Deviants and true crime
Jack the Ripper, Ted Bundy, The Zodiac Killer. Whether or not you know what their crimes, most Americans know their names. I want to know… why?
Hello from Atlanta,
Jack the Ripper, Ted Bundy, The Zodiac Killer. Whether or not you know what their crimes, most Americans know their names. I want to know… why?
Why is it that America loves true crime stories so much?
Perhaps people are just drawn to stories of other people who stray from the path of “normalcy.”
In this week's podcast I speak to Andrew Iden who hosts a podcast called Deviant. We chat about the crime stories we have both covered and why so many people are obsessed with the True Crime genre.
I think it's because Americans just don’t realize how safe they are in this country. Try living in South Africa, where I'm from originally, where True Crime is a daily reality.
Andrew has made a career covering true crime stories. So I wanted to know, out of all of the crazy stories — which one stayed with him? He quickly said…
BTK. The nickname given to the murderer who would Bind. Torture. Kill.
BTK.
“He was a killer in the 70s and 80s and went dark for a long time.
He came back in the early 2000s.
He taunted the media.
He taunted the victims' families.
And he was living a very normal life as a postman and a guy in the community that everybody knew…
but he was literally living two separate lives.”
What else makes True Crime such a fan favorite?
I was a correspondent in England and South Africa for many years. And I can confidently say the court system in America is unlike any other I’ve seen because of the drama that surrounds big cases.
We live in a world where a lot of stuff gets leaked.
→ National security
→ Entertainment
→ Business
You name the industry, there’s probably something big that’s been leaked at one point or another. But not in the courtroom.
Interestingly Andrew Iden says the jury decision is one of just a few processes where the result remains a mystery until the moment it’s announced.
And that’s what keeps people hooked.
Thanks for listening,
Robyn
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Sick care, Dr America?
She says the human part of medicine is fading away
as processes become more automated…
and it’s becoming harder to look at a patient in a holistic way.
Hello from Atlanta,
I’ve heard so many doctors in America voice the same complaint — the medical system doesn’t focus on healthcare, it focuses on sick care.
Dr. LaSonya Lopez, host of the ShyftU podcast, is one of them.
She says the human part of medicine is fading away
as processes become more automated…
and it’s becoming harder to look at a patient in a holistic way.
And it’s contributing to a problem where people just stay sick.
LaSonya and I have known each other since I moved to America ten years ago. Our daughters were in the same class in Pre-Kindergarten and are now together in Ninth Grade. LaSonya and I both realised we were burnt out and unhappy in our careers at the same time. We had long conversations about where we were going, being stuck and what to do.
Well, we both landed up leaving our professions (she no longer practices as a doctor, and I no longer work in main stream media) but we've both started podcasts and found our second acts.
LaSonya has also helped me navigate the complexities of the last election. She didn't vote for Donald Trump but she does support some of the questions his nominee for Health Secretary RFK is asking about America's Sick Care Model.
The latest episode of “Searching for America” is out now — it's worth listening to LaSonya's perspective on leaving medicine, resilience and being a black woman in America.
And you can find Dr LaSonya Lopez on her podcast ShyftU and her facebook group called Syp Tea.
Best,
Robyn
PS. Please leave a comment on the podcast or follow us on instagram and X at @searchingforamericapod
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Dive bars, happy places and bad dudes with a CIA legend
Marc was attacked by some sort of energy weapon when he was in Moscow, leaving him with a traumatic brain injury.
It's Holocaust Remembrance week. 6 million Jews were murdered. Their descendants still carry the trauma.
Recently there's a been a barrage of accusations that various leaders or people in America are 'Nazis,' or 'Hitler' or 'Fascists.'
It's such a weak, misguided argument to label political opponents as 'Hitler' because it's been used by both Democrats and Republicans are various times. Remember when Obama was called Fuhrer for taking on gun control? Chose a different history, or better yet, label opponents with current-day names.
In this week's podcast I lament this false equivalency.
American business leaders are not capitulating like in Vichy France. It's not 1939. Trump is a flawed character, but he's not a 'king,' or 'autocrat' and nor is his presidency 'imperial.' Wrong labels, wrong time, wrong analogies.
Whether you like Donald Trump or not, or agree with his policies, he has a mandate from a majority after massive democratic election. Cherrypicking Holocaust history to pigeonhole this moment in American history is foolish, short-sighted and a hugely disrespectful to the memory of the Jews who died at the hands of the real Nazis in a systematic genocide.
The Use and Abuse of History was a pamphlet written by Nietzsche and it's so relevant now. Use history to understand trends and critically assess the moment. Don't use history to specifically re-engineer, revision the arguments of now.
Let's be smart about politics and discourse, and keep the Holocaust out of it.
May their memories be a blessing.
Robyn
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Use and abuse of the words Nazi and Hitler
Recently there's a been a barrage of accusations that various leaders or people in America are 'Nazis,' or 'Hitler' or 'Fascists.'
It's Holocaust Remembrance week. 6 million Jews were murdered. Their descendants still carry the trauma.
Recently there's a been a barrage of accusations that various leaders or people in America are 'Nazis,' or 'Hitler' or 'Fascists.'
It's such a weak, misguided argument to label political opponents as 'Hitler' because it's been used by both Democrats and Republicans are various times. Remember when Obama was called Fuhrer for taking on gun control? Chose a different history, or better yet, label opponents with current-day names.
In this week's podcast I lament this false equivalency.
American business leaders are not capitulating like in Vichy France. It's not 1939. Trump is a flawed character, but he's not a 'king,' or 'autocrat' and nor is his presidency 'imperial.' Wrong labels, wrong time, wrong analogies.
Whether you like Donald Trump or not, or agree with his policies, he has a mandate from a majority after massive democratic election. Cherrypicking Holocaust history to pigeonhole this moment in American history is foolish, short-sighted and a hugely disrespectful to the memory of the Jews who died at the hands of the real Nazis in a systematic genocide.
The Use and Abuse of History was a pamphlet written by Nietzsche and it's so relevant now. Use history to understand trends and critically assess the moment. Don't use history to specifically re-engineer, revision the arguments of now.
Let's be smart about politics and discourse, and keep the Holocaust out of it.
May their memories be a blessing.
Robyn
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Buckle-up, buttercup
What a fascinating week. Welcome to the future! The Trump presidency kicked off with the promise of big change. The majority of Americans (+60%) are positive about the next four years. Even those who didn't vote for Trump are optimistic.
Greetings from Atlanta.
What a fascinating week. Welcome to the future! The Trump presidency kicked off with the promise of big change. The majority of Americans (+60%) are positive about the next four years. Even those who didn't vote for Trump are optimistic.
Why?
1. When the Democrats even lose the Village People, then you know Pres Trump has a bunch of political capital. (Go watch Trump dancing to YMCA this past weekend.) In addition to his base, moderates, centrists and minorities gave Trump the White House. They're willing to give him the chance to modernize government.
2. Young people want to embrace AI and crypto. They're excited that Elon Musk and company are going all Founder Mode on D.C. After I recorded my riff, Trump announced a $500 billion AI plan called Stargate.
3. Identity politics has alienated the very people it was supposed to protect. Common sense is/back.
4. Energy security and immigration reform are bipartisan touch points. The differences come in the methods used to secure both.
This week we're on YOUTUBE with my thoughts about why you should view this Trump Presidency with an open mind (for now.)
Best,
Robyn
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Goat rodeos and space nukes
Boom! Tune in to listen to Jeffery explain why he’s worried about the Russians going all sci-fi with a space nuke which can take out satellites and a long-range nuclear-armed underwater drone, which the North Koreans copied.
Hello from a snowy Atlanta,
We’ve had rare snow falls here in the South over the weekend. Our snowman has half-melted but it still looks like a winter wonderland outside.
Nothing seems wrong with the world when it’s dusted with snow and ice does it?
I spoke to Jeffery Lewis, pre-eminent American nuclear expert, State Department advisor and a self-described ‘arms control wonk’ when he was bundled up inside his home in a much colder Vermont.
I’ve known Jeffery ever since he tweeted during President Trump’s first term that the administration’s nuclear plans were a ‘goat rodeo.’ Since then, I have found the term to be extremely useful and all-encompassing for all analysis involving U.S. politics.
January is the time of year when you look ahead and plan for the year ahead. It’s the perfect time to scare the bejeezus out of oneself too. Jeffery is perfectly poised to make you want to decamp to a nuclear bunker with a decade’s supply of canned food and a crate of bourbon.
I asked him what crazy weapons countries were building and testing and where he thought nuclear proliferation was a problem for 2025.
Boom! Tune in to listen to Jeffery explain why he’s worried about the Russians going all sci-fi with a space nuke which can take out satellites and a long-range nuclear-armed underwater drone, which the North Koreans copied. He’s also concerned that if Iran gets a nuclear weapon (highly likely) then the Saudis, the Turks and the UAE will want to pony up too. And there’s the worry that Burma (Myanmar) is looking to build up its nuclear capability, alongside Taiwan and South Korea.
Good times ahead!
Hope you enjoy our snowy exchange on mutually-assured self-destruction and other fun topics.
Robyn
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China, baby, it's all about China
There's a lot to game-out for 2025, but the competition between China and America is going to be the main global tension point this year, and beyond.
Hello from a wintery Atlanta,
For years, China was handled with kid gloves by the Americans. Xi Jin Ping played Washington well and good. CNN's National Security analyst and author of The Return of Great Powers; Russia, China and the Next World War, Jim Sciutto agree on this basic point.
As the former Chief of Staff for the U.S. Ambassador to China, he tells me there was 100% naiveté from the US government about Beijing's deception.
Now - thanks to Donald Trump, Jim says - the blinkers are off and the threat of China is front and centre for DC's national security worriers.
There's a lot to game-out for 2025, but the competition between China and America is going to be the main global tension point this year, and beyond.
Thanks for listening to this podcast while the rest of the world watches cat videos on Tiktok (and gets their data and movements analyzed by Beijing.)
Cheers,
Robyn
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New Year, New World
Across the world we are seeing hybrid overlaps of old and new. We've got trenches and drones in Ukraine. A transactional, mercantilist new American President and a weak states in Europe.
Happy New Year from Atlanta,
Hello 2025 and welcome back to the 19th Century.
Great Power rivalry is the topic of my conversation with Jim Sciutto who is CNN's National Security analyst, an anchor and the author of a book called The Return to Great Powers: Russia, China and the New World War.
Across the world we are seeing hybrid overlaps of old and new. We've got trenches and drones in Ukraine. A transactional, mercantilist new American President and a weak states in Europe. A breakdown of global institutions and aggressive players like China, Russia, Iran and N.Korea prodding and pushing at the weak spots. The outcome could mean more more proxy hotspots, amplified possibilities of nuclear proliferation and a realigning balance of power.
A forward-looking conversation about the realities of the state of play.
Tally-ho,
Robyn
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Xmas cheer for the New Year
Christmas Cheer (and Fear) this happy Yuletide! Greetings from the American South where the inflatable Santas are bigger and better and BBQ pork is a seasonal delicacy.
Hello from a wintery Atlanta,
The Chattahoochee River nearby is cold and the sky is clear blue. Winter in the South is thankfully crisp and mostly sunny. We've only ever had a handfull of snowfalls in the decade we've lived here
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you for the support you've given to this podcast. Searching for America is a never-ending endeavor and it's going to be even more interesting during another Trump Presidency in a fast changing world.
Take a listen to a few thoughts I have about his early cabinet and team picks and the choices he's making.
See you in the New Year with some predictions.
Best,
Robyn
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But you don’t look arab
Listen to Hala Gorani’s extraordinary story of her great-great grandmother who was kidnapped by a one-eyed man and taken to the Sultan's harem in Constantinople as a child.
Hello from Atlanta,
One of the reasons I started this podcast was so I could have longer, back-story conversations with all of the interesting Americans I call friends, colleagues or Twitter/X DM buddies.
Hala Gorani and I have known each other since we sat next to each other in CNN's London's bureau in the early 2000's. Hala and I overlapped as correspondents and anchors for the next twenty years. Both of us left the network in the same week. Our husbands are still hired at CNN (they're better behaved than Hala and I.) In fact, Kim and Christian have worked together in every war zone since Archduke Ferdinand was shot. Basically, the four of us have seen a few things together.
Hala wrote a great memoir called But You Don't Look Arab which details her family history in Aleppo, Syria and in the Ottoman Empire. I wanted to talk to her about events in Syria and the personal and political implications of a post-Assad country.
Take a listen to her geopolitical assessment (WITHOUT a prediction because she says she always gets things wrong) and the extraordinary story of her great-great grandmother who was kidnapped by a one-eyed man and taken to the Sultan's harem in Constantinople as a child.
And do buy her book - it will make a great Christmas present!
Enjoy,
Robyn
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Trumps Road to Damascus
President Trump is already acting like he is already President and world leaders don't seem to mind
Hello from Atlanta,
President Trump is already acting like he is already President and world leaders don't seem to mind. You only had to look at his interactions in Paris at the Notre Dame with Macron, Zelensky and Prince William to know that The Donald is well and truly back.
Trump's statement that America shouldn't get involved in Syria was not surprising but even for an isolationist and non-interventionist he might find it hard to step back. Don't forget US troops, special forces and intelligence operatives have been there for years fighting ISIS and supporting the Kurds.
Syria's future impacts America national security because of what it means for the regimes in Moscow and Tehran (losers) and allies in Jerusalem, Istanbul and Riyadh (winners.)
Will there be a fragmentation in Syria? A hard Balkanization? Or a soft decoupling like in Libya? What does that mean for the geopolitical puzzle pieces that make up the post-Ottoman empire?
Trump may want to steer clear but, ever the real estate mogul, he just find it in America's interests to play some sort of role in the potential remodeling of Syria's future entity. Ally Israel is already taking the initiative, pushing forward and redecorating.
2025 is going to be a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants year and Syria is just a little taste of what's to come.
Best,
Robyn
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Biden’s Nothing-burger africa trip
Biden's belated, half-asleep trip to Africa is a sign of America's weakness on the continent. (And, no doubt, a domestic distraction from answering questions about pardoning his son.)
Hello from a sunny but chilly Atlanta,
I've just returned to the States after a trip to South Africa with my daughters. On our return flight from Johannesburg, somewhere over the Atlantic, we must have passed by Air Force One, which was flying in the opposite direction from Washington to Angola with President Joe Biden. It's the first time an American President has visited Africa in ten years.
I covered all the previous US President's trips to the continent. I interviewed President George W. Bush in Zambia, Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton in South Africa and Mrs Obama in Botswana. I was there when Barack Obama came to Nelson Mandela's memorial service in Soweto. I was even in the Rose Garden at the White House when President Trump welcomed former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.
Jonny-come-lately Biden arrived in Angola (not powerhouses Kenya, South Africa or Nigeria) in the dying day of his Presidency and promptly dozed off during a meeting about the railway he was supposed to be touting. Symbolic, indeed.
Biden's belated, half-asleep trip to Africa is a sign of America's weakness on the continent. (And, no doubt, a domestic distraction from answering questions about pardoning his son.) The US has lost significant opportunities - economic, political, military and strategic - to the Chinese and Russians during the Biden presidency. And let Middle Eastern proxy meddling spiral out of control.
Biden administration has failed to counter global geopolitical headwinds in Africa. Frankly, a second Trump presidency can't do any worse.
Take a listen to my take on Biden's oddly misplaced trip that smacks of nothingness.
Best,
Robyn
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War & Peace
Many of you would have seen Lynsey Addario's photographs from war zones across the world. She's won the Pulitzer Prize for her powerful images which have been published in the New York Times and National Geographic
Hello from Atlanta,
Many of you would have seen Lynsey Addario's photographs from war zones across the world. She's won the Pulitzer Prize for her powerful images which have been published in the New York Times and National Geographic. She currently has an exhibition in New York.
Lynsey's career has been defined by the post-9/11 wars and the messiness of US foreign policy in the Middle East and elsewhere. She's got a fascinating and wry take on being an American photographer, often embedded with American troops but with a healthy dose of skepticism of American foreign policy.
Lynsey Addario has written lovingly about her unique path to news reportage in her memoir It's What I do: a Photographer's story of Love and War. Her parents are hairdressers and owned a salon in Connecticut. When she was a child her dad fell in love with the salon colorist, Bruce, and left her mom. (Bruce and her dad are still together forty years later.)The experience and impact on her family, she tells me in this week's episode, allowed her to approach vulnerable people in fragile spaces with huge amount of empathy.
I thought it would be a good idea to avoid talking about the election entirely!
Enjoy,
Robyn
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Havanna a bad time
There was a real sense of hope that the country was moving forward. In those heady days, in a Havana park, we all watched the Rolling Stones play live. How things change.
Hello from Atlanta and Cuba,
Joining me this week is my dear friend and former colleague Patrick Oppmann, who is CNN's Havana bureau chief.
When Marco Rubio was tapped to be Trump's new Secretary of State, I immediately called up Patrick. There are many uncertainties about second Trump term but one thing is clear; Cuba is in the cross-hairs of Rubio, who sees it as his personal mission to bring down the regime.
Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban exiles, will consider the downfall of the Cuban leadership as low-hanging fruit. Times are tougher than ever - as Patrick tells me - and that makes it an extremely vulnerable moment. Beijing, Iran, Israel are all knotty problems with regional implications. Kicking down the Cubans would be a considered an easy, early win for Rubio.
I love Cuba. I reported on the historic visit of President Obama when there was a brief opening up of diplomatic relations. There was a real sense of hope that the country was moving forward. In those heady days, in a Havana park, we all watched the Rolling Stones play live. How things change. When Fidel Castro died, Patrick broke the news, and we both reported on his funeral with ever-present intelligence agents hovering around us and listening to our every word (as if they would be reporting back to Fidel in the afterlife on our 'anti-revolutionary' analysis.)
My husband Kim was running CNN's coverage during those days of breaking news. We've spent some of the best times of our life hanging out with Patrick and drinking rum in Havana. Whatever happens, I hope the Cuban people are sparred more hardships.
Havana has always been a special place with a romantic mystique that still lingers from before the Revolution. During one of those trips, after my show was over, I walked around Old Havana exploring. Kim called and asked where I was. "In the bar that Hemmingway used to drink at, " I replied while nursing a local rum on the rocks. I heard him checking with Patrick who was with him at the CNN bureau, "Hemmingway drank in every bar in Havana, you're going to have be more specific."
Trump's presidency has enormous implications for America, and the world. We cannot know how it's going to play out. But I do know, for sure, there is going to be seismic repercussions for the people of Cuba.
Best,
Robyn
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What next, ‘Merica?
Democrats lost, and they lost badly. Significantly, just about every part of the USA moved right in the last four years.
Greetings from Atlanta,
It's a brave new world and nobody knows exactly how America's choice on November 5 is going play out. Trump's first term is going to look very different to his second term. He has a massive mandate to lead and without the guardrails that were there the first time around. We are already seeing a focused, directed and clear strategy being implemented. He's going to hit the ground running (nothing like his first term.)
How did it get to this?
Well, simple. Democrats lost, and they lost badly. Significantly, just about every part of the USA moved right in the last four years.
What was it about the Biden/Harris adminstration that created the situation where every section of society and every corner of this country decided that Donald Trump was a better answer? The electoral map is red, red, red.
It's too simple to write off this vote as a giant nod to racism or sexism. Neither is it right to say that Trump will be President again because more than half of the country has been brainwashed by rightwing media. That's too simple. And it's unfair to the good Americans I know who voted for Trump, or chose to not vote for Harris because they didn't trust her with the country. Mostly, I think it was a vote against wokeness, unfettered immigration and day-to-day inflation (the economy is actually doing just fine.)
Let me know what you think?
Robyn
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Duh, Why Trump Won
I was going to call this show The Why Trump Will Win Again Podcast. Or, aptly, WTF AMERICA?
A quick hello from Atlanta,
I was going to call this show The Why Trump Will Win Again Podcast. Or, aptly, WTF AMERICA?
In the end, I gave it a more polite title; Searching for America.
However, the premise never changed. I wanted to know why Trump would be President again. It was clear, months ago, that it was highly likely he'd be back in the White House. I wanted to understand why my neighbors, friends and some of the nicest people I knew would vote for him (or refused point blank to trust Kamala Harris with the Presidency.)
Here's my rough take, based on what I've been hearing for months, on why good Americans across demographics swung right.
Who's to blame - that's easy. Take a listen.
Best,
Robyn
PS. You can now listen on YouTube too.
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The Here Be Dragons Election
We are about to sail into uncharted waters, and it’s totally and utterly unclear what the waves will reveal after the election.
Hello from Atlanta,
When early European map makers did not know what was beyond undiscovered waters and land they drew dragons on the parchment and wrote ‘Here Be Dragons.’ It is an HBD week in America.
We are about to sail into uncharted waters, and it’s totally and utterly unclear what the waves will reveal after the election.
In my first ten episodes of Searching for America, I asked my guests to give me three words to describe America. Three words only. In this episode I pile all the words together and add my two cents to the mix.
Words matter. America matters. This election is crucial.
Take a listen to a special episode of Searching for America as we get ready to wrestle with dragons.
Best,
Robyn
PS. You can now listen on YouTube too.
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The Election is ruining the pumkin spice vibe
It’s also a damned scary time. None of us need a Freddie Krueger mask or a polyester witches hat to remind us that there are some pretty nightmare scenarios for the coming weeks.
It’s a beautiful time of the year in the American South. Fall leaves are various shades of mustard yellow and squash orange. The weather is perfectly gentle. Summer’s humidity is finally gone. Early autumn in America means oversized Halloween decorations are draped on the facades of houses. Giant spiders, plastic skeletons and fake cobwebs litter front yards. It’s always a charming, fun and special time of the year. This year though everyone is anxious. The election, someone moaned to me, is ruining the pumpkin spice vibe.
It’s also a damned scary time. None of us need a Freddy Krueger mask or a polyester witches hat to remind us that there are some pretty nightmare scenarios for the coming weeks.
The national conversation, the posters and the barrage of political ads is making everyone even more jittery. Hyper-partisan fear mongering is on steroids as both parties try to get undecided voters to the ballot.
In the midst of this, Ben Jealous joined me to talk about his America. Ben used to head up the NAACP, a civil rights organization, and now leads the Sierra Club, which is the oldest and biggest environmental group in the States. The biracial son of school teachers, he tells stories of his family; a distinctly American family made up of the descendants of slaves, a suspected pirate and aTrump-voting lorry-driving uncle.
Ben also has a stutter which he eloquently talks about from the perspective of being a surfer. As a child, Bill Cosby mocked his stutter which, Ben says, was the first indication he knew something was wrong with Cosby.
Thank you for listening,
Happy Halloween.
Robyn
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The Grateful Dead and other voters
As journalists, we often record the first draft of history. It’s professors like Julian who then put our words and observations into a broader context, and fit the facts of day-to-day journalism into a historical pattern. He dislikes the word 'unprecedented’ to describe what’s happening in American politics.
The son of a rabbi and a sociologist and a massive Grateful Dead fan, Julian Zelizer is a historian who looks at American history from a number of different angles. When I anchored my show on CNN International I always tried to get Julian on as guest because he often had a holistic and, importantly, a judicious assessment of some of the more crazy days during the Trump presidency.
As journalists, we often record the first draft of history. It’s professors like Julian who then put our words and observations into a broader context, and fit the facts of day-to-day journalism into a historical pattern. He dislikes the word 'unprecedented’ to describe what’s happening in American politics. “Where everything is unprecedented, everything's brand new, and there's absolutely no context for what's going on, as a result, people have lesser of an understanding of current events.
We now know that Trump’s ascendancy and presidency was not an aberration in 2016. He's back, and whisker away from a second term. Julian tries to understand Trumpism as part of a radicalization of the Republican party. "If you just study Trump in isolation, you don't really get 2024.”
Julian believes the roots of polarization, culture wars and a distrustful electorate go back to 1974. Richard Nixon and Watergate, he says, is the fault-line. “It was a rupture and ‘74 was important, not just the year in itself, but it's a culmination of many sources of friction that have been happening. Battles over Vietnam, battles over the presidency, battles over how Americans saw politics and government.”
Electorate lost trust in institutions like the government and the promise of a robust middle class. Instead, out of the dust of Watergate emerged strong centralized parties and media amplified by a strong campaign finance system that thrives on discord. After 1974, he says America remade itself and its institutions to foster division rather than to push against it.
I was interested to hear his views on single issue voters. This was something that was new to me when I covered my first US election in 2016. I’d repeatedly hear people say they’d ‘hold their nose’ and vote for Donald Trump because he would deliver a single ideological wish for them - tougher border control, or a more conservative supreme court or an anti-abortion legislation.
Many Trump voters agree he is a morally-compromised man who brings out the worst instincts in America but they’ll vote for him just because of that one, single issue. I don’t understand that thinking; to me it is like buying a basket of rotten fruit because you liked the look of one cherry. To Americans though, this is the way they roll in election time.
More often than not, the single issues are points that are not political game-changers in other countries. No other Western democracy has such an agonized divisive debates about abortion, books, guns or religion to the extent I’ve seen in America. Why?
“In the 70s at the heyday of feminism, the argument was that the personal is political.” Julian says that concept is now baked into American politics, especially when the bogey-man of Communism was vanquished at the end of the Cold War. Since the 1970’s, private and personal issues such as reproduction, gender, Christianity or what books your kids read have been hyper-politicized by both liberals and conservatives.
The ‘personal is political’ is not just played out in the bedroom but also in the kitchen with bread and butter issues. The cost of living and inflation might just be the single biggest issue that will decide this election. Immigration too. It just depends who you talk to.
Voters will vote only because of ONE of those issues. Strategically that’s what matters to the parties - finding what issue fires up a voter in a specific area. Localized pin-pointing of your own personal bugbear is how the presidency is won.
“Politicians play this stuff up. They focus on these narrow issues that are going to get segments of the electorate,” says Julian, “So you're doing slivers of voters. And so it's appealing to find these single issues that might, you know, change X number of voters in a state like Michigan, as opposed to searching for grand issues.”
I’m a little closer as to figuring out why Americans are so divided - the electoral system encourages voters to get fired up about one thing rather than the common good. Narrow interests triumph over wide commonalities. Take this basic structural fact and then add social media, AI and big data to amplify the aims of narrow interest groups and you have a divided country unable to see the bigger picture as well as a set of national leaders who don’t subscribe to coalition thinking.
One thing I don't think will change, whether Harris or Trump wins, is the division. Polarization is baked in, and here to stay.
Join me,
Robyn
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CIA Station Chiefs and not-so-secret Secrets
There is so much at stake in this election for the world, so how are America’s allies making sense of the razor-slim chance that Kamala Harris or Donald Trump will take the White House?
Jerry summed it up perfectly.
“They’d be befuddled, right?”
I’m joined by two high-level former CIA intelligence officers in this week’s podcast. John Sipher and Jerry O’Shea were station chiefs in Moscow, Baghdad and other key posts. They now host a podcast called Mission Implausible in which they banter - as you’ll hear on my show these former spooks can certainly banter - about conspiracy theories.
I started off by asking them how foreign intelligence services heads based in Washington DC would be dealing with the US election. What kind of reports are the men and women in MI6, French intelligence or Australian intelligence sending back to their capitals? Or the Ukrainians?
There is so much at stake in this election for the world, so how are America’s allies making sense of the razor-slim chance that Kamala Harris or Donald Trump will take the White House?
Jerry summed it up perfectly.
“They’d be befuddled, right?”
Frankly, all of us living in America right now are well and truly befuddled. Not just foreign spies. I just had a phone conversation with a New Yorker who said she felt like she was living in an alternative reality to me. New York and Atlanta are so far away from each other that it’s like we’re living in different universes.
As for America’s enemies, John and Jerry rightly point out, it’s not like they can steal the results of the election. Or rig it. But Russia, China, Iran can try to put a finger on the scale and influence and manipulate via social media and other ways. “They all want to create weakness in the United States.”
The key to that? Getting Americans to turn on each other.
That must be the easiest job right now. Americans are doing a fabulous job of hating each other, the Presidential candidates, the media, the government, the immigrants, the economy and even the weather. Death threats against meteorologists have soared since the last two hurricanes battered us. Whoever thought you’d see a country hating the weather guys for the bad weather?
When I asked John and Jerry where they’d go if they could time travel in American history, John said he’d like to go to the 1950’s when American and global institutions were being made after World War II. Jerry cheated, as John says. Jerry wants to go to the future, not the past. Fifty years from now. He wants to know how all this anxiety and division ends? What kind of America emerges from the fragmentation of now?
We all hope somehow the center holds and the extremes do not endure.
Join me,
Robyn
