Start Making Sense with Jon Wiener

Jamie Raskin, Democrat from Maryland, talks about Congress reforming the Supreme Court, and the House challenging Trump’s corruption. His article in the current issue of The Nation magazine is “We Must Restore Congress as the Predominant Branch of Government.” Also: John Nichols assesses the Democrats’ Senate candidates in the wake of the replacement of Graham Platner in Maine. Advertising Inquiri...

Trump biggest losses in the Supreme Court rulings announced this week were on birthright citizenship—widely anticipated—and the voting rights case where the majority ruled states could count ballots mailed but not received by election day. His biggest win was abolishing independent agencies except for the Federal Reserve. David Cole has our analysis—he’s the former legal director of the ACLU. Also...

Election protection: defending Ohio’s biggest voter registration group, and blocking Trump’s attacks on voting by mail: Norm Eisen, co-counsel on the first Trump impeachment, comments. Also: how protest pushed ICE to abandon most of its warehouse detention center plans, and pressured Georgia Republicans to abandon their redistricting plans – John Nichols explains. Advertising Inquiries: https://re...

In his campaign against elite universities as centers of resistance, Trump hasn’t been able to force Harvard to submit. And it seems less likely now that they will settle. Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy has our analysis. Also: the essential workers at our supermarkets: Ann Larson talks about poverty wages and worker solidarity. Her new book is Cleanup on Aisle Five: Essential Work, Poverty...

Democratic strength, and Democratic divisions, in primaries from L.A. to Maine—Harold Meyerson has our analysis of the week’s political developments. Also: Can AI write poetry? Good poetry? Katha Pollitt decided to find out. She’s an award-winning poet herself, and a columnist for The Nation Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

California’s jungle primary on Tuesday set the stage for the next Democratic governor of the state, and primaries in Iowa, New Jersey and elsewhere tested the strength of progressives in the party. John Nichols has our analysis. Also: from the archives: Elmore Leonard, who died in 2013 at age 87, was unpretentious about his massive accomplishments: 45 novels, more than a dozen turned into movies,...

Trump’s Billion Dollar Ballroom is a familiar kind of corruption, but his slush fund to pay the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name is an unprecedented attack on democracy. Rob Weissman of Public Citizen explains, and also talks about the immense, and immnsely unpopular, proposed Arc d’Trump. Also: Bill Gates was once the country’s youngest billionaire and the...

State legislatures have a lot of power in America—the States Project focuses on expanding that. Daniel Squadron explains. His new book is T he Fourth Branch: How State Government can Save Our Union . Also: this week’s polls and this week’s primaries have nothing but bad news for Trump and his followers. John Nichols has our analysis. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Op...

Last week was one of the roughest for Democrats since Trump won the election in 2024 - the Supreme Court ended Black congressional representation in most of the South and opened the door to the creation of several more Republican House seats – and then the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the state’s initiative that created four more Democratic House seats was invalid. Nevertheless Trump is so un...

Trump’s efforts to block Democratic voting in the midterms, or overturn the results, is not going to work—Ian Bassin explains the widespread preparations underway for defending the election in November. Ian is co-founder of the organization Protect Democracy and winner of a MacArthur genius grant. Also: In the aftermath of WWII, racists and antisemites organized to reverse the changes brought by t...

In this week’s political rundown, John Nichols explains why Trump may never succeed at building any of his ICE prison camps, and how this Friday’s May Day strike is a test of our power to resist. Also: MOCA’s “Monuments” show in LA critiques Confederate monuments that have been taken down in response to protests. Critic Christopher Knight has our evaluation. The show closes Sunday. (Originally bro...

We need an AI revolution that works for the people, not just the billionaires. That’s Ro Khanna’s “AI Manifesto.” He’s the member of Congress who represents Silicon Valley, and also a leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. His manifesto is the cover story in The Nation magazine’s new issue. Also: Trump’s support continues to decline on everything he does, especially the war with Iran. But...

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 Beginnin...

Minnesota changed everything: how Minnesota’s resistance to ICE provides a model and inspiration for a national pro-democracy movement. Deepak Bhargava will explains; he’s president of the Freedom Together Foundation. Also: July 4 will mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, which Trump is celebrating with a campaign to “eliminate” what he calls “divisive anti-American ideology” from Amer...

We’re still thinking about No Kings 3 day on Saturday: 8 million people. 3,300 events. ‘No Kings’ protests in almost every city and town in the country. 100 towns in Texas alone had No Kings protests! It was the largest single-day nonviolent protest in American history. John Nichols analyzes the possibilities for what comes next. Also: No one expected that revoking the constitutional right to abor...

The No Kings 3 protests this Saturday are going to be big – maybe the biggest day of protest in American history. Leah Greenberg, co-founder and co-director of Indivisible, will explain—starting with the plans for St. Paul, site of the day's flagship event. Also: Trump has renewed his year-long campaign against universities that have been resisting his authoritarian rule - he’s focused his att...

Trump’s war in Iran is bringing economic chaos and suffering to much of the world, but for American voters, the biggest effect is the soaring price of gasoline – and the political implications for Republicans in the midterms are clear to everyone. Meanwhile Minneapolis has shown how Americans can resist unjust and illegitimate power. John Nichols comments. Also: The Working Families Party is organ...

Tom Stevenson analyzes the latest news and long-term prospects of Trump's Iran war, for both Iran and the US. Tom is a contributing editor for the London Review of Books, where he writes about, among other things, politics in the Mideast. Also: what news are people getting these days, and where are they getting it? Especially the people we call “news avoidant” & “low information” voters--t...

After Senate Democrats block the SAVE act, Trump is likely to declare a national security emergency – claiming China could interfere in the midterms – as a basis for restricting voting. David Cole comments; he’s former legal director of the ACLU. Also: Congress must challenge Trump’s war on Iran and assert its constitutional duty to take up War Powers resolutions and assert its primacy over matter...

Trump’s State of the Union speech was predictable, but nevertheless revealing of his state of mind. John Nichols has our analysis. Also: In 1949 when Jackie Robinson appeared before HUAC, the House Un-American Activities Committee, to discredit Paul Robeson. Howard Bryant talks about why that happened, and what happened afterwards - to each of them. His new book is “Kings and Pawns.” Advertising I...

Trump, facing the wave of popular opposition to pretty much everything he’s doing, is working to block Democrats from voting in the midterms, and “election protection” has become a key part of the preparations underway from blue state attorneys general and from voting rights groups like the Brennan Center and the ACLU. Harold Meyerson explains. Also: A large proportion of slaves who escaped from s...

The size and scale of the resistance to ICE in Minneapolis is too vast to fully comprehend. John Nichols has our report – he’s The Nation’s executive editor, and he’s just spent several days talking to the city’s leaders and activists. Also: Democrats could win a Senate seat in Texas this November. Texas is not so much a red state as it is a low-turnout state. Steve Phillips analyzes Jasmine Crock...

The next two weeks Democrats in Congress will be working to use the budget to set limits on ICE-to require judicial warrants, masks off and body cameras on, and to set use of force standards. John Nichols, The Nation’s executive editor, will comment. Also: The Super Bowl is by far the biggest entertainment event of the year in the US, and this Sunday the halftime show will feature Puerto Rican sin...

We have the power to rein in ICE and protect our neighbors, Leah Greenberg argues – she’s co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible, the group that organized No Kings 2 last October, the largest demonstration in American history. The key right now, she says, is for Senate Democrats to refuse to fund Homeland Security in this week’s budget vote, unless Republicans agree to put meaningful...

The landscape of resistance in Minneapolis, John Nichols reports, includes surprisingly powerful and effective faith groups, plus unions, neighborhood mutual aid and community safety networks, ICE observer teams, and direct action groups, plus the ACLU and its allies, as well as the outspoken mayor and the fighting state attorney general.  Also: DOGE did NOT reduce spending – at all. But it did re...