When Felix Biederman and a couple friends launched the political comedy podcast Chapo Trap House in March 2016, they imagined it would connect with a sliver of a niche audience. How many people would tune in to a socialist-friendly show that skewers lukewarm Clintonian liberalism and parodies inside-the-Beltway pundits? Perhaps a handful of like-minded Twitter denizens, Biederman thought.
What do you think is behind the resurgence of socialism in Chicago and elsewhere?
People also seem to be looking for something more substantial than the “resistance.”
You guys are catching a lot of hell from liberals for not just sticking to Trump and continuing to heckle Democrats and moderates.
It shows how small and insular this debate is between leftists and liberals. I can imagine most people who don’t spend a lot of time on Twitter reading the New York Times or New Republic columns about you guys saying, “What are they talking about?”
I don’t think it’s a danger. This is something that was very, very marginal in this country for a very long time. Look, it’s 25,000 members, and in the scope of other organizations, it’s not humongous. But the fact that it’s exploded so much since Trump got elected is incredible. Absolutely incredible. When people say that [DSA membership] has tripled, they’re not saying, “Now that it’s 25,000 people, we’re going to amend the constitution so that [U.K. Labour Party leader] Jeremy Corbyn can be president here.” They’re saying this is a start. What DSA has already done with the people they have is incredible, especially during recent health-care actions. This is new on the modern political landscape at least since [Eugene] Debs. The future has a lot to hold. I don’t think 25,000 is anywhere close to the ceiling of this organization.
