# Ambiguity in the Age of Outrage (w/ Jon Meacham) - #545

Moynihan interviews author and historian of the new Anthology: American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union

* The dork Star Wars cantina of famous biographers
* Jefferson’s hypocrisy and the impossibility of paragon standards
* Lincoln was not an abolitionist
* The Howard Zinnification of American history
* Ambiguity as the ideological propagandist’s mortal enemy
* The true (New Testament) saint of America
* George H.W. Bush’s blunt admission
* This president would cut your throat for a vote, then be the first to call 911
* Exhaustion as a strategy, and the establishment’s failure to meet the moment
* Autocratic narcissism and the turn toward political sadism
* Despair is a sin
* Political loss as seasonal, not existential
* What will the next side do with inherited expanded executive power?
* 14th Amendment redemption clauses as high-level nerd porn
* Amusing ourselves to death in a visual-media politics
* Katie Britt’s private doubt, and the ecosystem that manufactured it
* Lincoln couldn’t write a bad sentence; Reagan could land the line

Watch / Listen on:

* [Substack](https://www.wethefifth.com/p/ambiguity-in-the-age-of-outrage-w)
* [YouTube](https://youtu.be/DGYQZUJITow)
* [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ambiguity-in-the-age-of-outrage-w-jon-meacham-545/id1097696129?i=1000750478687)
* [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/7peld1rzorc7vo0mWcYyVC)