It’s Christmas Eve, and what’s more germane to the holiday season than some lengthy rambling about authoritarianism? Of course, today’s Ruminant is a little more nuanced than that. It also digs into how political states emerge in the first place, why Russia is becoming a “really crappy” country, and how to distinguish between valid criticism of American foreign policy toward Ukraine and toadying to Vladimir Putin. On the lighter side, Jonah also answers a few questions that arose after the week’s earlier episode with the Fair Jessica. We wish you all a wonderful holiday!
Show Notes:
- The Fair Jessica’s Remnant return
- Zelensky’s speech to Congress
- Julia Davis’ Russian Media Monitor
- Jonah: “Authoritarianism’s Bad Year”
- Francis Fukuyama’s The Origins of Political Order
- How Putin’s war became a catastrophe for Russia

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The Rant Before Christmas

In “The Remnant," Jonah Goldberg enlists a “Cannonball Run”-style cast of stars, has-beens, and never-weres to address the most pressing issues of the day. Is America doomed? Has liberalism failed? And will mankind ever invent something better than ‘90s-era “Simpsons?” Mixing political history, pop culture, rank punditry, and shameless book-plugging, Goldberg and guests will have the kinds of conversations we wish they featured on TV. And the nudity will (almost) always be tasteful. Brace your bingo cards.

News

Politics

Spurred by Robert Kagan’s new book, Rebellion: How Antiliberalism Is Tearing America Apart--Again, and by Thursday’s Remnant, Jonah spends the majority of this interminable episode responding to Kagan’s critique of conservatism, from contextualizing William F. Buckley’s role on the right to recounting the left's history of intellectual anti-liberalism. Also, kudos to the frat bros who saved the American flag.
﻿Show Notes:
—Jonah’s Wednesday G-File
—"Metabolic rift" wiki page
—King-Slutzky answers questions
—Gee Officer Krupke
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The Ruminant of Infinity

Jonah is joined by Robert Kagan—a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of Rebellion: The Antiliberal Tradition That Is Tearing America Apart - Again—to debate Robert’s theory on the anti-liberal history of conservatism and why he thinks Trump is a logical product of the American right.
Show Notes:
—Robert’s profile at Brookings
—Robert’s new book
—Why the South Must Prevail
—Miles Taylor’s book, Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump
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Will the Real Anti-Liberal Please Stand Up?

Jonah invites Sarah onto The Remnant to grill her on her sociopathic “subtweet,” debate the ethics of killing dogs, and peer into the minds of anti-Israeli student protesters. But for the main course, the two argue about Trump’s immunity case. Listeners’ discretion is advised.
Show Notes:
—Sarah's solo AO episode
—David's return to AO
—Korematsu v. United States
—Nick Catoggio's Boiling Frogs newsletter on Kristi Noem
—Centennial Crisis: The Disputed Election of 1876
—Join The Dispatch for access to our exclusive Skiff feed
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Korematsu and Vegetables

Jonah begins by ruminating on the Supreme Court oral arguments for Donald Trump’s immunity case and explains why he doesn’t understand how people could be sympathetic towards the former president. He then turns to the Heritage Foundation’s spat with Erick Erickson before getting to the Columbia protests and Elon Musk’s surprisingly apt observation on the oppressor-oppressed paradigm.
Show Notes:
—Word of South festival
—Advisory Opinions on the oral arguments
—The Collision on the oral argument
—Dispatch Podcast roundtable
—Ukraine: The Latest with Jonah
—Erick Erickson’s article on free markets
—George Packer's piece in The Atlantic
—Elon Musk’s tweet
—Columbia student who said Zionists don’t deserve to live
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Stress the System

Audio doppelgänger Chris Stirewalt joins Jonah on today’s episode of The Remnant to venture through the polluted backwaters of media conglomerates and uncover a whole host of “whataboutism” garbage: the rise of antisemitism on campuses, the media bias in covering these protests, and the terrorist chants coming from the mouths of these students. The two also opine on the faces adorning a far-right fecal Mt. Rushmore, including the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar. They discuss more serious matters as well, such as the current snapshot of poll numbers and whether or not Stormy Daniels is a porn “star” or just an actress.
Show notes:
—What's the Matter with Kansas? by Thomas Frank
—"What's the Matter with Kansas?" by William Allen White
—Chris Stirewalt's Remnant episode with Tyler Austin Harper
—Bloomberg: Biden Trails Trumps
—Chris' piece for The Dispatch on Nevada's poll numbers
—The Hill's election center
—Nikki Haley voters in Pennsylvania
—Gallup: Americans showing average enthusiasm for voting in 2024
—Jonah’s appearance on a CNN panel with Lulu Garcia-Navarro
—Students chant "Go back to Poland!"
—Piece on Mike Johnson in The Atlantic
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The Rant Before Christmas

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