Episode

2/6 What the Democratic Establishment Demands w/ Ryan Grim

February 6, 2018

On today’s show: The stock market is down but it matters not, Trump tells factory workers the Democrats have “bad energy” and are committing “treason,” and the secretary referenced in Paul Ryan’s infamous “$1.50” tweet responds.

The Intercept’s Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) joins us to discuss how Democrats get picked to run for office. As Grim explains, the DCCC is the House campaign arm of the DNC, ostensibly tasked with helping Democrats win nationwide. But faced with an unprecedented array of viable left-populist candidates, the DCCC has been endorsing establishment candidates in primaries even when they have a poor track record, like Angie Craig, the medical device executive who underperformed every Democrat including Hillary Clinton when she ran for Congress in MN in 2016. Grim breaks down the reasons for this, including reliance on big donors, tactical misunderstandings of the political terrain, the nepotistic way contracts are awarded to consultants, and of course, ideology (which is shaped by all the aforementioned things). Despite all this, Grim sees hope in a new generation of progressive Democrats who are raising money from small donors, creating their own grassroots institutions, and abandoning the goal of the “permanent majority” in favor of bold, popular programs that actually improve people’s lives. Read his piece on the subject here.

On the fun half: Joe Rogan shouts out MR and says we’re “close minded” because we don’t give a platform to racists like Steven Crowder, John from San Antonio criticizes Our Revolution’s treatment of progressive candidates in TX, Trump responds to Nancy Pelosi’s “crumbs” comment with “she’s a rich lady who wants to give all of your money away,” Donald Trump Jr. says his dad can’t be racist because he’s friends with rappers, Carter Page tries to explain why it’s okay that he advised both the Kremlin and the Trump campaign and does such a bad job that Jamie starts caring about #Russiagate, and a caller un-ironically bitches about “social justice warriors.”

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