There Is No Going Back to Normalcy: Navigating America's Cascading Crises

This podcast episode features Robert Borosage discussing the profound challenges facing the Biden administration and the United States in the wake of the Trump presidency and the Capitol storming. Borosage argues that a return to "normalcy" is impossible, as the country grapples with "unbelievable cascading crises" including the pandemic, economic collapse, climate change, and racial upheaval. He attributes the deep-seated anger and division, which Trump exploited, to 50 years of economic policies that have savaged the middle class, displaced the working class, and led to obscene levels of inequality, a condition he refers to as the "elite consensus."

The discussion delves into critical distinctions, such as differentiating between Trump as the sole cause of societal anger and the deeper systemic issues that predate him. In foreign policy, Borosage critiques the "indispensable nation" interventionist approach, advocating for a policy of restraint and seeking common ground with nations like China on issues such as climate change and nuclear weapons, rather than pursuing a new Cold War. He emphasizes the need for domestic industrial and social welfare policies to address economic displacement, rather than solely blaming external factors like China's trade practices. The conversation also touches on the delicate balance between legitimate protest and violent demonstrations, and the potential for an authoritarian response to unrest.

Borosage outlines practical recommendations for the Biden administration, starting with a "go big" approach to pandemic response, economic relief, and a second agenda focused on green infrastructure investment to create jobs. He suggests leveraging executive orders to enforce progressive labor standards among government contractors and calls for aggressive antitrust action against tech monopolies. Furthermore, he highlights the necessity of reforming the healthcare system and the military-industrial complex to reallocate fiscal capacity towards social ends. Campaign finance reform, particularly through matching small donations, is presented as a crucial mechanism to make the political system more responsive to the populace rather than entrenched interests.

The broader implications of the current landscape include the unique fiscal opportunity presented by low interest rates for public investment, the democratic risks posed by concentrated tech power and algorithmic reinforcement of division, and the pervasive influence of "rent-seeking" and lobbying on policy. Borosage expresses concern about the potential for an authoritarian turn in response to societal instability and the challenges of rebuilding trust in a "rigged system." He also addresses the imperative for massive reform of a "systematically racist" justice and policing system, balancing community safety with accountability, and the tension between individual freedoms and collective well-being, particularly concerning public health measures and gun control.

"there is no going back to normalcy"

"the anger will continue even trump ought to be punished but even when trump is punished the anger's not going to go away and the rage doesn't go go away because it comes from uh insignificant degree a the middle class which has been savaged over the last uh 50 years"

"their victories were not your victories they've prospered while you've uh suffered and this is going to change"

"america is still the indispensable nation we must sit at the head of the table and we are threatened by china and russia"

"we could both have the cold war with china and do climate agreements with them"

"our health care system is about twice as expensive as that of the european countries and serves less people and does has worse health results"

"we're now spending more on the military than we did in real dollars inflation-adjusted dollars than we did at the height of the cold war under ronald reagan"

"the biggest problem with this job is that i spend 75 percent of my time raising money to do policies that i don't believe in in order to survive"

"the punchline of that film was you're wrecking the minds of children and you're fostering a civil war between adults by only telling each side what they want to hear in order to boost advertising revenue"

"the power to do that and to deprive a political a president a political figure of his ability to reach out to the public independently is an incredible power to put in the hands of very concentrated companies"