S05E17 – Peak Anti-Woke and Democratic Socialists

In this episode of Finding Common Battle Grounds, we tackle two topics. First, we discuss the decision by Sean Duffy, Secretary of Transportation, to label bike lanes “DEI bike lanes” and remove them from the Department of Transportation’s website and cut funding for them. We all agree that this is absolutely absurd. It strikes us as the Trump Administration looking for things that are associated with progressive countries in Europe, labeling those things “DEI” to poison the well, and then trying to harm them just because they want to be seen as opposed to progressive ideas. The Trump Administration’s anti-woke agenda has reached a climax by banning bike lanes. We then turn to our second topic – the rise of interest in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and their recent successes in big elections. Tom points out that there are some members of the Democratic Party who are distancing themselves from the DSA. Ryan points out that the DSA is garnering interest because there are lots of people in the US who are suffering, and the current conservative administration’s allegiance with big businesses and oligarchs isn’t helping the “man on the street.” Josh says he will die over any efforts to institute socialism in the US – literally, he will get out his guns and start shooting people. We then discuss the language surrounding this and realize we have a semantic disconnect over socialism.