John Dickerson, a co-host of CBS This Morning and contributor for The Atlantic, chats with the magazine's editor in chief, Jeffery Goldberg, about Dickerson's recent cover story and its central question of how the office of the presidency is flawed.
Trump's admission that the presidency is harder than he expected should come as no surprise. "This is a common presidential revelation,” says Dickerson. The pair discusses the emergence of presidential campaigns, the outsized expectations of the American public, and why fixing the presidency is a task that’s bigger than any one person.
Kurt Andersen’s cover story “How America Lost Its Mind” argues that “being American means we can believe anything we want.” This is due to a combination of the new-age mentality born out of the 1960s that encouraged Americans to find their own truth and the internet age, which has allowed us to create communities that reinforce our beliefs. According to Andersen, the perfect manifestation of America’s journey away from reality is the election of Donald Trump.
Richard B. Spencer greeted an audience of more than 200 at an alt-right conference in Washington D.C. last month with the cry, “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!” He was met with enthusiastic cheers and Nazi salutes, and The Atlantic’s clip made headlines. In this documentary, we go further inside Spencer’s ethnocentric worldview to understand what his plans are for the so-called alt-right—namely, to bring white nationalism out of the shadows. "I don't see myself as a marginal figure who's going to be hated by society. I see myself as a mainstream figure,” he said. Spencer and other alt-right leaders see Donald Trump’s rise as the first step towards a whites-only state. "Our lived experience is being a young, white person in 21st century America, [and] seeing your identity be demeaned,” Spencer said. “I’ve lived in this multicultural mess for years and I’m trying to get out of it."
