September 30 - The GOP Strategy of Forcing Victory Without Concessions; This Shutdown Will be Worse for Republicans Than 1996; "How Did Conservatives Get This Radical?"

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the shutdown of the U.S. government which begins at midnight Tuesday and speak with Jonathan Chait, a writer for New York magazine where he has an article “The House GOP’s Legislative Strike”. We discuss the strategy behind the Republican shutdown of government that goes back to a House Republican retreat in Williamsburg where they met after their demoralizing 2012 election defeat and decided to go on strike and force Obama to accede to their demands without offering any him concessions.

Part 2

Then we speak with Noam Scheiber a senior editor at The New Republic about his contention that this shutdown of the government will be much worse for the Republicans that the 1996 shutdown that benefited Bill Clinton was for Newt Gingrich. We discuss his article at The New Republic “Countdown to Shutdown” and the last-minute effort by Republicans engaged in government by extortion, to portray themselves as being reasonable while accusing the Democrats of being obstructionists.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Tom Edsall a professor of journalism at Columbia University and author of “The Age of Austerity” who has an article at The New York Times “How Did Conservatives Get This Radical?” We discuss what is driving the tribalism and xenophobia of the Tea Party radicals as they careen forth in an “all or nothing” putsch to either get their way or shut down the government and ruin the economy.