In the midst of finding out how Donald Trump tried to dismantle democracy with the Big Lie, Ralph welcomes Professor Thomas McGarity, who has chronicled how Trump, as president, tried to demolish government from the inside in his book “Demolition Agenda: How Trump Tried to Dismantle American Government, and What Biden Needs to Do to Save It.”
Thomas McGarity is the William Powers Jr. and Kim L. Heilbrun Chair in Tort Law at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law and the past president of the Center for Progressive Reform. He is the author of Pollution, Politics, and Power, Freedom to Harm, The Preemption War, and Demolition Agenda: How Trump Tried to Dismantle American Government, and What Biden Needs to Do to Save It.
That’s the great challenge of progressive populism. I think it’s out there and I think it has potential. This desire to be protected against the uncontrolled, unrestrained free market is out there… But so far, so many of them have heard the appeal of Donald Trump and others that is based on fear and resentment. This notion of replacement, the notion of us against the other. And the appeal to fear so far, has overwhelmed the appeal to good citizenship. We all owe each other something. And one thing we owe ourselves is protection from corporate malfeasance.
Thomas McGarity, author of Demolition Agenda
There’s a great asymmetry in administrative law that’s out there— an administrative law is the law that the courts apply when they are reviewing actions or inactions of administrative agencies— and the asymmetry is that courts are very keen to ensure that agencies don’t exceed the authority that Congress has granted them. But they are basically silent on agencies that don’t do what their statutes tell them to do.
Thomas McGarity, author of Demolition Agenda
[Demolition Agenda] is a book about how the Trumpsters, directed by Trump himself, cut out protective programs and allowed you to breathe more dirty air, drink more contaminated water, be exposed to more contaminated and un-inspected food, and all kinds of other things that affect you, your families, your children, and your community.
Ralph Nader
Trump’s Inside Job