Donald Trump is in serious political trouble. His approval ratings are even lower than they were after the Capitol Putsch, as independent voters have turned against him. He’s even began losing support from fellow Republicans as well, which is a new thing in his political career. It’s easy to see why: tariffs have increased inflation, his war on Iran has been a disaster, gas prices are up significantly, and people are upset about his desecration of American landmarks like the White House and the Kennedy Center.
If you had paid attention during his first term, you’d have seen that Trump has wanted to take over Greenland, bomb Iran, and tariff the entire world for a very long time. But many of the people who voted for him in 2024 did not pay attention, and now they’re feeling betrayed, claiming that they voted for none of this.
The Republican Party is hollowing out from the inside, but despite this reality, Democrats are even less popular than Trump because they have no affirmative vision and largely refuse to run on the policies their voters actually want, such as universal healthcare and ending financial support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
So what happens next? No one knows for sure, of course, but to ponder the future, I thought it would be worth looking to the past with my good friend Rick Perlstein who is one of the best historians of the Republican party. His first book on Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign is being released in a 25th anniversary edition, and he’s got another one in the works that we talk about in our discussion.
The video of our conversation is available, the transcript is below. Because of its length, some podcast apps and email programs may truncate it. Access the episode page to get the full text. You can subscribe to Theory of Change and other Flux podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, YouTube, Patreon, Substack, and elsewhere.
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Audio Chapters
00:00 — Introduction11:21 — What happens to politically homeless Trumpists?22:31 — The Iran war and Republican antisemitism28:00 — Democratic decline and the New Deal legacy39:52 — Politics as teaching48:35 — Perlstein’s new book: The Infernal Triangle53:46 — The U.S. left does not practice democracy in its own affairs
About the Show
Theory of Change is hosted by Matthew Sheffield about larger trends and intersections of politics, religion, media, and technology. It's part of the Flux network, a new content community of podcasters and writers. Please visit us at flux.community to learn more and to tell us about what you're doing. We're constantly growing and learning from the great people we meet.
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