Episode 522 - "What's Right & What's Left?" (w/ Andre Easton)

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast NY Rep. Ritchie Torres has a new challenger: Bronx-based teacher and member of the Party for Socialism & Liberation Andre Easton, who joins Bad Faith to talk about his decision to run outside of the Democratic Party and how Zohran's latest campaign moves -- such as retaining NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch -- might illustrate the risks of running within the duopoly. Is it possible to be in solidarity with Palestinian liberation while allying with liberal Zionists? As Andre asks, is the left fighting to get a good guy elected in a bad system? Or are we fighting for a system that doesn't tolerate "bad guys" to exist within it? What does "success" look like to an outsider insurgent campaign, and how can a leftist like Andre compete without the public financing and rank choice voting dynamics that benefited Mamdani? Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Produced by Armand Aviram. Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock this episode and our entire premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast The Lever founder David Sirota returns to Bad Faith to detail his deep dive into the corporate-backed master plan to take over the country from its courts to its media. From the Powell Memo to present day, there is only one real story in American politics, and that's the role money has played in it. Could Zohran have won without public financing? How much hope should we read into the fact that Democratic establishment politicians are now publicly rebuking AIPAC donations? Is the pivot to anti-oligarchy messaging real? Or is it akin to 2020 Democratic candidates claiming to support some version of "Medicare for All" just to match Bernie's energy? Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Produced by Armand Aviram. Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast Marxist economist Richard Wolff returns to Bad Faith along with historian, professor, and Green Party candidate for governor of California Butch Ware to forensically break down Gavin Newsom's recent viral appearance on Higher Learning with Van Lathan & Rachel Lindsay. Wolff & Ware weigh in on Newsom's evasions in response to questions about the inherent contradictions of capitalism, California's failure to implement Medicare for All, & the "interesting" AIPAC moment; while the Higher Learning interview serves as a jumping off point for a broader and deeper conversation about the future of left politics, Zohran Mamdani, and the limits of the Democratic Party. (It's spooky season, and there's something magical happening with this guest pairing.) Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Produced by Armand Aviram. Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock this episode and our entire premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast Assistant Professor of Political Science at Spelman College Matt McManus joins Bad Faith to make the case for "liberal socialism." Is liberal socialism an oxymoron, or should leftist seek to reclaim the positive values of the liberal tradition as a way to insulate "socialism" from the stigma of authoritarianism? But first, Briahna & Matt discuss the AOC/Bernie townhall, debates about Zohran Mamdani's perceived shift toward the center, Kamala Harris's book tour meltdowns, & more clips from a packed media week. Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Produced by Armand Aviram. Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast The highly-anticipated astrology episode is finally here! This week Briahna talks to the incredibly warm and charming Oakland-based writer, astrologer, and host of the popular podcast Stars and Stars with Isa Isa Nakazawa about the roots of her own interest in astrology, why Brie has been attracting Cancer men, why looking at just your sun sign offers an incomplete picture, & what it means that Trump is a Leo rising. Once an astrology skeptic herself, Isa offers an explanation of why celestial events might have bearing on how we move through the world, and why an understanding of the stars and ourselves might be useful for a leftist community struggling to connect to each other and the broader world. (Skeptics should give this one a chance!) Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Produced by Armand Aviram. Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock this episode and our entire premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast The battle for control over the Democratic Party continues with liberal gatekeeper Jonathan Chait arguing, yet again, that the party's failures are a consequence of being too beholden to the "left" -- even while corporate Dems got the 2024 campaign of their dreams. Former RI State Rep. Aaron Regunberg wrote a definitive response to these arguments and made the case for why left populism is the only way to beat right populism, and Kate Willett joins to talk about the Abundance faction that informs Chait's thinking and the choices of the Democratic elite. Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Produced by Armand Aviram. Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock this episode and our entire premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast Grayzone Editor-In-Chief Max Blumenthal returns to Bad Faith to talk Trump's "peace deal" with Gaza, speculation that Charlie Kirk was killed by Israel, Zionist control of CBS & TikTok (and journalist Matt Taibbi's choice to exclude this issue from his 1st Amendment coverage), last week's Coates-Klein interview, Kamala's new book, and Max's predictions for 2028 -- including how the left should prepare. A ton of ground is covered in this episode, so you'll want to listen in full. Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Produced by Armand Aviram. Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast Van Lathan Jr., who went viral for confronting Kanye West over his "Black people chose slavery" remarks on TMZ, is a culture savant, podcaster, and political commentator whom you might have recently seen giving Scott Jennings the business on CNN. He joins Bad Faith to discuss Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another, which is being heralded as one of the best films of the year. But while it's being read as positive depiction of left revolutionaries, Brie has never felt a bigger urge to walk out of a theatre than she did in the first 30 minutes of this movie. Is the film a misogynoir-filled anti-left psyop? A fun action caper? Both? But first, Van and Brie discuss the spate of right-leaning podcasters expressing regret about boosting Trump, what it means to have "a politics," and how to contend with the establishment's commitment to "voting blue no matter who" and blaming third parties for the Democrats' failures. Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Produced by Armand Aviram. Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast Executive editor of The American Prospect David Dayen returns to Bad Faith to explain the government shutdown and how Democrats are doing their darnedest to be the worst resistance party in the world. How is it that Trump seems to have infinite power when Biden, during his trifecta, had none? Did Trump really just do what we were told is impossible: overrule the parliamentarian? Why are Democrats making this a fight about healthcare rather than the fact that the GOP has already effectively shut down the government through their DOGE activities? And why should we be very very scared of OMB director Russell Vought? Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Produced by Armand Aviram. Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock this episode and our entire premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast Matt Stoller, Director of the American Economic Liberties Project and king of anti-monopoly discourse, returns to Bad Faith podcast along with former Federal Trade Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya, who was recently fired by President Trump, to explain how Trump is weaponizing ostensibly independent federal agencies to advance his censorship agenda. As Matt argues, oligarchic control over the media is impossible without media consolidation, and the Jimmy Kimmel cancelation fiasco is in some ways secondary to the bigger problem of an undiversified media ecosystem. Bedoya, who is also the founding director of the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown University Law Center, broadens the conversation into one about the founding fathers' original conception of the corporation, and the need to impose limits due to its fundamentally anti-democratic potential. Will Democrats finally trust the anti-trust pros to break up the powers that are buying America? Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Produced by Armand Aviram. Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).