This time on the Plutopia Podcast, Jake Dunagan joins us as we explore the future of governance and democracy. This podcast is from the Plutopia Live webcast on 2/22/2024.

Jake is Director of the Governance Futures Lab at the Institute for the Future. More information here: https://www.iftf.org/people/jake-dunagan/

Jake Dunagan:

As much as it is anathema to my values, the MAGA wing has shaped the conversation, and they are dominating the conversation, and they are moving the window over. And so that is, again, in a neutral sense, leadership.

And so what’s the countervailing to that, rather than just trying to hold on to the last bits of maybe majority rule? You know, maybe if you win elections, it just feels very desperate on the left to try to hold on against this juggernaut of focus. It’s not the majority, but it is a focused, mission-driven group of people that have no end point other than seizing absolute control over the system.

And so what do you do? It’s the greatest dilemma that we’ve faced, I think, in our lifetimes for sure, is what do you do when your opponent does not play by the rules, and you’re trying to hold on to legitimacy in the other group? The other side is not. I mean, I think that’s our democracy death spiral at this point.