Podcasts: good for democracy

This week I listened to some podcasts: Slate’s Trumpcast, FiveThirtyEight Elections, The Weekly Standard, The Editors: A National Review Podcast, Pantsuit Politics, and The Ticket from the Texas Triune.

Conservatives and liberals agreed that the election is slipping away from Donald Trump. On The Weekly Standard’s instant reaction, Bill Kristol foretold Trump’s doom stating that no candidate with such bad polling numbers has bounced back in the last two weeks of the election.

Discussions of the debate reflected common observations: it was the most disciplined of the three, Trump seemed to lose stamina after the first half hour, Hillary Clinton was successful in pressing his buttons, and he reverted to his typical erratic behavior. Most felt that Trump missed easy and obvious opportunities to skewer Clinton over pay-to-play and the WikiLeaks emails. Many felt that Clinton is a weak candidate and victory over her should have been easy for any Republican candidate – but Trump is not just any Republican candidate.

Trump’s statement about election results was provoking and most commentators, including the National Review, felt that he is laying a narrative to explain his defeat. Trump received universal condemnation for his statements about the election being rigged and many commented on the potential dangers of this rhetoric. Liberals and conservatives were horrified.

A couple of notable quotes/thoughts:

This Weekly Standard did two short “instant reaction” podcasts from conservative commentators after the debate. I liked this format.

The National Review podcast contained a well-aimed zinger, noting that Trump is the one who seems to lack stamina in the debates. It also talked a great deal about Evan McMullin, someone who had flown below my radar until now.

Pantsuit Politics mentioned the potential Trump media network. They said it seems like he is building a mechanism to keep his supporters outraged after the election. There was also an interesting conversation about transparency and whether it should be the gold standard. When are leaked emails crass rather than informative?

The Ticket provided a lens into the Texas political environment. Commentators noted how shocking it is that Trump has only a single digit lead in the state.

Finally, the guests on Trumpcast predicted that the final weeks of his campaign will be a “Breitbart piece of performance art.” Pure poetry.

An additional episode provided a fascinating look at extreme left and right social media pages. I highly recommend this episode; it was the best I heard this week.

A personal note: I have been pretty down this past week over election news. It’s hard to explain as I don’t think anything we have seen is particularly surprising. The negative rhetoric and my disillusion have made it very hard to consume social media and election news. I am not the only one; Google election stress and you will get tons of hits. I was pleasantly surprised to find that podcasts didn’t get me down. The thoughtful conversation - including background and context, excluding yelling and shouts of “wrong” - restored some of my faith in political debate.

Podcasts score one for democracy.