Commentary Magazine Podcast

This weekend’s violence in Chicago exposes the extent to which the rioting never stopped even though the press has long ago moved on from the story. Also, the podcast debates the legal and principled arguments both for and against Donald Trump’s executive orders expanding unemployment benefits and deferring payroll taxes.

The Attorney General of New York, Letitia James, is suing the National Rifle Association and seeking the group’s dissolution. But, politically, the issue of gun rights has always favored gun owners, and the effort may backfire on Democrats. Also, Donald Trump is seeking to force Chinese firms with holdings in certain apps to sell their stakes, but those firms also have a stake in several popular gaming platforms. That, too, threatens to mobilize a constituency that Republicans don’t understand. Are both parties awakening sleeping giants?

Negotiations over a new pandemic relief package in Congress stalls as Democrats expand their demands. Will they suffer political consequences as a result of this calculation? Also, we discuss what we’re reading—if we’re reading anything—and the future of college education after the Coronavirus recedes.

Democratic voters in Missouri went to the polls on Tuesday and ejected another longtime incumbent from federal office. This has become a trend—one that suggests the Democratic Party is undergoing an ideological makeover, and that process is being driven from below. It looks like the Democratic Tea Party they said could never happen is upon us.

Has the Biden campaign succumbed to a false sense of complacency around the state of the 2020 race? There is still a lot of game left to play and events yet to occur that will alter the trajectory of the race, but is the Democratic candidate nimble enough to meet them?

It’s November 3. Much of the country has re-imposed lockdown restrictions. Businesses are failing in record numbers. The nation’s education system is teetering on the brink. And Election Day is typified by long lines at a truncated number of polling places and a record number of absentee ballots that will take weeks to tally. This perfectly thinkable scenario could have disastrous results.

Tech commentary columnist James B. Meigs joins the program to break down Thursday’s congressional hearing on Silicon Valley. How consolidation in the tech world makes disasters more likely. Also, Barack Obama’s politicized eulogy for the late Rep. John Lewis and his naked effort to raise the temperature on a nation already near the boiling point.

The purveyors of crushing morosity at the COMMENTARY podcast get really morose with this one. Donald Trump’s suggestion that the election should be postponed is an assault on the American civic compact and illustrates his lack of fitness for the office he holds. Also, how the arrest of a transgender teen in New York City exposed the mania of the talker class.

Attorney General William Barr faces a grilling on Capitol Hill that seemed to serve no higher purpose than allowing Democrats to vent and giving Republicans a chance to demonstrate their fealty to the administration. Which leads the podcast to ask the question on every political observer’s mind: What good are congressional hearings? Is this what majoritarian democracy becomes?

CNN senior political writer and analyst Harry Enten joins the podcast today to discuss the dynamics of the 2020 presidential race. Can Donald Trump turn this thing around? Does Joe Biden really have to worry about his left flank? Is there a shy Trump vote? We ask, Enten answers.

As America’s summer of civil disorder intensifies, those who are discomfited with urban violence and a culture of intolerance on the political left do not fall neatly along ideological lines. Does this moment have the makings of a political realignment? Also, Eli Lake joins the program to update us on the scandal within the FBI.

Andrew Cuomo launches a war on chicken wings in a poorly veiled attempt to prevent restaurants and bars from criticizing his overreaching edicts. Also, has Donald Trump become resigned to losing? His tonal shift suggests as much.

What is federalism? How can it be applied to correct this moment of lawlessness in American cities? The hosts of the COMMENTARY podcast engage in a spirited discussion over what voters who reject this lawlessness to do in this moment.

Trump’s tone shifts as he returns to delivering pandemic-related press conferences. The congressional GOP turns its eyes toward the post-Trump era. And the diplomatic crisis with China deepens as the U.S. shutters a Chinese consulate.

The data continues to belie the notion that the country is facing a Coronavirus crisis akin to what the Northeast experienced in the spring. Also, a debate over just how sincere the nation is in its commitment to addressing “systemic racism.” And the auspicious return of Donald Trump’s COVID briefings.