‘Legitimate Political Discourse’

On today’s podcast, our hosts discuss the Republican Party’s decision to censure two of its ...

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On today’s podcast, our hosts discuss the Republican Party’s decision to censure two of its own members, Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, over their involvement in the January 6 investigation. Plus, a growing list of states have lifted their mask mandates. What’s changed?

Show Notes:

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ted Gale

    David was far too charitable toward the Olympics. Then again, my favorite Olympics was the winter session in Innsbruck (1976) when Franz Klammer won the gold in downhill, and Bill Koch (from my hometown in Vermont) won the silver in a cross country event (the first time an American had ever won a medal in cross-country skiing). The Olympics have always been political (think of the Cold War Eastern Bloc judges in ice skating); the IOC has always been corrupt, and the network coverage has long been dismal . . . the games aren't worth watching, haven't been worth watching, and the fact that they are hosted this round by a technologically adept authoritarian regime is only one more reason not to watch them.

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  2. Mads Lindstrøm

    I am like David. I love the Olympics. Absolute love it. Love it. The great thing is that they take the most boring sport events and put them in a couple of weeks every four years. Thus the other 200-some weeks we do not have to suffer though this boredom.

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    Ben Connelly

    Boy that talk at the end about victimhood culture and grievance and the language of therapeutics and trauma really stirs up some strong feelings (ha!) in me. I could write a whole book on that subject. (And on a related subject, I sort of did.) The way it looks like things are going in our culture at the moment, I’ll probably write a couple books worth of essays on it over of the course of my career. Oh well.

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  4. david rae

    This was a super podcast, the kind I wish there was a second thumbs-up button to push.

    I'd make one comment about the Olympic question regarding the mental side. Many years ago, Bill Johnson was asked about what winning a gold medal meant, and he replied "Millions" (meaning dollars).

    I wonder if many athletes look at "failure" in the Olympics as the effect/impact on their future income (sponsors, endorsements, etc.). Surely, with all of the sports psychologists and other support members of their teams, they've learned to lose somewhere along the line. But to imagine that your whole livelihood depends on one single performance, and to not be able to accept the outcome, may be an indication that the coaches aren't preparing these athletes for this level of competition.

    And it also makes, as Sarah said, the Chen performance so magical, when the athlete performs under that kind of pressure.

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    monocularvision

    I finally gave up and looked up “pas de deux”. Jonah wins in his battle to increase the American vocabulary.

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  6. Joe

    Oh come on David. Respectfully, as a person who lives a couple miles away from Chaz and knows people who "were there when it was birthed", it's peak hysterical ignorance to compare them to the truckers in Canada. It shows that you either don't know what was actually happening on the west coast, which I think is fair as Jonah seems to be the only person who has any conception of the PNW, or you don't mind making hysterical comparisons to the point of almost being dishonest.

    Let me speak you David as Thrall would speak to Jaina, "Don't let your blind hatred of the horde blind you of reality"

    A populist movement doesn't automatically become a trump fest (especially in another country) when it isn't a communist rally. There are populist movements on the right which can just be opposed to sweeping authoritarianism.

    edit: this message should not be taken as an endorsement for populism, just a suggestion that they are not all the same.

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    1. Mads Lindstrøm

      David should ask himself:

      * Are there border guards on the trucker protest in Ottowa?
      * Are police denied entry into the "occupied zone"?
      * Has there been murders?
      * Can people safely go around in the area. In daytime? In nighttime?

      If I were to compare it to anything in America, the Occupy Wall Street seems a close equivalent, though with people who knows how to build stuff and organize. And with different political aims.

      That all being said, I don't think it is unfair to compare the blocking of the Ambassador bridge to people blocking freeways. Though a bit worse given the importance of the Ambassador bridge. However, I cannot remember hearing much condemnation of the freeway blockers, even though there should have been.

      Finally, PNW? Means?

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      1. Joe

        PNW = Pacific Northwest. There was brief blocking of freeways on I-5, but it was squashed and replaced with people throwing bricks and concrete off bridges onto drivers on I-5 and I-90. Seattle is STILL boarded up with plywood 2 years later. The BLM riots and CHAZ/CHOP destroyed this city and it STILL hasn't recovered.

        So you can see why I have a continual and growing frustration with David's tone deaf comparisons of the hundreds of idiots on Jan 6th and the Truckers with the thousands if not MILLIONS of BLM rioters who trashed and continue to trash (seriously, go to seattle or portland) these cities. He's either truly ignorant of how bunk his comparions are, or he's just so blinded by his disdain of the current breed of populism that he's unable to see how frankly offensive his comparions are to people with functioning eyes.

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        1. Bluemango2026

          I have driven through all parts of Seattle since Chaz, and I can definitively say NOTHING you have described is even .01% accurate. If your point was truly valid, you would have no need to lie so blatantly.

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          1. Joe

            What a crock. I was in the ID last weekend. Same plywood on all those businesses that have been there for 2 years. Perhaps the exact square block where chaz took place has been cleaned up, but the rest of Seattle is a cesspool. If you say I'm not even .01% accurate, you're objectively outside of your mind. What bad faith BS.

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    2. Joe

      I get frustrated so often because I consider myself rational, but it so often feels like David is having such a hyper overreaction to something that I feel compelled to take an antagonistic stance just to try and bring him back down. I have a passing amount of support for the truckers in Canada, but I am also aware of the absolutely disgusting smear job that is happening from the media towards them and even if I am not in full support of their every act, I'm not going to pile on with the idiots attacking them in bad faith.

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    Peter A

    Was listening to this pod after the news about the 15 year old Russian skater who was caught doping came out. I think we can now safely answer Sarah's question about how Russia is still doing this.

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    The Bell Tower

    My tinfoil hat sparked so much, it almost caught the trailer on fire when you guys addressed McConnell v Trump.

    I think McConnell definitely is looking for a fight with Trump but you can’t bull rush a bull. McConnell’s the kinda guy who climbs up your drain pipe while you’re sleeping anyway - and he’s been eyeing Trump’s drain pipe since 2015.

    Not only do I think he knows some shoe hasn’t dropped (the commission, NY’s AG investigations, etc) but I’d bet everything I own that he’s doing everything he can to make sure some such shoe exists and that it falls with terminal velocity when it comes.

    McConnell wants Trump’s voters without the Trump, obviously. He’s a little bit like a guy selling NA beer to alcoholics but if something eliminates Trump (IE: jail time), he’s ready to pounce like Georgia Republicans on a a Stacy Abrams sans-mask picture.

    And now back to your regularly scheduled sanity.

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  9. Meg

    I just wanted to weigh in on the language of victimhood. I agree with what David said. I am a teacher in an inner city school district. While many of my students face very difficult challenges, they rarely blame others for their problems. Sometimes they talk about their anxieties and often they engage in self-sabotage, but rarely do they blame others or portray themselves as victims. I suspect that this may be more common among wealthy elites, politicians, and fostered in the media (particularly on Twitter).

    Also, for Jonah, I am in a teachers’ union and have always wanted to be in person with my students everyday. Our local did not advocate for virtual learning. I understand where you are coming from but sometimes your complaints about teachers’ unions felt like rubbing salt in the wound.

    So excited about Sarah’s book club. I loved The Scout Mindset and the book on John Marshall Harlan. I also thought Invisible Women was very interesting. It really opened my mind.

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    Joseph.A.Timmer

    I didn’t read all of the comments so I apologize if this was already covered:

    1. You should check out the Doogie Howser reboot on Disney +: Doogie Kamaloha. It’s legit.

    2. Podcasts don’t lend well to letting a story play out but I’m not sure that the cultural issues of America should have been dumped on Mikaela Shiffrin. She’s shown plenty of grit since her breakdown. I do have general agreement with you on the peril of the victim hood mentality however.

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