Don’t count America out just yet! Democrats flipped a state Senate seat in Iowa, in a district Trump won by 21 percent—a resounding rebuke to the psychopath in the White House. In an election year that saw incumbents lose all over the world, Trump barely scraped by with one of the narrowest victories in generations, even with the help of the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, bribing voters, rampant far-right disinformation, voter suppression laws, several Russian bomb threats, and GOP ratf*cking—everything we covered on the show during the 2024 election, asking, “Is anyone going to do anything, Merrick Garland?”
Americans are notoriously fickle, flipping back and forth between parties 16 times since 2000. Expect a shift in the midterms and a potential flip in the 2028 presidential election. But here’s the real question: what if our elections have become as fake as Russia’s? We’ll dive into that in an upcoming episode to explore what leverage we have left to protect the integrity of our vote.
What matters most now is unity in opposition to Trump. But how can we come together when so much resentment remains over who refused to vote for Kamala Harris out of protest and encouraged others to do the same. In this week’s bonus show of Gaslit Nation, Andrea and Terrell Starr from the Black Diplomats Podcast and Substack discuss how we can set aside our differences, forgive the past, and unite for the future of our democracy. It’s the beginning of a tough conversation that ignited online after Trump essentially called for ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the deportation of pro-Palestinian protesters here at home—an outcome many of us warned about when we urged people to vote for the sake of humanity’s survival.
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Show Notes:
Rachel Maddow episode that includes segment on Curtis Yarvin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UdHdjuodPg
Transcript: Rachel Maddow episode that includes segment on Curtis Yarvin: https://www.happyscribe.com/public/the-rachel-maddow-show/exclusive-rachel-maddow-interviews-mn-governor-tim-walz-as-trump-plots-end-of-u-s
New York Times profile of Curtis Yarvin (gift article) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/18/magazine/curtis-yarvin-interview.html?unlocked_article_code=1.tU4.5F3W.Vw3JZNQC_UYS&smid=url-share
Terrell Starr // Black Diplomats Substack https://substack.com/@terrellstarr
The size of Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory, explained in 5 charts https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/the-size-of-donald-trumps-2024-election-victory-explained-in-5-charts
Trump’s Gaza proposal rejected by allies and condemned as ethnic cleansing plan https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/26/trump-resumes-sending-2000-pound-bombs-to-israel-undoing-biden-pause
Iowa Democrats flip Senate seat in special election to cut into Republican majority https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/elections/2025/01/28/iowa-democrats-flip-senate-seat-in-special-election-chris-cournoyer/77999519007/
Don’t Let Liberal Purity Elect Trump https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/30/opinion/gaza-harris-trump.html
Events at Gaslit Nation
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Feb 3 4:30pm ET – Dr. Meena Bewtra of Doctors for America joins our Gaslit Nation Salon to share how to protect Obamacare and medicaid
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Feb 7 8:30pm ET - Gaslit Nation Board Game Night! We’re playing Codenames. Here’s a primer: https://youtu.be/zQVHkl8oQEU?si=YjkUvZa9XQQTVlF8
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Feb 10 4pm ET – Russian mafia expert Olga Lautman joins our Gaslit Nation Salon to discuss Russia, Ukraine, and Trump
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Feb 24 4pm ET – Gaslit Nation Book Club at our Gaslit Nation Salon to discuss Albert Camu’s The Stranger (Matthew Ward translation) and Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning
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March 17 4pm ET – Dr. Lisa Corrigan joins our Gaslit Nation Salon to discuss America’s private prison crisis in an age of fascist scapegoating
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ONGOING! Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and the first ~40 minutes are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community
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This content originally appeared on Gaslit Nation and was authored by Andrea Chalupa.