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🏛️📰🗣️🇺🇸 Jelani Cobb talks democracy, Trumpism, and the future of journalism | Code Switch

🤖 AI Summary

• 📉 Donald Trump entered politics as a direct response to refute everything Barack Obama represented [06:58].
• 🏃 The velocity of change in the second Trump term caught many off guard because previous institutional brakes are gone [08:20].
• 🛡️ A lack of checks on presidential authority is metaphorically represented by the disappearance of the White House East Wing [09:02].
• ⚓ Bombing boats on the high seas for drug interdiction is highly illegal and lacks congressional war declarations [09:44].
• 🪖 Militarization of police seen in Ferguson has evolved into the routine deployment of the National Guard in American cities [11:00].
• 😵 The sheer volume and scale of abnormal events makes it difficult for the public to track or process systemic shifts [13:16].
• 🎤 Journalists must remain relentlessly focused on core questions, like corruption, rather than being distracted by insults [13:57].
• ⚖️ Journalism requires a fundamental belief in facts and truth while maintaining a humble and ethical posture [14:51].
• 🌍 Americans should look to how nations like Brazil and Italy handled lawlessness and authoritarianism for a democratic response [18:00].
• ➕ Social progress for one community is still incorrectly viewed by others as a zero sum loss for themselves [19:15].

🤔 Evaluation

• 🔍 Cobb views the Trump presidency as a reaction to Obama, a perspective echoed in The Liturgy of Politics by Kaitlyn Schiess (InterVarsity Press), which examines how political identities are formed in opposition to perceived cultural threats.
• 🛡️ While Cobb highlights a lack of checks, the Brookings Institution (The Brookings Institution) notes that the judicial branch and civil service remain active, though strained, counter-pressures to executive overreach.
• 📊 Cobb notes progress for women and Black Americans, which is supported by data from the Pew Research Center (Pew Research Center) showing long-term gains in educational attainment despite persistent wealth gaps.
• 🚦 To better understand these shifts, explore the historical use of the Insurrection Act and the legal boundaries of birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

🧐 Q: What is the main thesis of Jelani Cobb’s new book, Three or More Is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here: 2012-2025?

🤖 A: The book Three or More Is a Riot tracks a 13-year trajectory from the Ferguson protests to the second Trump term to show how patterns of militarization and political reactionism led to the current state of American democracy.

👮 Q: Why does Cobb criticize the use of the National Guard in cities?

🤖 A: He argues that crime reduction is not a valid legal or democratic justification for domestic military deployment and that such actions normalize the militarization of civilian life.

📰 Q: What is the role of journalism in a period of political instability?

🤖 A: Journalism must act as a moral center by adhering to facts, owning mistakes quickly, and refusing to let the rapid pace of news distract from investigating the most consequential issues.

🌎 Q: How should the U.S. respond to perceived democratic backsliding?

🤖 A: Cobb suggests studying international examples where societies successfully prosecuted corruption or navigated authoritarianism, specifically mentioning Brazil, Italy, and the Philippines.

📚 Book Recommendations

↔️ Similar

• Three or More Is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here: 2012-2025 by Jelani Cobb
• 📖 Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Spiegel & Grau) explores the historical and personal realities of race and systemic violence in America.
• 📖 The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson (Random House) details the Great Migration and the long struggle for Black citizenship and identity.

🆚 Contrasting

• 📖 Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance (Harper) offers a perspective on the cultural and economic anxieties of the white working class that fueled Trumpism.
• 📖 The Conservative Sensibility by George F. Will (Hachette) argues for a return to limited government and originalist constitutional interpretation as the path to stability.

🎨 Creatively Related

• 👑🚫📜2️⃣0️⃣ On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder (Tim Duggan Books) provides twenty lessons from the twentieth century on how to recognize and resist the rise of authoritarianism.
• 📖 The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (Dial Press) uses personal essays to examine the central role of race in the American psyche and its future.