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The Kamala Surprise, Plus the Crisis of the Constitution

On this episode of Start Making Sense, Harold Meyerson on the campaign and Erwin Chemerinsky on the case for a new Constitution.

Jon Wiener

August 28, 2024

Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally at United Auto Workers Local 900 on August 8, 2024, in Wayne, Michigan. (Photo by Andrew Harnik / Getty Images)

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The Kamala Surprise, plus the Crisis of the Constitution | Start Making Sense
byThe Nation Magazine

We’ve had a series of surprises in the last several weeks, but none have been more surprising than Kamala emerging as a great candidate. Harold Meyerson explains: it’s not so much that she has changed, it’s that the Democratic Party has changed.

Also: Democracy in America is being undermined by the Electoral College, the Senate filibuster, the gerrymandering of the House, and the corruption of the Supreme Court. It’s time to write, and ratify, a new constitution: that’s what Erwin Chemerinsky says. His new book is “No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States.”

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We’ve had a series of surprises in the last several weeks, but none have been more surprising than Kamala Harris’s emerging as a great candidate. Harold Meyerson joins us on the podcast to explain that it’s not so much that Harris has changed but that the Democratic Party has.

Also on this episode of Start Making Sense: Democracy in America is undermined by the Electoral College, the Senate filibuster, the gerrymandering of the House, and the corruption of the Supreme Court. It’s time to write, and ratify, a new Constitution—that’s what Erwin Chemerinsky says. His new book is No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States.

The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

Rebecca Solnit on Long Term Strategy, plus Resisting ICE in Small Town America / Start Making Sense
byThe Nation Magazine

It’s been only a couple of weeks since the No Kings 3 protests, but we can see now how protest and resistance are changing in America: that one it wasn't just bigger than the previous No Kings. It was different: Deeper and more connected. Rebecca Solnit argues that to understand resistance and change today, we need a much longer perspective than a couple of years. Her new book is The Beginning Comes After the End.

Also: Minneapolis made history with its mobilization against ICE. But what about the rest of the state, where the immigrant population has been growing for a couple of decades? What kind of resistance has developed there? Emma Janssen went to small town Minnesota to find out. She’s a writing fellow at The American Prospect.  

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Jon WienerTwitterJon Wiener is a contributing editor of The Nation and co-author (with Mike Davis) of Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties.


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