May 2026

PATRICK LAWRENCE—In effect, Rhodes via Platner makes the case for a fundamental renovation of American foreign policy — a turn toward 21st century realities, chief among these the end of U.S. preeminence and the arrival of a multipolar order. Platner’s voice is to be altogether welcomed for this.

Is such a turn possible — and possible via the Democratic Party, as both Rhodes and Platner implicitly propose? This is our question.

And I simply don’t see it. The trap that springs on Donald Trump as we speak will spring again and again until the trap itself is destroyed. 

ROGER BOYD—Up until the age of eighteen I believed the bourgeois propaganda that wealth was earned through fair competition and that if you only worked hard enough you could get to the top based upon merit without having to give up your ethical base. Then, I took a night class in sociology and understood that this was one of many possible stories of how society operated, one that served the rich and obfuscated the nature of their power and how society worked.

I was in Middlesbrough, an industrial town in the North East of England. As the mixture of an insanely overvalued exchange rate (due to the gushing flows of North Sea oil revenues and absurdly high interest rates), pit closures, union busting and government spending cuts gutted much of the North. In Middlesbrough people joked that the song “Ghost Town” was about Middlesbrough.

GARLAND NIXON—The conversation starts by distinguishing democracy as an outcome rather than a mere process. Nixon emphasizes that democracy must be evaluated by whether those in power truly represent and act on behalf of the masses, not just by who votes or how elections are conducted.

The speakers introduce key concepts such as class content of democracy, the illusion of universal participation, and the role of propaganda in misleading voters, resulting in elections that perpetuate the same ruling interests regardless of labels or procedures.

The significance of this discourse lies in challenging prevalent myths about democracy, especially in capitalist and imperialist societies, and exploring alternatives that prioritize the