Marx’s 19th century remark that history repeats itself twice, first as tragedy and then as farce, helps us makes sense of the seemingly surreal politics of the contemporary Republican Party. As Kyle Paoletta notes in his insightful Harpers essay “The Race For Second Place”, the 2024 Republican primaries have been a complete “farce” (the tragedy, of course, being the 2016 primaries). Everything about this year’s Iowa Causus and the New Hampshire primary, Paoletta reported from Des Moines and Manchester, was untrue. There wasn’t even really a race for second place. The only story was Trump, who not only didn’t show up, but barely acknowledged either the primaries or the Republican party itself. It was classic farce. but behind the absurdity of these 2024 primaries, Paoletta predicts, are tectonic shifts in American democracy which will shape the political geography of the 21st century.
Kyle Paoletta’s reporting and criticism has appeared in The New York Times, Harper’s, New York Magazine, The Nation, The New Republic, n+1, The Believer, The Columbia Journalism Review, The Baffler, High Country News, and Boston. His first book, American Oasis: Finding the Future in the Cities of the Southwest, will be published by Pantheon in early 2025. Kyle holds an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University and previously worked at GQ and New York Magazine. He is a native of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.
Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Don't Look Away: Alexander Batthyany on terminal lucidity, the "soul" and our final journey when we cross over the border from life to death
Extremely Socially Online: Taylor Lorenz on the untold story of fame, influence, and power on the internet
How to break free of "equality feminism": Marcie Bianco on the lie of equality and the feminist fight for freedom
Taming the Street then and now: Diana Henriques on the New Deal, FDR's fight to regulate American capitalism and its relevance in Joe Biden's America today
Was Richard Nixon really a Southern Californian paragon of cheerfulness , hard work and decency? Paul Carter's defense of the only US President born and raised in California
The Dirty Secrets of our Material World: Ed Conway on the six physical commodities underpinning the global extractive economy
An Un-Whitewashed Story of America: Michael Harriot on AF History, Black Twitter and how he "discovered" America at 8.00 pm on November 4, 1980
Eight great non-fiction reads for the Fall: LA Times book critic Bethanne Patrick on new books about video-gaming writers, Roman emperors, Rastafarian fathers, Jerusalem murders, American guns and the
Why money now is the most valuable commodity in Silicon Valley: Keith Teare explains how cash has become king for both tech investors and entrepreneurs
When fictional characters turn out to be more authentic than real people: Lang Leav on anti Asian racism in Australia and her love of the early internet as a place where she could escape how she looks
How Bill Clinton betrayed progressive ideas and capitulated to the right: Nelson Lichtenstein on the failure of the Clinton presidency and the transformation of American capitalism
Five Elemental Ways of Building a Sustainable Future: Stephen Porder on how five core elements changed earth's past and will shape our future
If you want to understand America, you have to understand basketball: Rich Cohen on the 1987-1988 NBA's "greatest season"
Imagine an AI that customizes a musical soundtrack of our lives: Niclas Molinder on the opportunities and threats that AI offers the creative community
AI as our Guttenberg moment: Moritz Schularick, the President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, on the economic significance of today's AI revolution
AI as our Oppenheimer moment: Benedikt Franke, CEO of the Munich Security Conference, on the geo-political significance of today's AI revolution
One year that changed the world: Ludwig Ensthaler on the short but revolutionary history of Generative AI
There will be no stock market on a dead planet: Sandrine Dixson-Decleve on how to transform extractive capitalism into a regenerative model of equitable economic progress
Why truthful stories about nature should have neither beginnings nor endings: Martin Puchner on telling circular environmental stories
Why there is hope in the soil: Jan-Gisbert Schultze on the transformational promise of regenerative agriculture
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Bank of America Treasury Insights
How I Crushed It
Pharmacy Podcast Network
The Ramsey Show
Planet Money