2881-The Unelected Campaign Ghouls Who Shape Our Democracy w/ Daniel Laurison

Emma hosts Daniel Laurison, visiting scholar in Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, to discuss his recent book Producing Politics: Inside The Exclusive Campaign World Where the Privileged Few Shape Politics For All of Us. First, Emma dives into Biden’s upcoming trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia and the GOP’s recent offensive against a 10-year-old rape victim’s abortion, from denying the validity of the trauma to coming after the provider – with the AG of both states involved contributing themselves (alongside some help from the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post). Then, Daniel Laurison joins as he and Emma first dive into the topic of political campaigns, reflecting on their first intimate experiences in these spaces and its dissociative nature, before exploring the clear research into on-the-ground fieldwork and its role in campaign success, despite its unglamorous nature. Daniel then discusses what the campaign world holds against this form of organizing, from the neoliberal language of efficiency to the role of the exclusive culture of campaign professionals, and how this builds a stagnancy in strategy on both sides of the establishment aisle. Next, he expands on the bipartisan nature of this campaign institutionalism, looking at the only slight differences in demographics among the two parties’ campaign wings, and the funneling of POC into diversity-specific roles, before they shift to a brief conversation on the roles of the legend of the disaffected suburban voter and party polarization in bolstering this obsession with decades-old messaging tactics. They wrap up the interview by tackling the Democrats’ infatuation with winning voters from the right rather than bringing in the disillusioned and marginalized, and advancing a critique of the party’s fear of stepping away from monied interests. Emma also discusses her take on the NY SD-59 race.

And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Brandon and Binder as they cover the assassination of Shinzo Abe, the 1/6 Committee’s piece on Trump-supporting commentators such as Alex Jones and Tim Pool, and Drew from Portland dives into the emergence of militia use in Portland nightlife. Ken from Charleston critiques Matt Huber’s discussion on degrowth, Kowalski from Nebraska covers Sri Lanka’s recent agro-disaster (and the lessons it could teach degrowthers), and Lauren Boebert’s appearance with Steve Bannon to discuss why Ilhan Omar’s clothes oppress her. Greg Gutfeld defends Uvalde Police officers, to the rest of his colleagues’ discomfort, Tucker Carlson comes back around to defending Putin, and H from Boston gets some stuff off his chest, plus, your calls and IMs!

Check out Daniel's book here: http://www.beacon.org/Producing-Politics-P1821.aspx

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