Richard Painter was White House chief ethics counsel under George W. Bush and is a frequent political commentator and analyst on CNN, MSNBC and other news networks. He is also a professor of corporate law at the University of Minnesota and the author of several books including "Getting the Government America Deserves." Although he has been a Republican nearly all his life, Painter is now running as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate seat recently vacated by Al Franken.
Richard Painter and Chauncey discuss the threat to American democracy embodied by Donald Trump, why he is no longer a Republican and how the Republican Party became so revanchist, racist, and dangerous. Painter also offers a warning to the Democrats about the perils of "identity politics" for the 2018 midterms and 2020 presidential election.
Chauncey DeVega wonders if protest movements such as the marches against Trump's evil treatment of black and brown refugees have any power against a neoliberal authoritarian regime.
Chauncey also tries to help Democrats, liberals, and progressives--especially those cowardly "centrists"--work through their stages of grief about Justice Kennedy retiring, the Muslim ban, the assault on unions, and other Trump victories.