My apologies for the long absence; I’m in the final stretches of editing another writer’s book, and I’ve been deep into that process. I’m also working on a special video thing that I believe you’ll really enjoy. I hate surprises, but I’m going to manage to keep this one for another couple of days. It’ll be worth it.
Episode 7: Max Abrahms
It’s impossible for a thinking and aware person to conclude that we’re not in a profound crisis period in America. As I’ve written, they can be traced (at least) to differing conceptions of justice which are mutually exclusive. Because the problems are so foundational, they manifest themselves and peek out from nearly every issue that’s large enough to grab our attentions.
One of the subjects I’ve been involved with for the last two decades has been the study of terrorism—and, then, the institutions responsible for addressing it. Stripping away everything else, the issue of counterterrorism has become, over the last decade, how to fight the internal enemies of the regime. Who gets to decide who these enemies are, and on what basis?
Max Abrahms is a political science professor at Northeastern University, and is one of the country’s most thoughtful voices on counterterrorism. We don’t always agree, I appreciate his view because he’s unafraid to buck trends and doesn’t have much time for the CT industry.
Max recently wrote a must-read piece at The American Mind about the Biden administration’s abuse of the national security and counterterrorism apparatus to target Republicans for ideological crimes. I wanted to talk to him about the article, but we wound up focusing on a lot more than just that.
Intro Music
There are plenty of wonderful recordings of South African jazz, and many of the best are from Huge Masekela. This track appears on his second album, “grrr,” released on Mercury in 1966. Eric Gale on guitar is what makes this particular cut special.
Max Abrahms: Partisanship as Counterterrorism