#1436 The Long Legacy of Making Deals with the Devil (Bipartisanship)

Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy

Air Date 8/21/2021

Today we take a look at the history of bipartisanship and appeasement in the US dating back to before the Civil War and tracking it all the way up to the current negotiations over the infrastructure bill.

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Transcript

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SHOW NOTES

Ch. 1: The Unnatural Endurance of Bipartisanship Part 1 - The Politics of Everything - Air Date 3-4-21

Joe Biden ran for president promising to “revive” the spirit of bipartisanship, put an end to factional battles, and bring Americans together after an era of painful division.

Ch. 2: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren - The New Yorker: Politics and More - Air Date 10-19-20

Biden often speaks about bipartisanship as a cherished value that he would restore to Washington, but Ocasio-Cortez is dubious.

Ch. 3: The Unnatural Endurance of Bipartisanship Part 2 - The Politics of Everything - Air Date 3-4-21

Ch. 4: Exhaustion of Bipartisanship - In The Thick - Air Date 6-25-21

Maria and Julio discuss remarks from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the 38th annual NALEO Conference, and they get into the vice president’s visit to El Paso and the US-Mexico border.

Ch. 5: Behind the Infrastructure of the Infrastructure Bill & The Real American Oligarchy - The Majority Report with Sam Seder - Air Date 7-23-21

Sam and Emma host Ari Rabin-Havt, the former Legislative Director and Chief Policy Advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders, to discuss the prospects of the Senate bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Ch. 6: Manchin Capitol Riots Made Me MORE Bipartisan - The Young Turks - Air Date 4-9-21

In a recent interview, Senator Joe Manchin claimed that the Capitol Riots changed him, and made him double down on bipartisanship.

Ch. 7: Why Appeasement Won't Work This Time Around - On the Media - Air Date 1-8-21

White southerners called it “redemption.” To Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, founder and executive director of the African American Policy Forum, it was a catastrophe of appeasement and an object lesson in the politics of reconciliation.

Ch. 8: Keri Leigh Merritt on the New Lost Cause - CounterSpin - Air Date 1-15-21

Historians are shaking their heads as media talk about January 6 as "unprecedented"; while shocking and dispiriting, it has layers and layers of precedent that need to be learned and engaged, if we are ever to actually have a racial reckoning.

MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)

Ch. 9: Frances Lee on why bipartisanship is irrational - Vox Conversations - Air Date 1-21-19

For most of American history, American politics has been under one-party rule. For decades, that party was the Republican Party. Then, for decades more, it was the Democratic Party.

Ch. 10: What a More Responsible Republican Party Would Look Like - The Ezra Klein Show - Air Date 3-2-21

This is the modern G.O.P.: a post-policy party obsessed with symbolic fights and curiously uninterested in the actual work of governing. But does it have to be that way?

FINAL COMMENTS

Ch. 11: Final comments on the merits of taking liars at face value

MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions):

• Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr
• Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent
• Activism Music: This Fickle World by Theo Bard (https://theobard.bandcamp.com/track/this-fickle-world)
• Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent

Produced by Jay! Tomlinson

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