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Travels in Trumpland—Plus, the Fight Over “Freedom”

On this episode of Start Making Sense, John Nichols reports on Democrats in Red districts, and Eric Foner talks about Kamala’s campaign to claim a key concept of Reaganism.

Jon Wiener

October 2, 2024

Donald Trump arriving for a rally at the I-80 Speedway, on May 1, 2022, in Greenwood, Nebraska.(Scott Olson / Getty Images)

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Travels in Trumpland; plus the Fight Over ‘Freedom’ | Start Making Sense
byThe Nation Magazine

John Nichols has been driving to places in middle America where Trump has gotten big majorities in the past: Iowa and Nebraska, central and Western Illinois, and southwestern Wisconsin, asking Democrats there about politics in their towns right now.

Also: Kamala’s campaign is challenging the Republican conception of “freedom” as freedom from government regulation, advancing instead a positive conception of the government’s ability to protect and expand freedom. Eric Foner explains the history, and significance, of this conflict.

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John Nichols has been driving to places in Middle America where Trump has gotten big majorities in the past: Iowa and Nebraska, central and western Illinois, and southwestern Wisconsin, asking Democrats there about politics in their towns right now. He’s on the podcast this week to discuss.Also on this episode: Kamala Harris’s campaign is challenging the Republican conception of “freedom” as freedom from government regulation, advancing instead a positive conception of the government’s ability to protect and expand personal freedom. Eric Foner explains the history, and significance, of this conflict.

The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

Trump, the Universities, and the Courts; plus the Case of Stephen Miller | Start Making Sense
byThe Nation Magazine

The Supreme Court ruled against Trump last week in the first test of his refusal to release money appropriated by Congress, and more than a dozen more similar cases are likely to come before the court –– probably including a challenge to his withholding hundreds of millions from research universities on the grounds that they have failed to protect Jewish students from antisemitism. But what if Trump defies court decisions that go against him? Erwin Chemerinsky comments –– he’s dean of the Law School at UC Berkeley.

Also: The man in charge of Trump’s plan to deport ten million undocumented people is Stephen Miller, who has a “seething, visceral, unquenchable hatred” for immigrants –– that’s what Nation columnist David Klion says, as he examines a life that “defies any easy explanation.”

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Jon WienerTwitterJon Wiener is a contributing editor of The Nation and co-author (with Mike Davis) of Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties.


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