Podcast

Welcome to Crashing the War Party!

The vanguard of the status quo in the U.S. National Security state is the War Party, and we are going to crash it!

Kelley Vlahos, Daniel Larison and Barbara Boland have been collectively writing for decades about the military industrial complex and the swampy ecosystem that is the Beltway Blob. We find ourselves in the so-called post-Trump era under a new Democratic regime that is supposed to end endless wars, stand up for human rights instead of snuggling with dictators, and begin to get our own house in order on the home front. So why does it feel like deja vu all over again?

That’s because you can swap out the faces, and the names, and the language, but like deckchairs on the Titanic nothing will be different until the ideas change and the incentives for maintaining the status quo are taken away. The status quo is about maintaining massive military budgets that do not match the need or hew to any realistic strategy, but do everything to keep the top 5 defense contractors fat and happy. The status quo means an entire galaxy of primacist think tankers, lobbyists, courtiers, consultants, academics and journalists who support the mobilization for war -- even if they never want to be in one. The status quo means condescending to anyone who thinks differently, or worse, banishing them to the margins of professional purgatory. It means circling the wagons around orthodoxy and dogma, while hanging independent thinkers, whistleblowers, and pioneers out to dry.

With our new show, we plan to shine a light on the corruption and the hypocrisy that pervades the National Security State, and the appalling disconnect between the Washington elites and the people who fight and die in their wars.

Subscribe today for straight talk about the latest headlines and politics, under-the-radar news, and interviews with newsmakers, politicians, journalists, and activists, as we attempt to make sense of the history unfolding before our eyes.

And, since it is a party, then we’ll have a little fun at the Blob’s expense.

In the meantime, tell your friends!