A Radio Tour of Tea Party Nation

A Radio Tour of Tea Party Nation

Gary Younge hits the road to understand how local opposition to President Obama explains a growing national movement.

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In his column for The Nation this week, Gary Younge hit the road to reveal what’s at the heart of Tea Party Nation. In this two-part, companion audio documentary from the BBC World Service, Younge tells the story of President Obama’s fiercest opponents. He spoke to tea-partiers, evangelicals and libertarians; local elected officials, country club members and small business owners to find out why they oppose the President, and what they think of his first year in office. He traveled to rural Arkansas and Kentucky, speaking with dozens of people who believe President Obama is taking the country in the wrong direction.

Listen to both parts below, or download the MP3. Special thanks to the BBC World Service for their production of this feature, and permission to run it at TheNation.com. You can listen to more audio documentaries from the BBC World Service here.

Part 1

Part 2

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Even before February 28, the reasons for Donald Trump’s imploding approval rating were abundantly clear: untrammeled corruption and personal enrichment to the tune of billions of dollars during an affordability crisis, a foreign policy guided only by his own derelict sense of morality, and the deployment of a murderous campaign of occupation, detention, and deportation on American streets. 

Now an undeclared, unauthorized, unpopular, and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iran has spread like wildfire through the region and into Europe. A new “forever war”—with an ever-increasing likelihood of American troops on the ground—may very well be upon us.  

As we’ve seen over and over, this administration uses lies, misdirection, and attempts to flood the zone to justify its abuses of power at home and abroad. Just as Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth offer erratic and contradictory rationales for the attacks on Iran, the administration is also spreading the lie that the upcoming midterm elections are under threat from noncitizens on voter rolls. When these lies go unchecked, they become the basis for further authoritarian encroachment and war. 

In these dark times, independent journalism is uniquely able to uncover the falsehoods that threaten our republic—and civilians around the world—and shine a bright light on the truth. 

The Nation’s experienced team of writers, editors, and fact-checkers understands the scale of what we’re up against and the urgency with which we have to act. That’s why we’re publishing critical reporting and analysis of the war on Iran, ICE violence at home, new forms of voter suppression emerging in the courts, and much more. 

But this journalism is possible only with your support.

This March, The Nation needs to raise $50,000 to ensure that we have the resources for reporting and analysis that sets the record straight and empowers people of conscience to organize. Will you donate today?

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