Once the pandemic hit, we learned how to make the radio show from our homes. This meant we did everything remotely, including interviews. One thing I really missed was the chance to sit next to another person for an in-depth conversation, having that kind of full-bodied, intimate conversation that I just can’t have on a Zoom call. I also missed the steady flow of visiting scholars, artists and writers who came to Madison for lectures and conferences before the pandemic.
Now, these in-person events are just starting to ramp up again. One especially interesting gathering was the La Follette Forum on “American Power, Prosperity and Democracy,” hosted by UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs. I had fascinating interviews with two of the featured speakers, New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie and Harvard professor of government Daniel Ziblatt, co-author of “How Democracies Die.”
You can hear the interview with Ziblatt in this weekend’s show, “Saving Democracy From Demagogues.” (My interview with Bouie will air in a future show.) Ziblatt is alarmed by the rise of authoritarian leaders around the world, from Putin in Russia and Orban in Hungary to Erdogan in Turkey. He says there’s a common playbook for these authoritarians: they bully, coerce or silence impartial government figures, such as judges, prosecutors, and military officers. Then they target opposition forces in the private sector, including the media, big business, labor unions and popular entertainers. They also threaten violence and refuse to accept undesirable election results.
Ziblatt then examines a more complicated question: how worried should we be about democracy in the U.S.?
–Steve