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.
Episode 2062: KEEN ON AMERICA featuring Ali Velshi
Episode 2061: Rafil Kroll-Zaidi on Branson, Missouri, the most American town you've never heard of
Episode 2060: Ferdia Lennon on the tragicomedy of the Peloponnesian War
Episode 2059: Keith Teare on why critics of the iPad Crush advertisement are "haters of the future"
Episode 2058: Timothy Morton searches for a Christian Ecology that will get us out of our Planetary Hell
Episode 2057: KEEN ON America featuring R. Derek Black
Episode 2055: Michael Ignatieff on a history of his privileges
Episode 2054: Keith Teare follows the money of the online creative economy
Episode 2053: Vince Houghton on how the Cold War transformed Miami into America's most Covert City
Episode 2052: Bryan Caplan on the economic and philosophical case for the radical deregulation of the housing industry
Episode 2051: Mohamed Amer Meziane offers an ecological and racial history of seculization
Episode 250: Andrew J Scott on why we should care about old people
Episode 2049: KEEN ON AMERICA featuring Samyr Laine
Episode 2048: Tobias Buck on the Holocaust on Trial in the 21st Century
Episode 2047: Elisa New on Poetry in America
Episode 2046: David Faris on why American kids are all left these days
Episode 2045: Lisa Kaltenegger on the inevitability of the existence of non-human life somewhere in the Universe
Episode 2044: Warning! This KEEN ON conversation with Alex Edmans may contain lies
Episode 2043: Adam Kuper explains why our museums reveal much more about ourselves than about other people's cultures
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The emPOWERed Half Hour
Pharmacy Podcast Network
Aktörspodden
The Power of Storytelling
The Ramsey Show
Planet Money