Dr. Michael Bailey closes out the American Angst year with a holiday-season conversation that’s equal parts warm, witty, and razor-sharp about American civic identity. Starting with a few Christmas-movie confessions (including some truly astonishing gaps in Dr. Bailey’s viewing history), the episode quickly pivots into the real theme: why the phrase “We’re a republic, not a democracy” is not just misleading, but often politically weaponized.

Bailey breaks down the difference between republic, democracy, and liberal democracy in plain language—showing how political scientists actually use these terms and why the “republic vs. democracy” framing is frequently a rhetorical sleight of hand. Drawing from his work published at Outside the Beltway (and from a recent talk he gave to the League of Women Voters), he traces how the slogan has been used historically—from the John Birch Society to modern partisan messaging—to justify restrictions on participation, normalize minority-rule structures, and minimize the moral weight of broad voter inclusion.

Along the way, Dr. Bailey makes his core argument: the United States has long been a republic, but over time it became a democracy in the modern sense—especially a liberal democracy, where “liberal” means liberty, not partisan ideology. And that distinction matters, because a republic can exist without robust rights or meaningful participation (he points to global examples), while a liberal democracy is defined by protecting civil liberties, welcoming dissent, and making representative government accountable to “we the people.”

To lighten the mood after an hour of political theory (and to keep the angst appropriately seasonal), the episode ends with a playful holiday “list segment,” where Dr. Bailey shares a few memorable Christmas gifts—including a beloved childhood globe that accidentally taught him a lifelong lesson about language, history, and the power of words.

The views expressed on American Angst are solely those of the participants and do not represent any organization.

In this wide-ranging episode of American Angst, Dr. Michael Bailey and Dale take a deep and sobering look at Donald Trump’s environmental record. Using a “bottom of the ocean to the top of the atmosphere—and into our minds” framework, Michael walks through Trump’s approach to deep sea mining, fossil fuel expansion, weakened clean air and water protections, changes to endangered species rules, and targeted obstruction of wind and renewable energy. The episode also explores Trump’s efforts to dismantle climate policy infrastructure, suppress scientific data, defund research agencies, and erase public reporting on climate change. Together, Michael and Dale examine what it means for a democracy when environmental policy is shaped not just by ideology, but by the deliberate undermining of shared facts and scientific expertise.

The views expressed on American Angst are solely those of the participants and do not represent any organization.

It's a special Thanksgiving crossover episode of American Angst and Church Potluck! Dr. Michael Bailey and Dale McConkey start off-topic with a quick overview of 10 dizzying days in American politics. From there, they pivot to something far older, quieter, and deeper: Thanksgiving! Michael makes a bold claim—that Thanksgiving is the most American of all holidays—and builds his case like a true political theorist, tracing four different “foundings” of America (Puritan, Revolutionary, Civil War, and New Deal) and showing how Thanksgiving brushes up against each one. Along the way, they talk football and Black Friday, parades and turkey pardons, Friendsgiving and “family plus,” Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation and the Gettysburg Address, and why humility and gratitude might be our best hope in an anxious age.

The episode is equal parts engaging civics lesson and cozy kitchen-table conversation. Dale and Michael swap their favorite and least favorite Thanksgiving traditions (including Dale’s “House of Dreams” potlucks and Michael’s annual Birmingham adventure day), lament the commercialization creeping into the holiday, and still find reasons to be stubbornly hopeful about America also previews an upcoming Church Potluck plan: an audio Advent & Christmas "calendar," inviting listeners to share their favorite Advent traditions from around the world. It’s politics and prayer, football and philosophy, social critique and sincere gratitude—seasoned with humor, affection, and a genuine desire to live more thoughtfully in a messy country they still love.

The views expressed on American Angst are solely those of the participants and do not represent any organization.

In this episode of American Angst, Michael Bailey briefly updates us on the apparent breakthrough in the government shutdown. The deal reopens the government and restores furlough pay, but Bailey emphasizes that the underlying fight—especially over Affordable Care Act subsidies—remains unresolved. In his view, the shutdown ended without Democrats gaining meaningful policy concessions, making this more of a pause than a resolution.

The primary focus of the episode, however, is the recent off-year elections. Bailey notes that Democrats performed well in several key statewide and local contests, but he cautions against over-interpreting the results. Rather than signaling a grand defense of democracy, he argues the outcomes likely reflect everyday affordability pressures—housing, groceries, healthcare—more than ideological alignment.

Bailey highlights a divide within the Democratic wins: moderates gaining ground in statewide races and a democratic socialist gaining momentum in a major city. He sees this as a strategic crossroads. While the moral concerns behind social-democratic policy are real, he warns that leaning too far into ideological purity may be risky in a culturally center-right nation. He argues that pragmatic centrism may remain the most broadly viable approach.

Finally, Bailey raises a concern about political character and restraint. In resisting authoritarian tendencies on the right, he stresses that Democrats must avoid mirroring the same “win-at-all-costs” approach. The challenge, he suggests, is to protect democratic norms without becoming what one opposes.

The views expressed on American Angst are solely those of the participants and do not represent any organization.

Homeownership used to be the on-ramp to the middle-class American Dream. For many young adults, that on-ramp now feels barricaded—by high prices, high mortgage rates, high rents, and student debt. In this episode, Michael Bailey and Dale McConkey trace how the starter-home drought ripples outward, negatively affecting:

• Wealth-building: Years of renting replace decades of equity, widening generational gaps.
• Life milestones: Delayed ownership nudges later marriages, fewer or later kids, and less geographic mobility.
• Community & civic life: Fewer roots can mean lower local engagement and turnout, thinner neighborhood ties, and more loneliness.
• Culture & politics: Rising cynicism (“the game is rigged”) meets nostalgia (“we’ve lost something essential”), fueling new coalitions and tensions.

Michael also proposed some possible solutions: zoning reform (more duplexes, ADUs, mid-rise), YIMBY approaches to mixed-income neighborhoods, right-sized incentives for first-time buyers, and pragmatic “yes-and” policies that different ideologies can actually share. Maybe, just maybe, we can find new pathways to the American Dream.

The views expressed on American Angst are solely those of the participants and do not represent any organization.

Boo! In this Halloween edition of American Angst, political philosopher Dr. Michael Bailey leads a brisk, illuminating tour of the current government shutdown and what it reveals about our constitutional machinery. Michael lays out why both parties share blame in different ways, but, more importantly, why the structure itself incentivizes brinkmanship over basic governance. He explains how the Senate filibuster concentrates leverage, why “who’s actually in charge?” is maddeningly opaque to voters, and how that erodes democratic accountability.

Moving beyond the headlines, Michael compares the U.S. system to parliamentary models that either compel compromise or trigger new elections—mechanisms that keep the lights on. He analyzes the human stakes (unpaid federal workers, SNAP risks, ACA premium credits) and unpacks why shutdowns persist: party primaries, committee gatekeeping, leadership dynamics, and the political rewards of dysfunction. The result is a clear, digestible framework for understanding not just this shutdown, but our recurring cycles of stalemate.

The views expressed on American Angst are solely those of the participants and do not represent any organization.

We may begin talking about sweater weather and niceties about upstate New York, but we quickly let the angst flow deep and wide. Join us as Sam Call (comparative politics) joins Michael Bailey (political science and philosophy) and host Dale McConkey (sociology) for a fascinating exploration of how democracies erode, or "backslide." Dr. Call explains why today’s threats rarely look like coups; instead, elected leaders chip away at checks and balances, politicize the bureaucracy, blur truth, and normalize “us vs. them.” We contrast the U.S. with Hungary and Turkey, talk courts that are ignored, legislatures that go silent, redistricting as a national power strategy, and why pardoning political violence sends a chilling signal. Then we rank the top 3 warning signs right now, ask where the red lines really are, and close with practical steps: stay informed, have hard conversations, and rebuild community ties. It’s an honest, engaging, and surprisingly hopeful hour—gloom but not doom.

The views expressed on American Angst are solely those of the participants and do not represent any organization.

We’re back with another crossover of American Angst and Church Potluck—and it’s the middle slice of a three-part series. In Part 1, we explored evidence for a religious impulse at the founding of the United States. Today, we flip the coin and examine the “godless constitution” thesis: why the U.S. Constitution reads secular by design, how the framers imagined church–state separation, and what that meant in practice—from oath vs. affirmation options and chaplains, to presidential proclamations and the Treaty of Tripoli’s blunt line that America is “not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”

Host Dale McConkey and political philosopher Michael Bailey unpack what “secular” meant to the founders (hint: not automatically anti-religious), how federalism complicates easy slogans (a secular federal blueprint alongside evolving state choices), and why many founders still believed private, voluntary faith undergirds public virtue. We trace the gradual disestablishment of state churches as culture and diversity shifted, and we highlight Washington’s move from mere “toleration” to full religious liberty—rights grounded in conscience, not favors from a majority. Along the way: a birthday shout-out, a candy-aisle cold open (defense of the peanut butter cup!), and a game-show callback. We close by teeing up Part 3, where we’ll examine Christian nationalism today and how competing readings of the founding shape modern politics.

The views expressed on American Angst are solely those of the participants and do not represent any organization.