A May 6, 2026 episode of The Nation’s “Start Making Sense” featured Ian Bassin of Protect Democracy on preparations for voting in November and historian Steven J. Ross on efforts to counter racist and antisemitic organizing after World War II.
Ian Bassin, co-founder and executive director of Protect Democracy, told The Nation’s “Start Making Sense” podcast that he expects extensive legal and civic organizing to help protect voting and election administration ahead of the November 2026 midterms.
In the episode’s discussion of potential election-related litigation, host Jon Wiener pointed to Democratic state attorneys general—naming California’s Rob Bonta, New York’s Letitia James and Minnesota’s Keith Ellison—along with groups including the ACLU, the Brennan Center for Justice and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, as part of a broader network preparing to challenge measures they see as interference with the election.
Bassin also discussed the prospect of late-stage redistricting efforts, citing Louisiana and Tennessee as examples raised in the conversation.
In the second segment, historian Steven J. Ross discussed far-right organizing in the years after World War II and described how groups including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee worked to infiltrate and undermine some of those organizations, a history he explores in his book The Secret War Against Hate.
