What does it actually take to hold an election that everyone can live with — winners and losers alike? In the first full conversation of the New Haven Democracy Project, Bill Kristol sits down with Yale Law professor and constitutional scholar Robert Post to get underneath the headlines and ask what elections are for, and why they're the backbone of a democracy. The New Haven Democracy Project is a series of conversations about protecting free and fair elections. Post starts from first principles. A democracy, he argues, is a way for people who disagree — even people who detest each other — to live together in a common country. Elections are the free and fair procedure that lets us do it: a contest whose result the losing side can accept, because losing today comes with the credible promise of a chance to win tomorrow. On this view democracy is less a machine for counting majorities than a shared faith in the future, resting on trust that the government will abide by the law, respect the minority, and honor the next election's outcome. That trust, Post warns, is what the current administration is straining. He points to an executive branch that treats the rule of law as an obstacle rather than a constraint — a Justice Department reframing prosecution decisions as expressions of the president's politics, a Defense Department purging officers and lawyers, ICE recruited outside normal law-enforcement vetting. What makes the second Trump term different from the first, in his telling, is the absence of the Washington veterans who once internalized the norms and guardrails; what's left is loyalty without restraint. He frames the broader project as a radical, not conservative, assault on the intermediating institutions — universities, courts, the press, the sciences, the military — that have historically checked concentrated federal power. Turning to 2026, Post lays out the concrete threats that have led him to teach a Yale Law School course on Protecting Elections. The threat of ICE at polling precincts, proof-of-citizenship requirements that could disenfranchise voters who have no passport or birth certificate on hand, DOJ requests for state voter rolls, and the specter of chaos used to throw an election's legitimacy into doubt — a slower-motion version of the January 6th strategy, aimed at the vote before it happens rather than the count after. The deepest problem, he suggests, isn't Trump alone but the reservoir of anger that makes so many willing to give up on the hard work of living together. Kristol and Post close on why the election fight is the most immediate and fundamental one — the infection you have to treat before you can address the underlying disease. As Post puts it, Trump is "relentless": frustrated on one front, he simply comes back on another. The task, they agree, is not to give up either. Links New Haven Democracy Project — https://newhavendemocracy.org Robert C. Post, Sterling Professor of Law, Yale Law School — constitutional scholar and former dean — https://law.yale.edu/robert-c-post Citizens Divided: Campaign Finance Reform and the Constitution by Robert C. Post — his book on campaign finance and the Constitution — https://law.yale.edu/yls-today/news/citizens-divided-campaign-finance-reform-and-constitution-book-dean-robert-c-post-77 Citizens United v. FEC (Oyez) — the campaign-finance decision referenced — https://www.oyez.org/cases/2008/08-205 Bush v. Gore (Oyez) — the 2000 election case referenced — https://www.oyez.org/cases/2000/00-949 The Declaration of Independence (National Archives) — the "consent of the governed" passage Kristol reads from — https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript The Elections Clause, U.S. Constitution, Art. I, §4, cl. 1 — the constitutional basis for state and local authority over the times, places, and manner of elections — https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/article-1/section-4/clause-1/ Trump's executive orders targeting law firms (NPR) — the "as though the president were a czar" example Post cites — https://www.npr.org/2025/05/02/nx-s1-5385355/perkins-coie-trump-executive-order-law-firms Executive order requiring proof of citizenship to vote (NPR) — the requirement Post warns about — https://www.npr.org/2025/03/26/g-s1-55927/trump-voting-citizenship-executive-order Tracker: Justice Department requests for voter information (Brennan Center) — the DOJ voter-roll demands discussed — https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/tracker-justice-department-requests-voter-information Trump's January 6 pardons of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders (CNN) — the pardons Post references — https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/20/politics/january-6-2021-capitol-riot-pardons-trump/index.html Bill Kristol at The Bulwark — the host — https://www.thebulwark.com Defending Democracy Together — Kristol's organization — https://www.defendingdemocracytogether.org Topics What elections are for — forming an us, a we, out of people who disagree Going from first person singular to first person plural Democracy as a way of living together with people you disagree with Democracy as a faith in the future Elections as fair procedure, not mere majority rule Why North Korea has elections but isn't a democracy Consent of the governed and securing rights — the Declaration of Independence The rule of law vs. the will of one person Faith in the Constitution as the source of national unity The second Trump term compared to the first Loyalty over qualification and the loss of internalized restraint Breaking democratic norms and how hard they are to repair Politicization of the Department of Justice and prosecutorial independence The "deep state" and the war on disinterested civil servants Purges at the Department of Defense — firing officers and JAGs The dismantling of intermediating institutions — universities, courts, law firms, the sciences, the military Attacks on science and expertise The intimidation effect on business, tech, media, and universities ICE at polling places and voter intimidation Proof-of-citizenship requirements and disenfranchisement DOJ requests for state voter rolls Far-right militias — the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers — and the January 6th pardons January 6th and threats to the 2026 midterms Kleptocracy, economic stability, and investment The Republican Party running without a platform The slide from democracy to autocracy Why voters are angry enough to give up on cooperation Treating the symptom before the cause — why the election fight comes first Credits Featuring Robert Post. Produced by Evan Rosa. Theme music by Virgil Arles. Opening sequence by Podcast Studios. Follow the show wherever you enjoy your podcasts. For more information, visit https://newhavendemocracy.org
