Debuting now on the New York Times Best Sellers list, WTF America?!, Ben Meiselas’s new book, condenses our many critiques of American oligarchy, corruption, and descent into fascism into one titular question. This week, Ben is our special guest, joining us to discuss his book — which we highly recommend — as well as the career it fits into, including Ben’s independent news network MeidasTouch. We really enjoyed talking to Ben in this episode about what “the way out of this hell and back to democracy” looks like, and how deep into red territory Democrats can expand in next week’s midterms. Watch below:

For the working class, Trump’s stranglehold on American politics is suffocating, but there is a possibility of escape. We’re turning the corner into the midterms, where polls point to upset victories for Democrats with the most razor-thin of margins. Seats in Republican strongholds are going toss-up; toss-ups are suddenly leaning Dem. And while 2016 always serves as a powerful reminder not to treat beating Republicans as a foregone conclusion, there’s a window of hope to look through here. And Democrats have more than enough to work with when it comes to material to use against their opponents. As Ben points out, the man at the top of the MAGA project has covered up his participation in a pedophile ring, deployed Border Patrol Gestapo to terrorize and brutalize immigrants, and poured money into war and genocide abroad. Is some of it finally catching up to him? Trump isn’t pulling the crowds he used to; his in-person fan base is shrinking, while Ossoff-Obama rallies are turning people out en masse. Cracks are showing in the facade of the tyrannical Trump regime. But as long as he can still wield that power to interfere with (or straight up obstruct) American democracy, he’s someone we have to worry about.

For that reason, we talk to Ben about the situation we’re heading into for the midterms. What will it look like on the ground, and how can we do our best to fight back against whatever BS our authoritarian overlords throw our way to keep us down? Ben points to the anti-ICE resistance in Minnesota as a model of successful organizing against the far right’s “smash-and-grab playbook.” For while a lot of wealthy institutions and individuals have bent the knee to Trump, like the mainstream media outlets, people in the streets have shown in huge numbers that they aren’t willing to put up with Trump’s even more off-the-guardrails second presidency. And at the same time, Trump has gutted many of the federal-level institutions that would otherwise have the power to mobilize and coordinate a full-on fascist takeover. So our president’s incompetence has offered us critical opportunities to rally people power — the only way for us to dig our way out of hell and rebuild our democracy.

Join us next week for our coverage and hot takes on the midterms! And you can listen to this episode tomorrow as a podcast on major streaming platforms.