One way you can identify the leftist tilt on NPR stations is by listening to the callers that are taken on NPR-distributed talk shows. On the latest episode of Left, Right, and Center, coming out of KCRW out of California, the host (or “center”) David Greene set the agenda with a paranoid leftist caller. The “left” panelist, Mo Eleithee, was lamenting our “hyper-polarized times” where the “incentive structure” is for both Democrats and Republicans to avoid making compromises with each other.
Then came the “hyper-polarizing” caller, selected by Greene, a former NPR news anchor, 41 minutes in:
DAVID GREENE: We’ve got a question I wanted to play from one of our listeners about watching this trend of both parties getting away from any incentive to make compromises. Here he is.
CALLER: Hi, this is Dan Buggy [ph] calling from San Diego. After listening to this week’s episode, I started thinking more about how this might all unfold. Considering that Congress has abdicated its role as a co-equal branch of government, and that the judiciary, especially the Supreme Court, has been strategically shaped by Republicans, I have a rather scary thought I can’t shake.
If national politicians are really just more focused on control than governance, what’s to stop Trump and the current Republican majority and the Supreme Court from further dismantling the checks and balances our founders created, altering election rules, or even extending power indefinitely? It sounds extreme, and I get they probably have to do it before the midterms, but democracies don’t collapse overnight, they erode over time, and I feel like ours has been eroding significantly ever since Obama was elected, and it became about both sides blocking agendas instead of finding compromise in moving us forward. Am I being paranoid, or is this a real concern?”
Greene didn’t find it paranoid at all: “Interesting, he takes the long view. He’s not looking at the last five, six weeks, a lot of people freaking out over Trump. He has seen a trend over time, since President Obama was elected. Does he have a point? Is his fear justified?”
When Democrats lose, they constantly insist Democracy Is Ending. Thankfully, the “right” panelist, Sarah Isgur, shot that question down. While she liked the concern over a lack of bipartisanship, she argued the Supreme Court has been curbing the power of the executive branch from Obama through Trump and through Biden.
