Break Glass in Case of Emergency

This is a different kind of episode than is typical; there's no book, no central text, not even a single, central event that guides the conversation. Instead, we begin with a few recent news items—speculation about Trump 2028, Speaker Mike Johnson's refusal to swear in a Democratic congresswoman, the stunning abdication of Congress as the shutdown continues, and, incredibly, a secretive billionaire and Mellon heir donates over a hundred million dollars to pay the military, among others—and then lay out our profound worries about Trump ruling by decree, and the coming of MAGA-style Caeserism. How and when might that occur? We discuss troubling signals the Trump administration is sending about upcoming elections, and especially the 2026 midterms; the ticking time bomb that is the Insurrection Act; how the right thinks about executive power (then and now), and more.
Sources:
Peter Rothpletz, "Trump's Third Term? (zeteo.com/p/trump-illegal-third-term-first-dra…)" Zeteo/First Draft, Oct 24, 2025
Dana Milbank, "How Reactionary is MAGA? Try the First Century B.C. (washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/07/jd-vanc…)," Washington Post, Sept 7, 2022
Steve Bannon interview with The Economist, Oct 23, 2025 (YouTube (youtube.com/watch?v=ijf7K_08YWk))
Shawn Hubler & Laurel Rosenhall, "Justice Department Will Monitor Elections in California and New Jersey (nytimes.com/2025/10/24/us/politics/doj-electio…)," New York Times, Oct 24, 2025
Steve Contorno & Ashley Killough, "Frustrated Arizonans Have Waited More Than a Month for Their New Congresswoman to be Seated (cnn.com/2025/10/25/politics/adelita-grijalva-a…)," CNN, Oct 25, 2025
Yoni Applebaum, "America's Fragile Constitution (theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/our-f…)," The Atlantic, Oct 2015
Abraham Lincoln, "Speech to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield (housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/lincoln/lyceu…)," Jan 27, 1838
Bob Bauer & Jack Goldsmith, "Here’s What Trump Could Unleash by Invoking the Insurrection Act (nytimes.com/2025/10/18/opinion/trump-insurrect…)," New York Times, Oct 18, 2025
Damon Linker, "The Surest Path to Dictatorship: A Quick Plug for a Short Primer about the Insurrection Act (damonlinker.substack.com/p/the-surest-path-to-…)," Notes from the Middleground, Oct 18, 2025
"Discussing Caesarism, (youtube.com/watch?v=d0E_K79dOWw&ab_channel…)" New Founding Podcast, Oct 21, 2022.
Harvey Mansfield, Taming the Prince: The Ambivalence of Modern Executive Power (simonandschuster.com/books/Taming-the-Prince/H…) (1989)
James Burnham, Congress and the American Tradition (books.google.am/books?id=z9hqlf1HIZIC&prin…) (1959)
Garry Wills, Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State (penguinrandomhouse.com/books/298677/bomb-power…) (2010)
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