This is a segment of episode 310 of Last Born In The Wilderness “Vigilante Veneration: Fascistic Characteristics Of A Divided United States w/ Paul Street.” Listen to the full interview: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/paul-street

Learn more about Paul Street’s work: https://www.paulstreet.org

Award-winning journalist, policy researcher, author, and historian Paul Street joins me to discuss the highly controversial and divisive Kyle Rittenhouse case and subsequent acquittal. Along with providing a substantive exploration of the broad sociopolitical context of this trial, we also touch on the case of the modern day lynching of Ahmaud Arbery and the recent conviction of the men that murdered him in Georgia, the concerted legislative push in Republican dominated states across the U.S. to impose harsher voter restrictions and roll back reproductive rights on the national level, and what these trends mean for the upcoming elections of 2022 and 2024, and electoral politics as a whole.

On the state level, Republicans have passed scores of laws to undermine the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, attack voter rights, cripple public health measures, censure public school educators, and set the stage for Roe v. Wade to be overturned by the conservative majority Supreme Court. The dismal performance of the Democrats, a party that currently barely maintains a majority in Congress, and the maneuvers and long-term strategies employed by the Republicans, will lead, potentially, to a Republican majority in Congress and a Trump presidential win in 2024. The lame duck presidency of Joe Biden and an ineffective, self-defeating Democratic Party have been, seemingly, unable and unwilling to counter this on any fundamental level. It’s not surprising, but must be noted.

Paul Street is an independent progressive policy researcher, award-winning journalist, historian, author and speaker based in Iowa City, Iowa, and Chicago, Illinois.  He is the author of ten books to date, and most recently 'Hollow Resistance: Obama, Trump, and the Politics of Appeasement,' and 'This Happened Here: Neoliberals, Amerikaners, and the Trumping of America.' Paul writes regularly for Counterpunch.

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