It’s an EmMajority Report Thursday! She speaks with Margaret Power, professor of history at the Illinois Institute of Technology, to discuss her recent book Solidarity across the Americas: The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and Anti-imperialism. Then, she’s joined by journalist Erin Reed, author of the Erin In The Morning newsletter on SubStack, to discuss how speakers at the RNC have been employing transphobic rhetoric. First, Sam runs through updates on Day 2 of the RNC, Biden’s candidacy, Biden’s recent policy developments, the would-be Trump assassin, Bob Menendez’s legal woes, Trump’s campaign, Elon and X, Israel’s assault on Gaza, and Russia’s assault on Kyiv, before diving a little deeper into the confounding behavior of the Democratic party as Biden’s candidacy hangs in the balance and Trump’s campaign makes major moves. Sarah Jones then joins, diving right into the rise of JD Vance with his 2016 work “Hillbilly Elegy,” a book that made sense of the severe wealth inequality found in middle America by pathologizing poverty, faulting cultural issues, and ignoring the actual economics of it all, perfectly repackaging age-old conservative values as revelatory. After briefly walking through why this book took off so much among Liberals and Conservatives alike, Jones walks Sam through Vance’s journey from summering in Appalachia to Yale Law School student and Venture Capitalist (with major help from Peter Thiel along the way), exploring how these elements shaped his reactionary illiberal ideology and facilitated his unsurprising evolution from Never-Trumper to Trump’s VP pick. Sarah and Sam then expand on the financial and ideological connections between Thiel and Vance, highlighting some telling comments on the roles of Democracy and “women,” before wrapping up the show with what his selection tells us about Donald Trump’s second term.

And in the Fun Half: Sam basks in the glory of the everybody’s-a-loser beef between Matt Gaetz and Kevin McCarthy, Josh from Arizona tackles the future of the Democratic Party (and its base), and Haley from Arizona airs some grievances and asks advice from her elders. Morning Joe addresses their one-day cancellation in the wake of the Trump assassination attempt, Jack Black addresses the cancellation of comedy, and Ronald Raygun addresses presidential immunity and the plan for Biden, plus, your calls and IMs!

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