Has Trump Brought About the End of Reactionary Centrism in the Democratic Party?
We begin with how Trump has undermined reactionary centrism in the Democratic opposition which has moderates claiming to oppose extremists on both the left and the right but more often attacking the left. Now the left and the center of the Democratic Party appear aligned as does much of the country who want politicians who will stand up to bullies like Trump and government thugs who shoot down Americans in the streets. Joining us is Jake Grumbach, Associate Professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and a contributing editor at Boston Review. He is the author of Laboratories Against Democracy: How National Parties Transformed State Politics and he has an essay and forum at Boston Review we discuss, “How Not to Defeat Authoritarianism: Moderation used to help Democrats win, but its advantages now have been greatly exaggerated.”
The On and Off Again and On Again Talks Between the US and Iran
Then with Trump’s “armada” off Iran used as leverage for on and off again and on again talks with Iran on Friday in Oman, we will speak with Jon Hoffman, a policy analyst in defense and foreign policy at the Cato Institute and a professor at George Mason University specializing in Middle East geopolitics and political Islam. His work has been featured in Middle East Policy, Open Democracy, The Cipher Brief and Foreign Policy Magazine and he has an article at The American Conservative we discuss, “Iran Without a Plan: The administration risks repeating the Iraq debacle as farce.”
The US Occupation of Gaza Has Begun With Trump in Charge Into the Future
Then finally we speak with Mitchell Plitnick, the president of ReThinking Foreign Policy and former vice president at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. A political analyst and frequent writer on the Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy, he served as director of the U.S. Office of B’Tselem and co-director of Jewish Voice for Peace. He is the co-author with Marc Lamont Hill of Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics and we discuss his article at Mondoweiss, “The US Occupation of Gaza Is Officially Beginning.”