The Cycle- On Substack

Did you know that in order to advance in ‘degrees’ in the Proud Boys you have to vow to stop jacking off so you can unleash your pent-up violence on your innocent victims?!

That’s why you NEED a copy of Andy Campbell’s new book: We Are Proud Boys: How A Rightwing Street Gang Ushered In A New Era Of American Extremism.

I haven’t had a chance yet to present the sum of my research into the collapse of democracies and the rise of totalitarians, but rest assured, I intend to spend the next year of my life impressing upon you just how far down the fascism rabbit hole America has already slipped. Especially in the formation of the violent, right-wing domestic terrorism groups American law seems hapless to preemptively address.

We’ll kick off our year-long effort with a look at Nazi militias like the Proud Boys, which Republicans have spent the past few years normalizing and legitimating. The “extremism” beat is usually a lonely beat, but that was before the American Republican Party decided to collapse into a fascist cult. Now it is one of the most important, and dangerous, beats in contemporary journalism. That’s why you should give Andy Campbell an immediate follow and pick up a copy of his book, RIGHT NOW!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecycle.substack.com/subscribe

In this short, but spirited conversation, Tom Bonier of Target Smart and Simon Rosenberg of NDN and host of the With Democrats, Things Get Better series, joins me on the pod to laugh at the Republican Party’s red tinkle.

Target Smart, it is the Democrat’s premier voter targeting firm and creator of the incredible Target Early tool, which allows users to easily and quickly access critical information such as registration and voter turnout.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecycle.substack.com/subscribe

I’m excited to bring you this conversation with Francesca Tripodi, Assistant Professor at the School of Library Info and Library Science & senior researcher at the Center for Info, Tech, and Public Life at the venerable UNC-Chapel Hill. We discuss her new book, The Propagandists’ Playbook: How Conservative Elites Manipulate Search and Threaten Democracy, which is a deep dive into how the Right dominates social media.

This book and pod is a must read/listen for anyone involved in social media, from big time influencers to regular digital activists looking to maximize their online reach.

I’ll leave it at that.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecycle.substack.com/subscribe

Michigan state senator Mallory McMorrow opened her now famous speech on the floor of the Michigan senate by calling out the reason her Republican senate colleague chose to target her in a fundraising email that is part of a party-wide effort to brand Democrats as child groomers (proof positive of QANON’s continued influence in the modern Republican Party).

McMorrow knew why she was personally targeted, saying it is “because I am the biggest threat to your hollow, hateful scheme because you can’t claim you’re targeting marginalized kids in the name of quote ‘parental rights’ if another parent is standing up to say no.”

Sadly, McMorrow is right that it matters she is a “straight, white, Christian, suburban mom” because above all else in 2022, Democrats must convince white suburbia that the modern Republican Party is not fit to govern a democracy and disqualify their structural predisposition to ‘change’ which is the mechanism that drives the midterm effect among swing voters.

To win in 2022, Democrats need to drive their own coalition of voters to the polls to dominate the turnout game, while simultaneously pushing the small, but critical, pool of swing voters away from casting ballots for Republicans-any Republican. If Democrats fail to do so, control of Congress will flip to an anti-democratic, fascist-curious Republican Party who as of today, intends to use that power to help reinstall an insurrectionist into the most powerful office on Earth.

What McMorrow then dished out to her Michigan Republican colleagues was precisely the kind of offensive, matrix-breaking, moral outrage messaging Democrats up and down ballots and across America must bring to bear in their own campaigns if they hope to defeat a radicalized, frankly dangerous, Republican Party this fall.

Though “the speech” is well known, what is lesser known is the story behind the woman who gave it. Activated by the election of Trump Mallory McMorrow rode her “incandescent rage” from being a postcard-writing grass-roots activist, to flipping a Republican-held state senate seat in 2018. I love her story so much because it could easily be yours. We need 1,000 Mallory McMorrows out there on the stump. If we had them, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

Maybe YOU are the next one?

Redistricted into a safe seat, McMorrow is now lending her considerable political talents and her small, but mighty, war chest to one of the most important offensive efforts for Democrats at the state legislative level in the 2022 cycle: flipping both chambers of the Michigan state legislature.

Thanks to the ballot initiative process and Michigan’s voters, Republicans must face free and fair districts for the first time in decades in Michigan leaving them uniquely vulnerable to defeat this cycle. SO

Give Michigan some love!

Editors note: “Democrats are child groomers” emerged as one of the most often cited rationales by Trump supporters for their “anything goes” tolerance to the boss’s behavior. It is designed to win elections, of course. But it is also serves to dehumanize Democrats in order to justify past and potentially future acts of political violence.

It is critical for everyone working for democracy to understand what will be coming at Democratic candidates already running against hostile in-party fundamentals this fall, and why the GOP has settled on such a noxious line of attack. Whatever strategy Democrats ultimately settle on, it will have to compete against the Republicans’ no-holds-barred approach to 2022.

Please consider supporting my efforts with this substack with a subscription, paid or for free (and PLEASE do not do paid if you are broke!) Paid subscriptions allow me the time and resources to devote to this project. Another fantastic way for you to support this effort is by sharing it on your social media accounts.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecycle.substack.com/subscribe

If “guilt by association” also works for “coolness by association” I have officially arrived!

Its not every day that I get someone who has interviewed the President of the United States to come onto the pod (though I should probably note I’ve had at least 3 on here) but STILL! She’s an academic so it counts for more!

When THE HCR (as some of her fans refer to her) agreed to come onto The Cycle I was….

I was especially keen to talk to Heather about America’s current democratic crisis which has half the country at least fascist-curious. BUT, I also wanted to give you folks a glimpse into Heather herself- what motivated her efforts to bring her scholarship to a mass audience and why its resonated with so many people.

If you somehow haven’t heard of heather until now, I strongly recommend you subscribe to her #1 substack, check out her pod cast Now & Then, and check out her SIX books on American history.

Like this podcast? Consider subscribing to support its production and sharing it with your friends!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecycle.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Political Behavior 454! Today I am going to expose you to one of several research books that have come out in the past few years that help explain modern political behavior, which is distinct from political behavior of previous decades in several measurable and important ways.

Dr. Jonathan Weiler, Director of Undergraduate Global Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill and co-author of Pick Up or Prius: How the Answers to Four Simple Questions Explain American’s Great Political Divide is on the show today to help you understand just how profound the “divide” between the Left and the Right is.

So exactly what are these 4 questions that are so powerful they can “explain our political divide?”

You’ll have to listen to find out!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecycle.substack.com/subscribe

I’ve had a lot of fascinating conversations with my Cycle guests, but this pod with David Pepper, former chair of the Ohio Democratic Party and author of what Politico Mag calls “the thriller that predicted the Russia Scandal,” is one for the record books.

His new book, Laboratories of Democracy: A Wake Up Call From Behind The Lines takes you into the complex world of state politics- a strange new world with new life, and new civilizations that pass legislation via simple majorities.

When you agree with the legislative agenda of the party controlling your state and a “simple majority” system is everything the federal system is not: responsive, efficient, competent.

Federalism and simple majority requirements allows states to serve as what Justice Brandeis "called “laboratories of democracy.” Some of America’s best policies have been grown in these labs. But now, the Republican Party, is using states to pass a veritable smorgasbord of radical, even fascist policies aimed specifically at giving conservatives direct control over modern American culture.

Why? Because by the late 1980s it was clear to the Republican Party’s oligarchs the “culture” ship had already sailed, stranding them at port. So they devised a new strategy. Instead of fighting culture, they’d simply criminalize it.

The Republican Party spent more than 20 years building the power and infrastructure it needs for this moment. You can ignore it, but I promise it won’t ignore you.

Thank you for reading The Cycle- On Substack. This post is public so feel free to share it.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecycle.substack.com/subscribe

Believe it or not, when George W. Bush ran for the Republican Party’s nomination in 2000, he was able to at least tacitly support reauthorizing the Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994, which was set to expire in 2004.

Yep, you read that right. As radical as they might have seemed to you back then, as of 2000 most of the Republican Party was still quite sane, and intent on being a governing party. Their insanity didn’t really start until the mid-2000s, after Karl Rove demonstrated the power of base politics and everything went to s**t.

Imagine that, party nominees with an incentive to cater somewhat to members of the opposition party to win national elections. Those were the days!

If you are a subscriber to The Cycle (I love you all, but I most especially love those subsidizing my efforts to save democracy via a paid subscription) you likely have decent working knowledge of the politics of gun control, the GOP’s nearly 20 year obstruction of literally ANY reform, and the radicalization of the NRA under Wayne Lapierre.

In Gun Politics: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized the Rest of America, gun industry insider-turned-whistleblower Ryan Busse gives us what old school radio icon Paul Harvey called, “the rest of the story.”

And what a story it is!

If you want to hear it, you’ll need to tune in! Also, don’t forget to buy Ryan’s book at any fine independent book store (or Amazon if you’re lazy like me).

Can’t afford a subscription? PLEASE use the free subscription option- I don’t judge! Who isn’t broke right now. What matters to me is you get the info.

And remember, its tots free to share this pod with your friends so they don’t miss out on all the fun (and the profanity!)

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecycle.substack.com/subscribe

Mary Trump has been very busy since she first emerged on the national stage after sacrificing much to share thousands of personal records documenting Trump family corruption with investigators from the New York Times.

She doubled down on her gift to America by next releasing audio of Trump’s federal judge sister admitting his entire schtick is an immoral long con. In other words, Mary Trump is one bad ass motherf*cker.

Two books later, and a podcast you should be sure to check out, Mary is making her 2nd appearance here on The Cycle to discuss her latest book, The Reckoning: Our Nation’s Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal. Enjoy!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecycle.substack.com/subscribe

When I first spotted the title of my friend Tom Nichols’ new book I knew it needed to serve as the opening pod cast for season 2. Why? Because Tom’s excellent thesis, that 80 years of peace, prosperity, improving life conditions, and tech have led us to what I call a “decadence" issue. Put simply, Americans are so comfortable, and so far removed from past tribulations, they have done what comfortable people do: turned their angst both inward, and towards the respectively trivial.

In short, we’re fat, happy, comfortable and charging head first into a self-imposed chaos mostly out of boredom. I refuse to tell you anymore about his book, if you want to know, you’ll have to listen to this short, but critical conversation on why Americans have become Our Own Worst Enemy.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecycle.substack.com/subscribe