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French Friday: What Happened to Checks & Balances?

David French brings us his thoughts on why the GOP is no longer the party of the Constitution. Have political party allegiances broken the system? What Constitutional guard rails can operate when people are worried about falling out of the President’s favor? Then, he talks about Carl Schmitt, a German political thinker who may have the key to understanding the difference between the politics we’re used to—and the emerging politics of the New Right.




0:00 - Theme Song


0:17 - Show Begins


2:11 - Tiktok—banned or not?


8:10 - Does Trump obey the Supreme Court?


15:30 - Resistant Bacteria Analogy


24:26 - Senators Following the People


27:29 - Political Parties as Checks


34:45 - The Gingrich-Clinton Wars


41:28 - Schmitt and MAGA Morality


53:15 - The Moment for Courage


1:04:52 - End Credits


David French’s article on Schmittian politics:

4 則留言


Bill Wood
5 days ago

In Skye's discussion of how political culture got here, I find the role of talk radio missing. In the (particularly early) Clinton era much of what is now MAGA heartland often had little access to cable TV, cable news, and Fox.

But in that era AM radio was available almost everywhere. Truckers on the road, farmers in their tractors, mechanics in the shops, barbershops, etc all could listen to the radio even in places not well served by cable TV.

In those days the alternative that many (particularly men) chose when tired of music on the radio was "shock jock" sports talk radio. The format was centered on discussions of favorite sports teams and athletes, generating as much intense emotio…

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Samuel Blair
Samuel Blair
7 days ago

Instead of slouching towards Gomorrah we're slouching towards Versailles. Trump is as close to being seen as a "divine right monarch" by his base as I've ever seen.

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“But both sides…” -Skye Jethani

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ansak
1月31日

Even when I disagree with David French (and I do, significantly), I still find him worth listening to. This one no exception.


I'd be interested if he's ever read Piketty (or at least watched the docu-form of Capital in the 21st, seen the "graphic novel" version of Capital & Ideo), whether he finds the case for progressive taxation on income --- and wealth, coupled with 100% transparency on wealth as a matter of law --- as even minimally compelling. For my part, I had never bumped into Le Déclaration des Droites de l'Homme et du Citoyen, not even its first article on equality and qualified inequality until Capital -- and my own political philosophy (brother-care [answering Cain], neighbour-love ["the second is…

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