Why Biden Needs to End the So-Called ‘War on Terror’
On this week’s The New Abnormal, guest Spencer Ackerman asks for the political equivalent of a pony.
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
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The U.S. security apparatus as it currently exists is a ready-made dystopian dragnet just waiting to be abused by Donald Trump if he is re-elected.
That’s why it’s so important for President Joe Biden to end the last remaining institutional vestiges of the now-seemingly defunct “War on Terror,” according to The New Abnormal guest Spencer Ackerman, who first made the point on his Forever Wars newsletter.
“We’ve kept a lot more than we’ve gotten rid of,” Ackerman said. “The [‘War on Terror’] has been basically codified since 2001 to 2002 and it’s hard to believe that it hasn’t been that way forever. We become inured to stuff like this and we just forget that it doesn’t have to be this way.”
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Then, jack-of-all-trades film producer, political commentator, former White House aide and author of the book Why Does Everything Have to be About Race?, Keith Boykin, joins the program to discuss Democrats’ renewed sense of energy since Vice President Kamala Harris’ rapid ascent to presumptive 2024 nominee.
“It feels new and refreshing,” he said. “Now the choice is crystal-clear. Do you want a 59-year-old Black woman who’s an accomplished prosecutor, U.S. senator and vice president? Or do you want Donald Trump, a 78-year-old convicted felon who’s an adjudicated rapist, twice impeached, quadruple indicted, who is now the oldest nominee for the presidency in American history? That’s the choice.”
Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.
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