A Conversation with Yascha Mounk about Donald Trump and the Decline of Western Democracies

Yascha Mounk is the guest on this week's special fundraising month episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show. He is a Lecturer on Political Theory at Harvard University's Government Department, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Transatlantic Academy of the German Marshall Fund, and a Nonresident Fellow at New America's Political Reform Program. Yascha has also written three books including the forthcoming The People versus Democracy – Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It.

He also writes a column at Slate in addition to hosting The Good Fight podcast.

Yascha and Chauncey discuss how Trump rode a wave of global discontent about liberal democracies into the White House, how a lack of faith in democracies is spreading around Europe and other parts of the world, right-wing authoritarian populism, what can be done to save democracy, the responsibility of teachers and other educators in this moment of crisis, as well as what we know and don't know about how and why democracies succeed or fail. 

In this week's episode of podcast Chauncey shares how the Trump administration is now trying to kick immigrants out of the country if they dare to use public services such as Head Start or food stamps. Chauncey also reminds folks about the human cost of Trump's white supremacist war on black and brown immigrants by sharing a story about home healthcare workers and their importance to the most vulnerable Americans. And at the end of this week's special fundraising month installment of the podcast, Chauncey reads some hate mail.

This episode with Yascha Mounk can be downloaded from Libsyn and also listened to here.

The Chauncey DeVega Show is available on Itunes, Spotify and at Stitcher.