Commentary Magazine Podcast

COVID-19 cases are rising around the nation, but it is increasingly difficult to get a sense of the pandemic from a media culture that is invested in wrapping the data up in a political narrative. Also, Donald Trump faces a revolt from his right flank amid sagging poll numbers. Can he run an effective campaign against Joe Biden, and what would it look like?

The COMMENTARY podcast takes a look back at where it all began on this, the 500th episode. Also, an exploration of the demands for social leveling inherent in ideas promoted by those advocating a national racial reconciliation and why they may have a point.

The news for the president goes from bad to worse as the pandemic, economic crisis, and sense that the country is on the wrong track are compounded by a scandal in the Justice Department. Can Trump pull out of this tailspin? And, if he can’t, will the progressives who are generally hostile toward Joe Biden perceive his victory as their own?

Donald Trump makes a hash of his administration’s COVID-19 testing regime. Why is the president handing his opponents a wedge issue by suggesting he wants fewer tests to present a false picture of the outbreak in America? Also, as the assault on American statuary continues in the streets, elected officials are joining with the mob in their attack on the nation’s history.

The rage against statuary dedicated to weighty figures in American history continues, both in the streets and in liberal institutions. Also, Trump’s first post-Coronavirus rally was a bust. What that portends for the rest of the 2020 election cycle.

Assistant Professor of Political Science at Kentucky State University Wilfred Reilly joins the podcast today to talk about his article in the latest issue of COMMENTARY, “America Run Riot.” A data-driven conversation about the allegations made by some Black Lives Matter activists that there is an epidemic of race-related police violence against minorities in the United States.

In today’s episode: The revelations about Donald Trump in John Bolton’s new book, the efforts to reform the culture within America’s police departments, and some early indications that the Coronavirus epidemic in America is on the cusp of a resurgence.

In today’s episode, the debacle involving an attempt by NBC News to compel Google to “demonetize” The Federalist, a dissection of what activists mean when they advocate “community policing,” and the introduction of the COMMENTARY podcast drinking game.

The COMMENTARY podcast expounds upon the principles set forth in a rare editor’s letter published in the upcoming issue of the magazine: “We Must Stop the Great Unraveling.” A political and legal philosophy that reduces individuals to the categories they were assigned at birth and treats them as representatives of a collective has once again risen to the fore. It must be stopped.

The COMMENTARY podcast on the violence in Atlanta following what may have been a perfectly justified arrest-related shooting and the unequal enforcement of lockdown measures in New York City.

The Democratic Party is self-radicalizing. The Republican Party seems unable to capitalize on that. And the country waits to see which radical group will govern it next.

The COMMENTARY podcast discusses the Hobbesian state of nature into which Seattle is descending as the protesters' demands shift away from racial justice and toward the abolition of capitalism. The anti-police backlash increasingly appears to view human nature and the institutions mankind creates as perfectible, which is a fallacy that can only exist (somewhat counterintuitively) in the absence of ideals.

The COMMENTARY podcast discusses the return of “radical chic” among the liberal intelligentsia, the tension between advocates of incremental reform and revolutionary political activists, and how general election voters will respond to it all in November.

Amid a sea change in public attitudes toward perceived racial disparities in American institutions, what is the proper balance between restorative justice and retributive policies? Can it be struck or even pursued in an age typified by paranoia, mistrust, and political combat?

The COMMENTARY podcast breaks down what the new talking point about the need to “defund the police” is about, which is also ultimately what the staffers’ revolt at the New York Times was about: power. How the public discourse over necessary reforms to policing strategies has been hijacked.