Democrats are having a good month. The Inflation Reduction Act passed the Senate, Republicans are paying for the Dobbs decision, and the January 6th committee is reminding Americans that Trump and the GOP are a bunch of lying insurrections. And this recent sharp turn of events makes Democrats all the more hopeful that there won’t be a wipe out in November. But what is the lesson here? Is it that consensus-building is always the wisest course? Or that Democrats would be better off heightening the contrasts between them and Republicans more often? Faiz Shakir joins to talk about the party’s theory of politics, and how Democrats can be less imprisoned by polls and more responsive to the things the public cares about.

Former FBI investigator Peter Strzok joins to talk about how the Trump accountability story isn’t fully written. The January 6 hearings, and earlier investigations, have revealed more Trump crimes than we could have imagined six years ago, yet he hasn’t faced criminal charges and our institutions haven’t been bolstered to protect future threats he poses to the Constitution. Is the justice system failing? Or are we making a mistake by putting so much stock into legal accountability in the first place?

Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer strike a deal on a big budget bill that would dedicate hundreds of billions of dollars to clean energy, giving Democrats much needed wind at their backs ahead of the midterms. The climate fight is a case study for how Democrats can harness political power, win back voters, and proactively redefine what it means to be a Democrat.

A bipartisan bill in Congress is one step forward for gun safety, but the Supreme Court just pushed us two steps back. As the legislative path to reducing gun violence has closed, we might have more success if we can influence the way people think about guns in America. How can we change hearts and minds rather than laws, and, in doing so, make gun culture anathema instead of something we celebrate or just roll our eyes at?

Moviegoing has changed a lot in the past several years, as movies have become increasingly niche and box offices dominated by derivative blockbusters. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have another golden age of cinema, even if it’ll be different from the ones in our past. Top Gun: Maverick managed to break the mold as a big budget action movie that quickly became a cultural touchstone for all kinds of Americans, proving, perhaps, that we can at least rekindle moviegoing, with movies everyone feels drawn to see.

The Supreme Court has overturned Roe v Wade, access to abortion has collapsed across the country, and Democrats in Washington don’t have the votes to undo the decision right now. It’s a mess. But we may be able get Roe back sooner than it seems—if Democrats and their allies in the reproductive rights movement learn from years of their own missteps, and quickly. That will determine whether restoring the right to abortion takes six months or 60 years.

Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) joins Brian to talk about how personal loss and the insurrection changed him, why unchecked optimism fails us when corrupt people come to power, and how we can still balance realism with hope today.

Crooked Media’s Editor in Chief Brian Beutler takes a deep dive beneath the headlines of the stories stirring anxiety throughout society to give you a richer understanding and appreciation of how and why to remain engaged—even in the face of daunting challenges. New episodes every Friday starting June 24th on the Rubicon feed.

In our final episode, Brian Beutler and author Heather McGhee look back at the highs and lows of President Biden’s first 100 days, and ahead to the path he’ll have to carve if he wants to overcome the politics of white grievance to implement a transformational agenda for a multiethnic democracy.

For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/rubicon.

This week on Rubicon, Brian Beutler talks to legal scholar Leah Litman about why Democrats and Republicans viewed the fight over the courts so differently for so long, whether Biden's judicial nominees signal an end to that disparity, and what he and Democrats in Congress can do to protect his agenda from right-wing justices.