Historian & journalist Esha Krishnaswamy returns to Bad Faith to apply a historical lens to the Jacobin-left's argument that the left needs to moderate in order to become more palatable to normie audiences. Applying lessons from the Bolsheviks and other actually-existing-socialist states, Esha argues that the role of leftists in the imperial core is heighten the contradictions of capital and support imperialist struggles -- not to sacrifice that support in the hope of gaining acceptance by zionist corporate elites. What do we make of elected leftists who can't clearly answer a question about whether Netanyahu should be arrested, or say 'the IMF is bad"? While the right is forcing the vote on condemning socialism, will elected leftists ever use their leverage for...anything at all? With Zohran & AOC-endorsed Hakeem Jeffries meeting with the informal lord-regent of Gaza, & the DSA electeds disclaiming, not defending, socialism, does history provide some guide posts to help the left reorient itself at a time when world events are exposing the vulnerabilities of capitalism & imperialism? Find Bad Faith on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts. Or subscribe to our RSS feed. Follow Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Subscribe at patreon.com/badfaithpodcast for an additional Monday episode every week. Watch all episodes at Bad Faith YouTube, and don't forget to like and subscribe. Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands). Produced by (@armandaviram)

Organizer, writer, political commentator and Philly DSA member James Ray joins Bad Faith to help us understand camps and factions within the DSA as they fight to determine the direction the organization takes following it's successful primary season. As the Atlanta DSA launches a "Run AOC" campaign & Jacobin Magazine publishes reformist manifestos, James Ray represents the left flank of the DSA and one of it's more left-leaning chapters. On using leverage, leaving the Democratic Party, the incongruity of being pro-Palestine and supporting Hakeem Jeffries, & the mystifying reformism of much of the American left.   Find Bad Faith on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts. Or subscribe to our RSS feed. Follow Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Subscribe at patreon.com/badfaithpodcast for an additional Monday episode every week. Watch all episodes at Bad Faith YouTube, and don't forget to like and subscribe. Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands). Produced by (@armandaviram)    

Marxist historian, journalist, and political commentator weighs in on the recent controversy surrounding a letter, published in The Guardian and signed by a number of respected leftists including Angela Davis & Mumia Abu-Jamal. The letter drew criticism for drawing false equivalence between US empire and Iran as Iran resists the US war of aggression. Now, several signatories have disclaimed the letter, saying they misled about it's final contents before they signed, but others, including Davis, have not. To what extent is this letter evidence of an effort to create a permission structure to break solidarity with Iran? Does existence of a campaign to do so reflect the vulnerability of US empire amid growing bipartisan distaste for the Iran war? Prashad talks us through his response piece, Against the False Symmetry of the Scissors: An Open Letter While Iran Resists an Illegal War of Aggression, & weighs in on the US left's insufficient commitment to anti-imperialism. Find Bad Faith on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts. Or subscribe to our RSS feed. Follow Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). .Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands). Produced by (@armandaviram)

This is a promo of a full length episode. Subscribe to patreon.com/badfdaithpodcast to listen in full. One of Briahna's favorite sparring partners, Princeton professor, primetime pundit, and author of several books including, most recently, America, U.S.A. How Race Shadows The Nation's Anniversaries, returns to Bad Faith to offer a broader historical context for the ongoing debate around "woke 1" and defund the police. Is "defund" the left's "Sister Souljah moment" through which it proves its 'seriousness' to the liberal establishment? If so, what is there to be gained by doing so? Also, was Briahna wrong to provide racial cover for the DSA left for the first half of her public career? Find Bad Faith on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts. Or subscribe to our RSS feed. Follow Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). .Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands). Produced by (@armandaviram)

Co-author of Israel's Lobby: America in the Grip of a Foreign Power, and co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible State craft joins Bad Faith to not only unpack the history of the Israel lobby and the roots of its enormous influence, but to diagnose how the lobby is evolving to respond to the fact that it has become a liability for politicians who receive its support. How does Clifton explain Zohran & AOC's commitment to AIPAC's biggest recipients, like Hakeem Jeffries? Why does Bernie, who takes no AIPAC money, frequently narrow his criticism to "Netanyahu?" Can following the money help explain the mystery of Hunter Biden's departure from his father's foreign policy? And what should the left look out for as the Israel lobby finds new ways to influence US policy without causing political damage to the candidates its buying? Find Bad Faith on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts. Or subscribe to our RSS feed. Follow Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). .Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands). Produced by (@armandaviram)

Subscribe at patreon.com/badfaithpodcast to catch Monday premium episodes every week. Watch all episodes at Bad Faith YouTube, and don't forget to like and subscribe Palestinian-American journalist Sam Husseini is known for his press conference confrontations and willingness to hold power to account. He recently went viral for confronting Chuck Schumer at an anti-corruption event over Israel's genocide in Gaza, and during the Biden administration, suffered injuries after being hauled out of a State Department briefing where he confronted Antony Blinken. Now, as DSA candidates win elections and quickly distance themselves from the DSA platform, the independent journalist has announced his campaign to run as a Green Party candidate in Maryland's 4th Congressional District. He breaks down the limits of DSA Democratic Party entryism, and how he plans to win. Find Bad Faith on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts. Or subscribe to our RSS feed. Follow Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). .Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands). Produced by (@armandaviram)

Prolific video essayist FD Signifier returns to Bad Faith Pod for a comprehensive analysis of the controversy surrounding left electeds' abandonment of 2020 era policy commitments and principles coined "Woke 1" by New York City Council member Chi Ossé, and made viral by AOC on the Sunday news last weekend. While members of the Platner left have argued that rejecting "woke one" simply means abandoning the excesses of cancel culture and identitarian jargon like "Latinx," several DSA candidates or electeds, from Francesca Hong and William Lawrence to AOC and Zohran Mamdani himself, have explicitly rejected firm BLM-era policy commitments like defund the police. And some, like Lawrence and AOC, even explicitly rejected their DSA affiliation in part or in whole. This brings a question we've been asking for about a year now front and center: Is it worth it to "win" if you have to sacrifice your principles to get there? If Zohran can do such a 180 on defund, how much confidence do we have with respect to his solidarity with Palestine? Why call yourself "socialist" if you're unwilling to stand behind the DSA platform, or if you're going to become an NPYD booster? And how did the left media ecosystem let this happen? Does "winning" within the Democratic party, in fact, help the left? Find Bad Faith on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts. Or subscribe to our RSS feed. Follow Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Subscribe at patreon.com/badfaithpodcast for an additional Monday episode every week. Watch all episodes at Bad Faith YouTube, and don't forget to like and subscribe. Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands). Produced by (@armandaviram)

This is a promo clip. Subscribe at patreon.com/badfaithpodcast to hear this full Monday episode. Watch all episodes at Bad Faith YouTube, and don't forget to like and subscribe. Dr. Trita Parsi, Executive VP of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and author behind the Trita Parsi Substack, returns to Bad Faith to provide an update on Israel's aggression in Iran, Gaza, & Lebanon. Importantly, he offers some perspective on how US/Israeli aggression is being normalized, US funding is being invisibalized, and what demands the left should make to ensure that Gaza isn't abandoned in the push by the electoral left to "win" during midterms or in 2028. Find Bad Faith on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts. Or subscribe to our RSS feed. Follow Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands). Produced by (@armandaviram)

FL-25 Congressional candidate Oliver Larkin has been going viral over the past week for his exceptional skill at parrying bad faith corporate media questions about the DSA platform without throwing his principles under the bus. But when he's not shutting down Fox news interviews by pivoting to MAGA's Epstein-affiliated leader, he's fighting to win Debbie Wasserman Schutlz's old district and join the House as a committed DSAer. Unlike Michigan's Will Lawrence, who has immediately distanced himself from DSA post-win, saying his membership has "lapsed" while pledging to vote for Hakeem Jefferies as speaker, Larkin says he'll defend the platform, would vote with other left candidates as a bloc, and will not pre-endorse Jeffries. Is this was a genuine adversarial entryist candidate looks like? For more about Oliver Larkin's race: t.co/Co3N8zLPfn Find Bad Faith on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts. Or subscribe to our RSS feed. Follow Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Subscribe at patreon.com/badfaithpodcast for an additional Monday episode every week. Watch all episodes at Bad Faith YouTube, and don't forget to like and subscribe. Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands). Produced by (@armandaviram)

As progressives candidates have made electoral gains across the country over the past few weeks, Democrats are once again attempting to discredit the left by pointing to a poor showing with Black voters. For example, attempts have been made to ding Michigan's Abdul El-Sayed with this charge, even as polls show Black voters prefer him to his opponent, and the old "Bernie Bro" smear has even been trotted back out by Maine's Susan Collins . Jim Clyburn went viral for insinuating that Black electeds are justified in selling out because it's harder to fundraise from disproportionately low income Black voter bases, while Cori Bush is facing heaps of AIPAC-funded opposition laundered through a Black political opponent. Meanwhile, factions of the establishment-left are abandoning BLM-era causes like "Defund" in the name of "pragmatism" -- saying these issues hurt prospective DSA electeds. So what's the future of the Black left? I asked Yvette Carnell, co-founder of the ADOS movement -- African Descendants of American Slavery, to join Bad Faith to discuss what ADOS is and isn't, and whether there are opportunities for political allyship between ADOS and the Green Party, given both support reparations, single-payer healthcare, and other policies that corporate Democrats reject. Is it too factional to be part of a broad left movement? Or would the left benefit from diversifying it's tent? Find Bad Faith on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts. Or subscribe to our RSS feed. Follow Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Subscribe at patreon.com/badfaithpodcast for an additional Monday episode every week. Watch all episodes at Bad Faith YouTube, and don't forget to like and subscribe. Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands). Produced by (@armandaviram)