Politix

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm Matt’s away this week. Or since he’s in London, maybe we should say he’s “on holiday” with a funny accent. In any case, Brian’s piloting solo this week, and since he’s always going on about “fighting,” we wanted to give the concept clearer shape. In this conversation, Brian and the veteran political scholar Norm Ornstein discuss: * When did needed political reform in America stop pertaining to modernization and become a more existential campaign to fascism-proof democracy? * How have Democrats done so far, given that they’re the minority party in both the House and Senate? * What could change between now and the midterms to better discharge their obligations? Then, a look ahead. First: If Democrats win the midterms, what would resistance worthy of the Hungarian opposition look like in practice? What under-utilized tools should Democrats exploit? Where does impeachment fit in all this? Then: If Democrats have a chance to rebuild in 2029, what would it take to convince ourselves and the world that we’re really not going back this time? And—perhaps most important of all—is there any indication that the party, as currently staffed and led, has gamed this all out and begun preparing to act? All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed. Further reading: * Brian on what Democrats should—and shouldn’t—learn from Hungary. * Brian on Trump’s plan to conceal, destroy, or sell the evidence of his corruption, perhaps before the midterms. * Norm and Madeleine Dean on reining in the pardon power.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm As we were all waiting on tenterhooks after Donald Trump threatened to wipe out Iranian civilization, Matt and Brian took a step back to examine why Democratic opposition to the Iran war hasn’t pierced public consciousness. * Is Democratic infighting over the status of Hasan Piker a proxy for internal divisions over the war and the U.S. relationship with Israel? * Is Matt right that Dems have opposed the war as aggressively as they oppose (e.g.) cuts to health care? Or is Brian right that they haven’t received much credit for their war opposition, because they aren’t really acting like you’d expect an opposition party to act in the midst of an existential crisis? * Would a more procedurally aggressive form of opposition—impeachment resolutions, calls for an arms embargo—allow Democrats to appeal to marginal voters without necessarily “legitimizing” specific influencers, who tend to have bad ideas about all kinds of issues? Then, are Dems stuck in an issue trap, or are they mainly uncertain of themselves because they’re leaderless? Do they need to make demonstrable moves to the right on issues like immigration, or do they need to echo charismatic figures like James Talarico and John Ossoff who have staked out mainline views on immigration and Israel with an unusually deft touch? Do they need a hard reset, the way Republicans did after George W. Bush’s presidency ended in failure, or is the Biden legacy mostly tarnished by his age, his allegiance to Benjamin Netanyahu, and the fact that he failed to vanquish fascism? All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed. Further reading: * Matt has progressive views about some things. * Brian thinks Hakeem Jeffries should use his power to force impeachment votes to stage a referendum on the Iran war. * On the attempted cancelation of Hasan Piker.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm Donald Trump hasn’t been this unpopular since he incited an insurrection. But he’s still at least a bit more popular than an entity called The Democratic Party. In this episode Matt and Brian discuss: * Do Democrats deserve any credit for Donald Trump’s political woes? * How should we square Democrats’ impressive performance in special and off-year elections with their underwhelming performance in the generic ballot? * If Democrats change nothing between now and November, would they win big by default, or disappoint, leaving everyone wishing they’d undertaken a more serious rebranding? Then, since nobody disagrees that Democrats have become toxically unpopular, we get at why? To what extent is it contemporaneous frustration with the weakness of the Democratic opposition, and to what extent is a longer-run disaffection with a party that’s moved left over the past couple decades. Have Democrats really changed stripes? Or are they right where they “should” be, given long-run liberal commitments to a robust welfare state and civil equality? All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed. Further reading: * Brian argues Dems don’t necessarily need to sweat their generic ballot woes, but can only fix them by picking more fights with Donald Trump. * Matt thinks Democrats’ uniform moves to the left since 2008-2012 are the culprit. * Ta-Nehisi Coates on the counterproductive aspects of intersectional political rhetoric: “If you can extend the the temporality out just a little bit of the struggle I think it makes the mistakes not better, but understandable. It’s very, very hard to get any movement of humans to always act right, speak right, talk right. I really, really wish people read more about the civil rights movement deeply because they were fucking up all the time.”

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm Donald Trump seems to want out of the Iran war AND out of the Department of Homeland Security shutdown. But only if he can get out by being an even bigger asshole. In this Matt and Brian discuss: * Trump’s latest, inscrutable, and quite likely corrupt machinations to end his war of choice (or at least prosecute the war without throttling global oil supply); * Signs that Republicans are catching more heat than Democrats for the DHS shutdown (and the ensuing long lines at airports); * Whether it was wise or unnecessarily risk averse for Democrats to offer to fund TSA and other non-immigration components of DHS (to avoid blowback from weary travelers). Then, does the fact that Democrats have maintained unity in this fight for the past 40 days redeem Chuck Schumer at all? (No.) If not, does it suggest that the Senate Democrats who lost confidence in him aren’t really that interested in fighting after all? Will this kind of fighting help Democrats improve their abysmal approval numbers and lagging generic-ballot numbers? Or are they simply unpopular because they’re out of step, policy-wise, with the electorate? All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed. Further reading: * Brian argues that the real problem with Democrats’ policy agenda isn’t that it’s too far left, per se, but that it will, once again, crowd out the more pressing matters of democracy protection and accountability for fascism. * Matt on the most perverse reason Trump hasn’t quite chickened out of the war. * Perception of partisan ideology, by party ID.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm Democrats are caught in a new and somewhat troubling fad, in which they promise working-class people extremely broad tax cuts, which, in practice, would make expanding the safety net all but impossible. In this Matt and Brian discuss: * The Oscars! * What are these policies, where do they come from, and what would they mean, in practice, for other elements of the Democratic agenda? * Is there tension between Revenuemaxxing™️ and Billionairemogging™️, and can it be resolved? * Given all that will need to be rebuilt post-Trump, should Democrats embrace fiscal responsibility, or might there be some advantage to playing chicken with Republicans over the future of the American welfare state? Then, Donald Trump seems pretty panicked about the consequences of his misbegotten Iran war. But not enough to chicken out. At least not yet. Why is that? What are the peculiarities of the global energy market that might explain it. If he’s waiting for global oil futures to hit crisis levels, what kinds of developments in the war might send it there? And can we count on Democrats to oppose war funding? All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed. Further reading: * Matt on quagmires. * Brian on how the Iran war exposes the shallowness of the U.S. elite. * The Yale Budget Lab on the Van Hollen tax plan. * Matt Zeitlen on the oil shock. (Spoiler: it’s bad.)

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm Depending on whether you believe Donald Trump, or Donald Trump, or Donald Trump, his war in Iran is “very complete” or “just beginning” or “both.” In this Matt and Brian discuss: * Has Trump finally set in motion a disaster he can’t contain? * What does TACO mean when others have a say over the disposition of events? * Are we doomed to reprisal attacks and a long-lasting energy crisis? Then, what the hell is Jared Polis thinking?! The governor of Colorado is apparently planning to commute the sentence of Tina Peters, a former election official who tried to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election. Should Polis’s partisan and ideological allies try to stop him? How? Is he acting purely in response to Trump’s threat of reprisals? And to the extent he really thinks it’s a good idea, what are his obligations as a retiring elected official serving at a time when liberal democracy is under severe threat? All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed. Further reading: * Brian asks why elites seem just as easily duped as MAGA nobodies. * Matt’s prescient piece on the moral failure of liberal leaders to not act selfishly. * Should Colorado Democrats impeach Jared Polis?

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm We’re at war with Iran all of a sudden, and nobody can say why, even the people who started the war. After closing the loop on the Texas Senate primary, Matt and Brian discuss: * What was Donald Trump thinking? * What consequences (regional, domestic, and global) should we be prepared for? * What do we make of the Democratic response so far? Then, because the war has no support and was not justified, the public is overwhelmingly opposed to it. This should tend to fracture Republicans and unite Democrats. But it raises some questions: Will the progressives who couldn’t bring themselves to admit that Kamala Harris was the more anti-war of the two candidates in 2024 link arms with Democrats? Will the Trump supporters (GOP propagandists, marginal voters) who claimed to support Trump on anti-war grounds change their thinking? How much intra-GOP strife is driven by antisemitism? And what’s the best way to make sense of the mixed messages and buck passing already leaking out of the administration? All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed. Further reading: * Matt on the failure of the anti-antisemitism movement. * Brian argues Trump uses war abroad as an instrument of domestic politics, which he in turn views as civil war by other means. * Our initial views on the state of the Talarico v. Crockett Senate primary.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm You can’t say Donald Trump used his State of the Union address to distract from the Epstein files! In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss: * How boring the speech was; * Whether boring is better for Trump, given his political predicament, than stuntiness; * Should the Democrats who chose to attend be ashamed of themselves? * All of the lies. Then, are we finally going to have it out over whether Trump sexually assaulted any of the girls or women he met through Jeffrey Epstein? Will the Supreme Court decision vacating his tariffs be viewed as a turning point in his administration? All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm They’re calling it the liddlest, tiniest government shutdown of all time. Democrats are demanding changes to policy that helps Trump’s immigration police get away with abuses. So they’ve shut down the Department of Homeland Security and only the Department of Homeland Security. In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss: * How we ended up with such a narrow shutdown, instead of one that spanned multiple cabinet departments; * Whether this was a mistake or a savvy move; * What success (or “success”) might look like. Then, the Epstein Files story is stuck behind our collective unwillingness in the political class to state plainly what we’re after: Whether Donald Trump abused children, and what the consequences should be if he did? Why is the administration so allergic to accountability for non-Trump associates of Jeffrey Epstein? And, was Pam Bondi’s infamous performance before the House Judiciary Committee last week secretly brilliant? All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed. Further reading: * Brian reconceives of the Trump-2024 campaign as a conspiracy to conceal the Epstein Files. * Halina Bennet on the ICE accountability gap. * Roger Sollenberger on a credible allegation of child sexual abuse against Donald Trump.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm Donald Trump has picked big fights on multiple fronts…and lost. In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss: * The narrow question of how Trump and MAGA lost the culture war fight they picked with Bad Bunny and the NFL. * How we ended up in a situation a year ago, when it seemed that MAGA had, on balance, won the fight over the direction and influence of American culture. * How the worm turned back, or whether it was all an illusion in the first place. Then, Trump also lost the mid-decade redistricting fight he picked, thanks in large part to the fight-first approach embraced by Virginia’s new governor, Abigail Spanberger, who prioritized aggressive gerrymandering over legacy policy issues. Is her approach replicable? What would it mean to take it national? And what are some other things Dem can do (nationally and in battleground states) to keep Trump on the back foot through the midterms. All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed. Further reading: * Matt on the uncannily similar political backgrounds of Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris. * Brian on how Trump lost the culture. * Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Half Time show.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm Donald Trump ate up several weeks and caused tons of damage as he sought to delay further production of the Epstein files. But now the files are right back in the news. In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss: * What’s in this new tranche? * What does it tell us about both the global elite, and Republican elite, leaders of which are overrepresented in the files relative to Democrats? * What can we or others do to pry loose the majority of the files, which Trump’s administration insists it will conceal for all time. Then, is Trump really gonna demolish ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶D̶o̶n̶a̶l̶d̶ ̶J̶.̶ ̶T̶r̶u̶m̶p̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶J̶o̶h̶n̶ ̶F̶.̶ Kennedy Center? Is this something that Congress should try to stop? Or is it better dealt with by protesters putting themselves between the building and the bulldozers? Also, should Democrats’ continued dominance of special elections make members of the party feel more bullish about big demonstrations of resistance? All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed. Further reading: * Brian on the meaning of Democrats’ big victory in the Texas state senate special election. * Matt on the turning point in Minnesota. * The New York Times on Elon Musk and other powerful men turning up in the Epstein files.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm On Saturday, DHS agents killed Alex Pretti, a VA nurse who tried to help a woman they’d just pushed to the ground. By Sunday, the Trump administration had initiated an at least tactical retreat from Minneapolis. In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss: * The silver lining of Pretti’s death, in providing proof of concept that civil disobedience requires risk and sacrifice—but it does work; * Whether the political blowback will be fierce enough to dissuade Trump from ordering more pretextual, citywide occupations by masked paramilitaries; * What Democrats can demand in the ensuing fight over Homeland Security funding, and whether they’ll have greater tolerance for a prolonged shutdown this time. Then, Trump isn’t just retreating in Minnesota. He also pulled a TACO on Greenland, after allies asserted he’d wrecked the post-war order, and bond markets started revolting. What lessons, if any, lie in that episode? What more should foreign leaders (public and non-governmental) do to limit Trump’s abuses? And to what extent can Democrats partner with the international community to cordon Trump? All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed. Further reading: * Matt on the turning point in Minnesota. * Brian on the folly of House Democratic support for funding DHS. * How Alex Pretti might help decent Americans reclaim the meaning of masculinity from the far right. * Mark Carney’s striking Davos speech.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm Many people are asking: Has Donald Trump finally, completely lost his mind? In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss: * The importance of getting your flu shot. * Why this latest episode, complete with rambling missives to allied heads of state, feels more like madness than Trump’s other bad ideas, driven by graft, vengeance, or whatever else. * How his assault on Minneapolis is crystalizing the madness (or at least the bad faith) for the rest of the world. Then, what is to be done? What is Europe doing. What is Congress doing? What should Congress be doing. Is it really impossible to imagine an independent caucus removing the GOP from control of the House, Senate, or both? As Democrats vie for Senate control, are they blinding themselves to the risk that everything comes to pieces well before the election 10 months from now? All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed. Further reading: * Brian takes stock a year in. * Matt argues the problems with ICE flow from Stephen Miller and Trump, not from the institutional structure of ICE itself. * The Trump national security strategy from two months ago, which doesn’t mention Greenland.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm We’ll give Donald Trump this month: Thanks to his efforts, political discourse has moved on (for now) from health care and the Epstein coverup. But … not to anything particularly helpful for him. In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss: * What on Earth did Donald Trump think he was doing by ordering a campaign of legal harassment against Fed Chairman Jay Powell * Is there a pattern that explains why Trump’s rich sycophants censor themselves in some cases, but stand up to stop him in others? * How can Democrats prepare for a likely future where Trump is gone, but he’s managed to transform the Fed (and other powerful institutions of government) into MAGA strongholds? Then, is the federal assault on Minneapolis the exception to the trend of flailing, or part of the same story? How can Democrats capitalize on the fact that the public has rejected his vicious mass deportation? Should they even bother? And can they slake the public’s desire for accountability and reform without repeating the mistakes of the past? All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed. Further reading: * Matt on the economic folly of exploitation. * Brian on Trump’s flailing. * Powell’s defiant video response to Trump.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm Gotta hand it to Donald Trump, he got the Epstein Files and the January 6 anniversary off the front page, and all it took was a wee little war, plus a threat to conquer the whole hemisphere In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss: * WTF? * How has this destabilized the globe? * Can the damage be undone? * What’s the right political response, and who in the Democratic Party has risen to the moment? Then, a review of Tim Walz’s late career, and the welfare-fraud spree that did him in. How well or poorly does early Democratic enthusiasm for Walz as veep hold up? Did he do the right thing by resigning, or should he have been more defiant? Is it at all sustainable that our political system holds the parties to such wildly different standards of integrity and competence? And what should Democrats do to even the playing field? All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed. Further reading: * Will Sommer on right wing divisions over Trump’s Venezuela war. * New York Times, 2017: “Before taking office, Mr. Trump told top aides to think of each presidential day as an episode in a television show in which he vanquishes rivals.” * New York Times, 2025, on the scope of the Minnesota fraud. * Brian’s 30 thoughts on the Venezuela war. * Matt’s early assessment of Walz.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm It’s that time of year again. Self-indulgent mailbag time. Thanks to all who sent questions, and apologies to those who didn’t get answers. In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss: * Whether Gavin Newsom is doomed to become yesterday’s news; * Why there’s never been a better time to tax rich people; * How (and if) liberals can coexist politically with authoritarians in a two-party democracy. * What, if anything, the Biden people told themselves about the Epstein files? Then, what’s the bull case for A.I., where we look back from 10 or 20 years on and feel like the transition, and all the resources society poured into it, were worthwhile? Would Pat Buchanan have won in 2016 on Donald Trump’s platform? And how do a couple middle-aged coastal-elite squares keep in touch with the common man—and the youth of the nation? All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed. Further reading: * Matt on how we all deserve a stake in the financial upside of A.I. * Brian on why Merrick Garland deserves our contempt. * Senator Barack Obama at the launch of the Hamilton Project.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm Donald Trump suddenly faces defections in Congress, from right-wing influencers, and even from his own White House chief of staff. In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss: * Susie Wiles’s…intemperate comments to Vanity Fair about all the incompetents and cynics in the Trump administration; * The challenge of passing the cult following from Trump to JD Vance (or anyone else for that matter). * Why Republican disarray has spread beyond health care. Then, the particularly pitched blowback Trump has faced for pissing on Rob Reiner’s grave. Are we seeing the MAGA alliance crack up? Or are his internal critics limiting themselves to the safe zone of commenting only on Trump’s insensitive social-media posts? And why does the Democratic Party’s strategic outlet turn so heavily on the answers to those two questions? All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed. Further reading: * Matt on the Trump-Vance succession. * Brian’s somewhat more optimistic view on the Trump-Vance succession. * Politicize (Trump’s reaction to) Rob Reiner’s murder. * The Susie Wiles profile.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm Donald Trump is suddenly mired in a huge war-crimes scandal, complicating his desire to launch an actual war (also illegal) against Venezuela. In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss: * All the things that make the circumstances surrounding the order to murder shipwreck survivors so strange and suspicious; * How it all gels with Trump’s broader, corrupt foreign policy; * Whether the so-called Seditious Six Democrats, who first elevated the issue of illegal orders, laid a trap for Trump. * Also, is Pete Hegseth doomed? Then, what’s all that got to do with the midterms? Did left-wing politics doom Democrats in last week’s Tennessee special election? Was the outcome there actually bullish for Democrats? Could it be both things at once? And why is the Democratic establishment really so up in arms about Jasmine Crockett entering the Texas Senate Democratic primary? All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed. Further reading: * Todd Zwillich on what Democrats in Congress did (and didn’t) know about Trump administration war crimes before they made a ruckus about it. * Matt on the bizarre march to war with Venezuela. * Brian on the problem of the missing antiwar movement.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm Brian is adventuring in South America, so Matt is joined by Lakshya Jain of The Argument and Split Ticket to talk about his Wins Above Replacement calculations, which politicians are good at winning, and what we know about them. In the episode, Matt and Lakshya discuss: * The importance of “downballot lag” in assessing candidate quality. * Why AOC and Ritchie Torres are both overrated by their fans. * While highly viral members of congress tend to underperform, while many electoral superstars are relatively anonymous. Then, for paid subscribers, what can really be learned from Zohran Mamdani, a politician who won a difficult race despite being less popular than many of the people he bested in his primary? What’s the point of identifying over performing politicians in the first place? What’s Rashida Tlaib doing right? All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm Donald Trump has lost his grip, and it’s making him prone to a variety of political errors, some of which we enjoy with pure schadenfreude, others of which could cause tremendous collateral damage. In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss: * What if anything makes Marjorie Taylor Greene’s early exit from the House of Representatives different from past Trump purges? * Why did he blow up his party’s big plan to make Zohran Mamdani the face of the Democratic Party? * How on Earth does it make sense for him to pick a fight with, and try to court martial, an extremely popular astronaut war hero? Then, for paid subscribers, should we be careful what we wish for? After blowing the vindictive prosecutions of James Comey and Letitia James, should Mark Kelly put himself in harms way and demand his day in military court? Should Democrats be even bolder and clearer about Trump’s general commitment to illegal conduct, and his the specific illegality of his policy toward Venezuela? Is he really just going to blunder us into a destabilizing and terribly unpopular war there? All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed. Further reading: * Brian notes that MAGA disarray will paradoxically make Trump and his loyalists more determined to mount a coup d’etat. * Matt argues against the Strange New Respect on the left for Marjorie Taylor Greene. * Brian’s conversation with Pat Dennis about public opinion formation.