Episode

7/8 Can Insurgent Progressive Millennial Politicians Change American For the Better & Debriefing the NYC Democratic Primary w/ David Freedlander

July 8, 2021

Emma hosts political reporter David Freedlander to discuss his new book, The AOC Generation: How Millennials Are Seizing Power and Rewriting the Rules of American Politics, on the young insurgent left in American politics and how grassroots political organization is bringing material change to communities across the country, before he and Emma give a debrief on the NYC Democratic primary. Beginning with AOC’s 2015 election, Freedlander walks through how her experiences as a disillusioned millennial with a commitment to engaging with on-the-ground organizing put her in the perfect position to take on the two-headed monster of Crowley’s NYC political machine and the DNC, and then he touches on how she and the rest of the squad, despite a lack of internal political clout, have been able to frame the conversation around progressive policies. Next, he and Emma explore the continued pushback by establishment Dems on progressive action, such as Hakeem Jeffries’ super PAC launched to combat the Justice Democrats, before they look into Eric Adams’ success in the NYC Mayoral primary. David and Emma explore both the contradictions of framing oneself as both “tough on crime” and the “reform candidate,” and how still this seems to be reflective of Adams’ political past, from pitching using spyware on children while also campaigning against stop-and-frisk, and then move on to the lessons the left can learn from the NY Democratic Primary, such as ensuring an early, well-organized coalescence around a progressive leader. Emma rounds out the first half by covering updates on the Surfside disaster and looking into Fox’s rampant war on vaccines as the Delta variant surges.

And in the Fun Half: Matt and Brandon join Emma to discuss Tucker Carlson’s and Matt Walsh’s continued insistence on watching children think about sex, and jump off of Ben Shapiro’s “Conservative Values in Film” by exploring the progressive emphasis on social justice in “God’s Not Dead 2.” Matt from Philly offers perhaps too good-faith of a take on converting anti-abortion activists, the crew looks into the drawbacks and occasional successes of “Debate Me Bro” culture before covering Q-Anon’s deep faith in the anti-Establishment duo of notorious political outsiders Donald Trump and JFK Jr. and Mike Lindell reaches Charlie Kelly levels of off-the-rails conspiracy theorizing, plus, your calls and IMs!

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