In addition to being one of the most cruel, racist, and self-destructive administrations in history, Donald Trump’s second term is also notable for its sheer incompetence.
It was just revealed that Trump’s brilliant team of mediocre, white, male Affirmative Action hires accidentally invited The Atlantic reporter Jeffrey Goldberg to their Signal chat group where they discussed military strikes on Yemen. When asked about the bombshell article, Donald Trump professed he did not know anything about the story or the chat group. That’s probably because he’s spent most of his Presidency golfing, tweeting, and babysitting Elon’s kid.
Obviously, this is all terrifying, but nothing will happen because Trump and the most ridiculous people on Earth have all the power. Republicans control every branch of government. Like helpful Bond villains, they told us their evil plan in the form of Project 2025. Within two months, Trump has already achieved half of the policies. Republicans don’t care about rules, customs, norms, or civility. They want to achieve their corrosive goals by any illegal means necessary and will bulldoze any institution, law firm, politician, judge, ally, protestor, or law that gets in their way.
Then, there’s the Democrats, the alleged opposition party, who have their lowest favorability rating in over thirty years. Their war-time strategy is to play dead as exemplified by the ineffectual nothingness that is Senator Chuck Schumer. Worse, many of them are complicit with the GOP’s agenda, signing on to the Laken Riley Act and censuring Rep. Al Green. As a result of their decades-long timidity, cowardice, and complicity, Trump and Republican-appointed judges can implement their regressive policies relying upon bad, popular laws that are still on the books.
Popular legal analyst and author Elie Mystal gives Democrats a strategy to undo these laws and pursue bold reformation instead of antiquated restoration. In his latest book, Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws that Are Ruining America, Mystal discusses how some of the most odious and terrible laws were created, maintained, and are currently being abused to attack immigrants, people of color, women, and our collective freedoms.
In this Chai Talk, Elie and I discuss how Democrats can undo these laws and chart a new course towards justice, freedom, and equity assuming if - and that’s a big if - Democrats can ever gain power again.
Grab a chai and give us a listen!
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