The American Compass Podcast

The GOP's electoral wipeout in the 2026 midterms has kicked off a civil war over what the Republican Party should look like moving forward. Rachel Bovard, vice president of programs at the Conservative Partnership Institute, and Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom, join Oren to discuss whether the party should go back to its pre-Trump identity. The group debates whether the Old Right's pro-business support for open borders is tenable today, how (and whether) to talk about addressing the debt and deficit, and whether it's finally time to raise taxes.
Finally, they turn to the Iran War, and whether President Trump's decision to attack the country is possible to square with the lessons that should have been learned from previous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Further Reading:
"Republicans Have Two Paths Out of This. They’d Better Choose Wisely." Oren Cass, The New York Times

This week, the GOP suffered the worst election defeat in five decades. Policy director Chris Griswold joins Oren to make sense of what happened in the midterms and what it means for both the Right and Left. 

They discuss how central the issue of political corruption has become for frustrated voters—the top motivator in exit polls—and how it intersects with and amplifies other concerns, like the Iran War and affordability. Then they discuss what the election outcome portends for what both parties will look like now that President Trump is a lame duck, and what we should be watching heading into 2028.

America's "college for all" approach has failed students and eroded the workforce needed for reindustrialization and other national priorities.

Chris Griswold, American Compass policy director, joins the podcast to present a different vision, focused on making vocational and trade-based education a core component for high-school graduation. He and Oren discuss what students lose when they aren't taught physical skills, the benefits and political salience of "vocational education for all," and why such a program is critical for American renewal.

Further reading:
"Vocational Education for All," American Compass, by Chris Griswold

Without a ready workforce, the project of rebuilding American industry is dead in the water.

Ashwin Lalendran and Brent Parton, cofounders of IndustriousAF, join Oren on the podcast to discuss the workforce challenge of reindustrialization. Lalendran, who is based in San Francisco but retains a midwestern mindset on how capital and manufacturing should operate, and Parton, a D.C.-based former assistant secretary of labor, discuss the challenges and opportunities of taking big manufacturing projects from the promise stage to the production stage.
Further reading:
“The Gen Z Blue-Collar Jobs Boom,” Skylar Adleta, Commonplace
“An Industrious Workforce for the AI Decade,” Ashwin Lalendran & Brent Parton, American Compass

Election Day is only weeks away, and as we’ve come to expect in recent years, it has inevitably brought with it allegations from both parties that the other side is cheating.
Ben Ginsberg, Hoover Institution visiting fellow and former national counsel to the Bush-Cheney presidential campaigns, joins Oren to unpack what he calls the “fraud-suppression industrial complex,” where both parties tell their voters that the other side is trying to steal the election. He and Oren talk through why this is so damaging to faith in our elections, and undercuts turn out across the political spectrum. Finally, they discuss ways to rebuild confidence in our election system.
Further reading:
“Confidence, Not Faith, in the Ballot Box,“ Trey Trainor, Commonplace
“Calling Elections Rigged Is Bad Politics and Worse Civics,” Alex Tarascio and David Kochel, Commonplace