- Glenn says that right wing populists and left wing populists intersect on extremely important issues like when Bernie Sanders teamed up with a tea party republican to limit bombing in Yemen. But Trump VETOED THAT. So aligning with ur-right-wing-populists seems like a pretty bad strategy. Also tea party types are - sometimes but not always - cloaked in libertarian aesthetic, which is decidedly not the same thing as populism. They're probably more likely to adopt an isolationist stance than these populists ever are. He makes this same mistake again when he says Booker works with Rand Paul. Limited government conservatives are not right wing populists.
- Glenn's interest here is clearly in defending his multiple appearances on Tucker Carlson. Glenn does make a good point here that one of Tucker's fundamental impulses, that government shouldn't bend over for the interests of the corporate class, makes him a valuable ally on
very specific issues like the Amazon tax credit. I think tucker makes an interesting case study here because he's actually ideologically consistent whereas Trump is not and lets himself get co-opted by whoever is the most obsequious.
I think Glenn's central point here is "why are Josh Hawley and Tucker Carlson off-limits?" He's right that political allies are not the same thing as friends and that politics is about opening up channels for communication. But his major example for how people on the right and left came together and engaged in dialogue is... the gay rights movement?
What?
Nathan Robinson's interview is at 30:00. I can't stand his voice but I did it for you all. It's easy to anticipate his main question: what politics on the right is genuinely, authentically working class? It's fraudulent. And he doesn't mean "don't ever talk to the right", he means "don't frame then as populists" because
all you're doing is enabling then to continue to hoodwink working class people. That's probably the most important thing: since right wing populism is fundamentally an act of deception, helping them in that rhetorical space is absolutely immoral. Glenn continues to misinterpret Nathan as saying "don't be friends with these people".
Glenn: "If I asked you who are the left wing populists, and you said AOC and Bernie Sanders, I'd say wait, they're trying to elect the biggest centrist ever, Joe Biden!"
this man is so confused
"I think it's kind of distracting to talk about Donald Trump because it's unfair to that movement to make Trump the prism through which we understand them because he is a con man. But there are people who have more genuine convictions and more fixed ideologies than Donald Trump"
Nathan: WHO? WHO?
[
]
Glenn: Josh Hawley! Tucker Carlson!
Glenn thinks people are chasing ideas and Nathan thinks people are chasing their interests by any means possible. Basically Nathan is a materialist and Glenn is an idealist, that'll be $50 please
spoiler (click to show/hide)
Glenn: libertarianism is populist because it's against the government rigging things for corporations
[intermission]
