What is What’s Left?

For when you’re tired of critiquing every move Trump makes, and need a little introspection.

There’s no doubt that the american political climate post November 2016 is anything but normal. The Trump presidency, not normal. Breitbart media? Not normal. Secret American Health Care Act (AHCA) meetings? Not normal. And I use to think that the Tea Party, or the Freedom Caucus, was a major threat to deomcratic stability.

Not even a year into Trump’s presidency and he’s under investigation by a Security Council, being sued by state attorneys, having one of his major pieces of legislation challenged by the supreme court, and he still refuses to fill official federal positions across the country. The Trump presidency is unprecedented. I get it.

I think everyone else gets it, too. From the Vox News, Crooked Media, the New York Times, to Huffington Post and even Fox News, headlines have reminded readers again and again that Trump is either dangerous or a saving grace. Regardless of your political leanings, I want to respond to these notions. As one of my favorite poets has stated:

Only where there is danger the saving force is also rising.

This leads us to the central question: “What is What’s Left podcast?” and “Why did I start it?”

First, what it is. What’s Left is a podcast in response to, and in tandem with, the anti-trump agenda emphasized by many left leaning media outlets like those mentioned above. However, insteading of taking up any more bandwith by monitoring the constant going ons of the Trump administration and using media outlets as a megaphone to voice my frustrations, I take an introspective appraoch. What’s Left? begs the double sided question, “What does it mean to be a memeber of the Left?” while addressing concerns with respect to “What’s left to be done?” If Trump really is a danger to the stability of our democratic instutions, or even a champion of right-wing, borderline auhoritian philosophy, then I would like to have a plan for democrats and anyone else left leaning to combat such a movement. In this way, What’s Left is a podcast that diagnoses the philosophical and political roots of an aunabashedly Leftist agenda using the current backdrop of the Trump adminstration to respond to.

I think philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Zizek situates the podcast best when he wrote in an article on the Guardian in response to the failure of the Left’s ability to organize.

One should avoid the temptation of the narcissism of the lost cause, of admiring the sublime beauty of uprisings doomed to fail. What new positive order should replace the old one the day after, when the sublime enthusiasm of the uprising is over? It is at this crucial point that we encounter the fatal weakness of the protests: they express an authentic rage which is not able to transform itself into a minimal positive program of socio-political change. They express a spirit of revolt without revolution.

Zižek’s article was written in March of 2012. It was a written as a critique to the lack of longevity among Occupy Wall St. protestors. And yet, four years on, I share in the sentiment that the Left’s voice is merely that: a yell within a loud crowd. Which brings me to the second question: Why create this podcast?

I was there at the Women’s March on Washington the day after Trump was inagurated. It was thrilling. Nearly 500,000 thousand people showed up in support of Women, the LGBTQIA community, BLM, and a number of other interests who were (in)directly threatened by the newcomer in Washington. Worldwide, the march stretched across all seven continents, took place in eighty-four different countries, and not a single arrest took place. Talk about unprecedented.

But throughout all this hype, skeptics managed to raise some thought provoking points. One in particular, made by Historian and Georgetown Professor Michael Kazin said,

“a march needs to be part of a greater social movement with clear and consistent objectives, constant pressure on the Legislature, dedicated support from its base and continued momentum.”

And that’s what What’s Left? intends to be. A podcast to deliver on the sentiment, frustration, and disheartened voices of the Left that are tired of reading Trump’s tweets in their notifications, but not too tired to retire pussy hats.

In doing so, What’s Left? will interview philosophers, activists, civilians, politicians and plublic adminstrators of all stripes to find out what happened to those 3.1 million people who showed up in protest on January 21, 2017. Through conversation, critique, and debate, What’s Left offers its listeners a plan to succeed and be heard.

Please join me in relocating the Left’s base of support in order to build a clear and consistent agenda for future democrats, socialists, and independents to implement.