in the state we are in, in the senate, in the presidency with trump and then in some of the news media who speaks lies to the public and in places like here in texas where we ve got the republican leadership is out of control. i mean, completely out of control. the most cruel, craven decisions they re making, not held accountable to it. we re there. we re in that moment today, and the question for all of us is what do we do? what do we do, matt dowd? well, to me, what do we do? i mean, my only thing i can think of is, one, shows like yours. other panelists speaking the truth, trying to convey that. but that s not enough, because we ve been trying to do that for four or five years and it hasn t been enough. to me, it s worsened. we ve worsened after the 2020 election, which i thought was the most important election in our history. i think 2022, we re going to confront this more than ever, the soul of our country, and the elements of our democracy are at stake in 2022, and 2022 is by
heartening. maybe and we ll look back on that in a year or two and go, yeah, that was the last time that they didn t simply proceed illegally to invalidate a free and fair election. but you know, my motto in these in this trump era and the pandemic era tends to be, could be worse. yeah. i mean, i guess the only button here i would offer here a bar shouldn t be so low that a stop the steal imagined fraud in arizona that we, like, eked by, we all say, wow, democracy survived another day. but to be continued. i take your point. matt dowd, melissa murray, kurt anderson, you all made my brain hurt. thank you so much for starting us off. when we come back, now that that fake audit in arizona has confirmed what we all knew, that joe biden won, republicans in other swing states are moving forward with fraudits of their own and democrats are now pushing back. plus, house democrats vote to protect abortion rights in america in the face of strict new measures in red states all across th
2020, because what happens if the republicans win in 2022? it means that everything they ve done, january 6th, all the things that have happened, all the way they ve conducted themselves in the aftermath of the 2020 election, they re going to be let loose with no reins if they get power back, because there s no constraint on them at that point. zero constraint on them at that point. so, to me, speak truth, but honestly, vote democratic from the top to the bottom to try to force the republicans to change what they re doing. kurt, you wrote something yesterday that informed all of my thinking and all of my coverage of what s happening in washington this week and i want to read this tweet that you wrote. one party doesn t want to debate policy or legislate or govern, so the other party with the fleeting, historic opportunity to pass good policy crazily creates its own intramural simulation of fractious gridlock two-party system. it s an explanation, i think, for what matt dowd is talkin
people still wish to be good republicans. even as they oppose trump. these decisions will not wear well as the nation tumbles into full-blown crisis, and that is where we begin this hour with some of our favorite reporters and friends. matt dowd is here, political strategist and founder of country over party. also joining us, melissa murray, law professor at nyu and an msnbc contributor. and kurt anderson joins us, co-creator and former host of wnyc studio 360, now author of the books fantasyland and evil geniuses. i want to start with you, matt dowd, because every word of this is something you ve said on this program. your thoughts? well, i agree almost completely with what was said in that column and what was laid out. i actually think today our democracy is broken, and i think the evidence of a broken democracy goes back to 2016, the election result, the fact that donald trump got into the oval office and was commander in chief of this country and there
authoritarian fiddling with the ways we do or don t vote that is the source of that threat to democracy. yeah, i mean, melissa, kurt is articulating president joe biden s view on how to save democracy. it is to deliver. it is to show that in a democratic country, a benevolent leader, makes sure that shots in arms are administered, that no matter where you live, you re within five miles of a vaccine, two smots if it s a two-shot regimen, that fixing our roads and bridges is how to do exactly what kurt s articulating, keep democrats in power because they deliver and in a democracy, the citizenry has a right to feel that its government is responsive. and/but we re on the titanic, as matt dowd says, the tension seems to be this is all happening right now. i want to read a little bit more from this kagan piece and ask if you agree. he writes, the world will look very different in 14 months if as seems likely the republican zombie party wins control of the house.