh reading the book about the subtle art of not giving you katey porter the subtle art of not giving a fuck

His latest book is Traffic. It's out in paperback.

You can go find it at BuzzFeed.com. I'm sure you'll find it there.

And so, you know, maybe it was that copy of Mein Kampf that was allegedly by his bedside.

Bill Crystal is like like put me on to the echo the UR fascism essay and it is like when you read it I can put it in the show notes I encourage everyone to actually read it's not that dense for documents and he you know gives the characteristic traits of fascism and some of them are not particularly so many that are I knew look at it you know number one is culture tradition yeah number two is rejection of modernism as is all you know right there with American make America great again irrationalism is the third point we could go on and on but the the twelfth point to this is how the fascist mindset transitions itself to sexual matters right and he talks about machismo disdain for women and you know giving a lot of credence to power dynamics with regards to women and and set ties directly to the strong man you are much more schooled in us than me but you do see this across other fascistic aspiring leaders this trend you do.

I was just reading a book about World War I in the absence of men, just about like the sense of the hollowed out cities while people are on the front lines.