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Ed Song and Coyle Neal tackle Donald Trump and explore his surprising rise through the Republican ranks in this episode of City of Man. If you’ve not been over to iTunes yet, subscribe now, and start enjoying your new favorite politics podcast!
Episode 4 Show Notes
Shout out to The Sectarian Review!
Ed Song walks us through the Donald’s announcement and rhetoric
Why Trump? Coyle Neal’s view:
Accuracy
Authenticity
A gadfly
Anger
Why Trump? Vox on Authoritarianism
The four questions:
- “Please tell me which one you think is more important for a child to have: independence or respect for elders?
- Please tell me which one you think is more important for a child to have: obedience or self-reliance?
- Please tell me which one you think is more important for a child to have: to be considerate or to be well-behaved?
- Please tell me which one you think is more important for a child to have: curiosity or good manners?”
Readings Mentioned During the Podcast:
- The Bernie Sanders interview (which both of us were wrong about, it was the New York Daily News, not the NYT)
- The Vox article
- Real Clear Politics
First of all, thanks to both of you for your efforts in making this podcast available; it’s the kind of conversation that’s very welcome and helpful if it’s done well.
I’ve enjoyed all the episodes so far, but at the end of this one, I’ve got a couple of comments.
To wit: Coyle, you really let Ed get the better of you on the topic of authoritarianism.
How can you cede the absurd argument that authoritarianism in contemporary American culture is now almost exclusively a phenomenon of the right? What about the widespread, relentless suppression of “uncomfortable” speech on college and university campuses, and indeed in general discourse? Is this not an authoritarian, even Orwellian, impulse of the left that’s blindingly obvious? And what about the creeping authoritarianism of the Obama administration, e.g. just yesterday its spurious but worrying lawsuit launched against organizations that won’t bow down to the progressive idol of climate change? What about the crushing burdens placed on businesses and individuals by progressive government policies bent on socially engineering the USA in the name of “equality” and “social justice”?
You’ve got to do a better job of standing up for conservative principles and attacking the yawning gaps in Ed’s arguments, or this podcast will have no edge and will risk becoming dull.
mrtall Hi, thanks for the feedback. Coyle actually raises the exact point you are making in the podcast (at 54:00). My response was that “authoritarianism” as it is used by these political scientist is a technical term that describes a style of politics that sees the world as spiraling out of control and the only response to it is strong, decisive action, and especially the embrace of real violence. If that is what is authoritarianism is, then it seems like Trump’s style is uniquely authoritarian. No one else does anything like this–encouraging violence at political rallies, bragging about his ability to shoot people on 5th Ave., embracing torture, etc. And then I would argue that this isn’t an overly technical, arbitrary or academic way to define authoritarianism since the political embrace of violence is uniquely worrisome. I’m at least at little sympathetic with some of your examples, and they might be objectionable, but I don’t think that they are technically authoritarian in this way. Peace, Ed