Evan Smith on the right-wing radicalization of Texas and the state of local news
I always enjoy talking with my friend Evan Smith, co-founder and senior adviser at The Texas Tribune. In this edition of The Warning podcast, we discuss the recent far-right radicalization of Texas politics, the state of local journalism, and how the Dobbs decision impacts communities across the country. Have a listen here, or check it out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your preferred podcast platform:
Texas is a cesspool of unrestrained extremism like a state possessed.
Hello Steve,
I recently watched your very perceptive and intelligent conversation with David Rothkopf on YouTube. Soon after that I watched your podcast regarding the Colorado decision. They inspired me to make the following comments...
Our democracy is already broken. Free and fair elections, the peaceful transfer of power, and respect for the rule of law are the heart and soul of a functional democracy. An informed, engaged electorate is an essential factor of this equation.
The unfortunate fact is that the electorate is damaged.
I am also from North Plainfield. I graduated from NPHS in 1968. I grew up in a time when all TV and radio was free, regulated by the FCC. There were only three major, well respected, and essentially legitimate news networks. We read the local Courier News, the Newark Star Ledger and The New York Times. The electorate, for the most part, shared a common reality based upon common sources of facts and information. Nowadays there are several major so-called news networks, and information outlets (as sited in your conversation with David) with international reach, spewing lies, propaganda, and misinformation, many for the sole purpose of selling advertising. The damage that Fox News and its ilk has done and is doing to our democracy is enormous.
Whenever I hear some intelligent person, professor, or analyst suggest that we should leave the decision "up to the Voters", I must wonder if they are considering that the electorate, is largely blissfully ignorant, gleefully gullible, willfully misled and misinformed.
How can It be that the First Amendment has the limitation that you cannot yell “fire” in a crowded theater, yet, when it comes to the most important aspect of our democracy, that is, electing our government, and having an electorate that shares the same basic set of facts, that shares the same reality so that citizens can make informed and intelligent decisions, is not important enough to also have some kind of regulation that forbids intentionally and willfully lying to the public and misleading them, to the extent that citizens for the most part have no idea who or what they are really voting for.
If we, as a society, conclude that exceptions to the rule of law shall be made expressly for Donald Trump, because we are fearful of the reaction of his followers and therefore, he, unlike any other citizen, is above the law, then we will be gliding down the “slippery slope” towards autocracy, having already lost our democracy as it once was. I am reminded of a movie I saw in my youth, “The Giant Behemoth”, where, when a nuclear bomb was dropped on the huge, menacing monster… Rather than being destroyed, it came back stronger. The following article suggests that we may be courageous in the face of possible repercussions.
https://time.com/6264838/trump-protests-indictment-flopping/
"A demonstration on Monday organized by the New York Young Republican Club outside the Manhattan court where Trump would be arraigned if indicted drew barely 50 people. Only a handful of supporters showed up outside his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, according to local reports."
Let this be a legal, constitutional question, if that is what it truly is, with a decision rendered “without fear or favor”.
I have listened to many legal scholars, and I believe that Judge Luttig has delivered the most intelligent and objective analysis of the situation…
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2023/12/20/former-judge-donald-trump-colorado-ballot/71983728007/
‘“Yesterday's decision by the Colorado Supreme Court was masterful. It was brilliant, and it is an unassailable interpretation of the 14th Amendment,” the former judge added.
When asked what he would say to Americans concerned about Trump's candidacy being placed in the hands of unelected judges, Luttig called Trump's conduct - not his disqualification - anti-democratic.’
Thank you for all that you do. I hope that your message, your “Warning” reaches the citizens that need to hear it.
Respectfully, and with kindness,
Rick Tobey (Go Pinecones!)