Jul 28, 2026 · 57 min · 14 segments
America is once again in a battle over who we are and what we stand for. Does this country only belong to a privileged group, or is it for, as our Declaration Of Independence and Pledge of Allegiance…
Leigh McGowanHost
Joseph KellyGuest
The country is doing extremely poorly, which is why Donald Trump and his party are 100% focused on making sure the elections are rigged sufficiently to stay in power, while the rest of us are doing everything we can to make sure that our voices are heard and our votes are counted.
So today, I thought we could take a 30,000-foot view of what we're looking at in the big picture of what Donald Trump and his enablers have in store for this country, and how familiar a plan that really is when you look at the history of our nation.
Joseph Kelly is a professor of literature and history at the College of Charleston, the author of two books on American democracy, Marooned and America's Longest Siege.
His newest book, The Biggest Lie: The Prehistory of American Fascism, that came out last week, traces the roots of fascism back to the antebellum South.
Essentially, this is a book that reframes the idea of fascism as an American invention, and not one we imported from Europe.
People think that fascism could never happen here, but it's more likely that it actually started here.
Perhaps we aren't borrowing from Germany in the 1930s, we're simply repeating our own history.
So without further ado, please welcome my guest, professor, author, and American patriot, Joseph Kelly.
The country is doing extremely poorly, which is why Donald Trump and his party are 100% focused on making sure the elections are rigged sufficiently to stay in power, while the rest of us are doing everything we can to make sure that our voices are heard and our votes are counted.
So today, I thought we could take a 30,000-foot view of what we're looking at in the big picture of what Donald Trump and his enablers have in store for this country, and how familiar a plan that really is when you look at the history of our nation.
Joseph Kelly is a professor of literature and history at the College of Charleston, the author of two books on American democracy, Marooned and America's Longest Siege.
His newest book, The Biggest Lie: The Prehistory of American Fascism, that came out last week, traces the roots of fascism back to the antebellum South.
Essentially, this is a book that reframes the idea of fascism as an American invention, and not one we imported from Europe.
People think that fascism could never happen here, but it's more likely that it actually started here.
Perhaps we aren't borrowing from Germany in the 1930s, we're simply repeating our own history.
So without further ado, please welcome my guest, professor, author, and American patriot, Joseph Kelly.
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