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Migs's avatar

This podcast is hard to listen too because Eliot and eric are brilliant yet they decry things (ultra partisanship) yet exhibit the behavior all the time. The idea that Eliot thinks DEI at John Hopkins was such an issue that people would turn to Trump is mind blowing partisanship. If a dem president was trying to govern universities I would get it but they aren’t. These are choices made by his colleagues and the administration. It has nothing to do with Biden or Dems. Also, you don’t think that republicans have been doing white identity politics for like 50 years? I get it you don’t really care about that type of identity politics but don’t hide from the fact republicans turn almost every issue into some type of culture war.

Second, the idea that Eliot and eric can’t put the blame where it should be, bush and the Iraq war because they worked and supported that initiative is infuriating. I know you guys know this but own up to it. Bush was an AWFUL president and we got Trump because of his lies.

Third, USAID is just not popular. It does great work but no one, unfortunately, cares. If you really want to do some good, why don’t you go back to your Republican buddies and convince THEM to stand up for it.

Finally, Eliot, come on. You think Trump was going to give Ukraine a security guarantee. It amazes me the grace you give Republican politicians compared to democratic ones.

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Elizabeth Caran's avatar

It's rich when white people complain about "identity politics", yet unable to see the GOP has engaged in identity politics immediately after LBJ signed The Civil Rights Act and women dared to demand to be treated as equals not subservient to men. The GOP's Southern Strategy was pure white identify politics.

Inside the prelude to GW Bush's invasion of Iraq, more top Pentagon officials argued against the war, but overrode by military strategists aligned with neoconservatives. VP Cheney didn't listen to intelligence analysts who saw no evidence of Saddam Hussein having a nuclear weapon. It was arrogance that led President GW Bush, VP Cheney, DOD Secretary Rumsfeld & neocons to believe they could overthrow Hussein and Iraqis would live happily ever after. Maybe, if the war room had included diverse and highly competent women, Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian American with non-partisan perspectives, we would never had invaded Iraq.

As far as colleges and DEI censoring conservative professors and student speech, I have not seen widespread evidence of this claim. As someone who attended college at the height of anti-Vietnam war protests, I heard people make similar claims. College campuses are a hotbed of communists and radicals. Yet, I saw a small percentage of student protestors and most students were more concerned about their social lives. What I did see was many white middle class and affluent guys attending college and graduate school to avoid the draft & as soon as the war was over, they were suddenly anti-social spending and pro-tax cuts.

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Migs's avatar

Yep. It’s worse than that Elizabeth. Both Eliot and eric worked in the bush administration before and after the Iraq invasion (and supported it after they left). Eric was like the number 2 (or 3) guy at state pushing it. He literally was in the room with the president going over war plans.

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Elizabeth Caran's avatar

He was one of the men a family member described to me. This family member worked in the Pentagon and interacted frequently with Joint Chief of Staff. He advised his adult child to resign from the US Army rather than be sent to Iraq. His close friends inside the Pentagon knew the invasion of Iraq would be a disaster for the US and Iraq.

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