Stay Dirty. Stay Moderate: God Save the King

As arguably the pre-eminent voice warning about the dangers of Donald Trump, longtime political operative Steve Schmidt needs no introduction.
But in case you have been abducted by aliens, Steve is the founder, author and host of The Warning, a digital media company comprised of a daily newsletter, podcast and video analysis on his YouTube channel.
 
Through The Warning, Schmidt discusses the events that are shaping our times and the unseen forces shaping American culture and politics that are rarely discussed on cable news.Schmidt is recognized for his part in the 2008 U.S. election cycle, serving as Senator John McCain’s campaign manager. He also successfully led California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s re-election campaign in 2006.  Schmidt was a top strategist in the 2004 campaign to re-elect President George W. Bush and served in the Bush administration, during which time he led the successful confirmations of two U.S. Supreme Court justices. He spent 10 years as an analyst with MSNBC. Schmidt co-founded the well-known super PAC, the Lincoln Project, in 2019. He left the group in 2021.

Adam is excited to share his conversation with Steve about the Biden/Trump rematch, the moral and philosophical collapse of Steve’s former party into a Trump led authoritarian cult, the Democrats’ notoriously bad communication skills , the rampant mistrust of our institutions and all things relating to this nearly two and a half century old self governing miracle also called America. 

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It’s not playtime in America. It’s high time in America that we all stand up for democracy. It’s gonna take all of us, especially independents like myself who will back Biden in November because that’s putting America first.  It’s America or Trump; you can’t have both.… 

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Noah Rothman is an author and conservative thinker who is a Senior Writer for National Review, and whose recent bestseller, “The Rise of the New Puritans: Fighting Back Against Progressives’ War on Fun,” is the chief subject of the second episode of our new series Dirty Moderate After Dark.

Adam and Noah do a deep dive into the origins of Puritan thought, and they detail the odd, and very uniquely American way in which Puritanical thinking is embedded into our cultural and political tapestry. What’s more, Noah explains how his book examines the deeply religious and dogmatic English Puritans who settled on the Eastern Seaboard in the 17th century and how their spiritual, if not religious, successors have found a cozy home within the extreme wing of today’s woke left.

Adam and Noah also discuss the collapse of the Republican Party into an incoherent, ideologically barren cult of personality party led by Trump, and they lament the abandonment of the robust internationalism which the Reagan era GOP once typified and the dangers of today’s MAGA GOP and the shortsighted, isolationist thinking that they promulgate.

Though neither of them were boozed, Adam and Noah waxed eloquently After Dark about all things philosophical and political, and their conversation was nevertheless wide-ranging, absorbing, and unlike today’s Puritans, fun.

Find Noah's amazing book here
Read Noah at National Review
Noah on X @NoahCRothman

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Tina Nguyen is a national correspondent for Puck covering the world of Donald Trump and the American right for their The Best & The Brightest newsletter. Previously, Nguyen was a White House reporter for Politico, a staff reporter for Vanity Fair Hive, and an editor at Mediaite.

Her new book, The MAGA Diaries: My Surreal Adventures Inside the Right-Wing (And How I Got Out) is a dazzling memoir of Tina’s fast, furious, stressful and altogether bonkers time in the world of the Conservative movement long before it was destroyed and devoured by Trumpworld. 

Tina talks to Adam about her growing up in Boston as the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, how she ended up at the prestigious but right-wing Xanadu known as Claremont McKenna College, and her short but not insignificant stint at The Daily Caller working for its then founder, Tucker Carlson. They explore her front row seat to the rise of what is now the MAGA movement, and how she ended up on the other side of this dystopia, mostly unscathed, but nonetheless loaded with insight as how to best cover Trumpism with all the scrutiny it most definitely deserves.

Tina also gives Adam the tea on some of the more sobering realizations which came to her in her post-Conservative days about some of her previous colleagues and their not so nice agendas. Tina’s story, which is indeed essential reading , is also a must listen for Dirty Moderates everywhere. 

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Philip K. Howard is a lawyer, author and chair of Common Good (www.commongood.org), a nonpartisan organization aimed at replacing red tape with human responsibility and agency. 

In his discussion with Adam, Philip discusses his latest book “Everyday Freedom: Designing the Framework for a Flourishing Society,” which argues that the post 1960’s legal framework which has guided government policy for 60 years has been a failure. Philip persuasively argues that humans have been disempowered and common sense has been thrown out the window. Inertia and powerlessness have overtaken our politics because so called ‘good government’ has come to be synonymous with red tape and inefficiency. Philip calls this stasis a “disease consuming the American spirit,” and that “Modern law fails because it is dehumanizing, and, however hard this may prove to be, it must be replaced by a framework that empowers everyday freedom.”

As engaging and incisive a discussion as we’ve had on this podcast, Adam and Philip’s dialogue is essential food for thought. Have a listen!

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James Kirchick is a columnist for Tablet magazine, a writer at large for Air Mail, and author of the instant New York Times bestseller, Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington.  Jamie( as he is known,) sits down with Adam and details why he wrote “Secret City,” discusses his longtime interest in Cold War history and assesses the intersection of anti-Communist and anti-gay hysteria and the toll it took on so many gay people in government during the immediate years following World War II and beyond. Jamie also is a widely published journalist and historian, and he has reported from over 40 countries, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Atlantic. In their wide-ranging conversation, Adam and Jamie also analyze the current state of American politics , the dangers of Trumpism and the menacing illiberalism which has metastasized on the left. 

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As the host of the podcast History of the Land of Israel, and his own YouTube show, Israel Explained, Shaiel Ben-Ephraim spends his time thinking about Israel, assessing Israel’s long term goals and strategies and nuancing a discussion about Israel and the Palestinians which blessedly sheds more light than heat.

A self described “Liberal Zionist,” Shaiel sits down with Adam to discuss his time as a young man working in intelligence for the IDF, the current state of Israel’s war with Hamas, the necessity of a demilitarized and self governing Palestinian state, and the fraught legacy of Benjamin Netanyahu. Like Adam, Shaiel remains deeply worried about the fate of democracy both in the United States and Israel, and he sounds the alarm about the the threat to both the American and Israeli democratic projects from its opponents on the right and the left.

As Dirty Moderate continues its coverage of Israel since the horrific attacks of October 7th, this engaging and enlightening confab between Adam and Shaiel is not to be missed. Have a listen!

Shaiel is a former UCLA professor and diplomat with a Ph.D. in military strategy from the University of Calgary. He currently works for one of the large hi-tech companies and hosts the History of the Land of Israel Podcast and the Israel Explained YouTube channel. Dr. Ben-Ephraim lives in Hollywood, where he follows the New York Mets closely and listens to the Allman Brothers Band far too often.

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 At once passionate and eloquent, Kaivan Shroff may just be the Democratic Party’s most effective communicator. A onetime digital strategist for Hillary Clinton, Kaivan is now the Press Secretary for Dream for America, a Gen-Z movement for freedom, democracy, & progressive government. 

As a regular pundit and commentator, Kaivan regularly and forcefully makes the case for Biden’s re-election. Kaivan sits down with Adam and they engage in a spirited conversation about all things Democratic, political and of course, democracy.

Follow Kaivan on Twitter 

Learn more about Dream for America 

Listen to Adam’s interview with Dream for America founder William He here

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Before we all settle in to watch Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl, check out Adam’s recent discussion about immigration with the second best blonde of the day, his Executive Producer, Dawn Sorokin in this special edition of Stay Dirty, Stay Moderate   

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With the 2024 election less than a year away, Kyle Kondick, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, the University of Virginia Center for Politics’ nonpartisan election forecasting newsletter joins the podcast to look at our electoral landscape—both presidential and congressional—from 30,000 feet. Have a listen as Kyle and Adam discuss Biden’s vulnerabilities as an incumbent, the precarious senate map for Democrats and whether or not the youth vote can really tip the scales next year at the ballot box. 

All things Kyle here: 
https://www.kylekondik.com/

Kyle on X: 
@kkondik

Check out Sabato's Crystal Ball here: 
https://centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/

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