Timothy Snyder, Yale University History Professor, joins Yahoo Finance's Kristin Myers to break down how the Biden administration should navigate political strife.

Video Transcript

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KRISTIN MYERS: Now our next guest has written an excellent essay called "The American Abyss" in the "New York Times," which looks at Trump, the mob that besieged the Capitol, and what comes next. We're joined now by Professor Timothy Snyder, Yale University history professor. So professor, let's start with that essay.

At the beginning, you say that many Republicans also bear the responsibility to allow what you called electoral fiction to flourish. Do you think that given where we are now, the comments of those same politicians in the aftermath of the riots, that perhaps they've created a monster that has gotten too big for them to master?

TIMOTHY SNYDER: I think it has gotten too big for some of them to master. I think others of them are happy about the monster and would like to ride that monster all the way to 2024. I mean, I think there are three stages.

Stage number one, Mr. Trump tells the big lie, that he won an election that he clearly lost. Stage number two, far too many congressional representatives and senators go along with that directly or indirectly. That gives the big lie legitimacy. Gives it legs. It becomes more intense, attracts more attention, and more support in December and January.

And then you get to stage three when that big lie, the idea that he won the election, becomes a justification for a violent invasion of our Capitol building. And even after that, you still have a very large number of, unfortunately, of Republicans in the House and in the Senate who stand by, or at least implicitly support, the position that Mr. Trump won the election. This does create a monster because it creates a group of Americans who feel that they've been betrayed, and who feel separated and alienated from the rest of the country. And who animated by this entirely false belief, carry out acts of violence.

KRISTIN MYERS: Now you also say this in your essay that post-truth is pre-fascism. And that Trump was a post-truth president, which seems like a huge warning for what could come next. Now despite Democratic wins in the House, the Senate, and the presidency, I'm wondering if alarm bells are really flashing for you here on what could be coming around the corner. And how do you think this is going to inform the new president, President-elect Biden, the start to his presidency?

TIMOTHY SNYDER: Well, there are a lot of negative trends, some of them are long-term. I mean, when I talk about post-truth, what I mean is both our very lax attitude as Americans towards the facts. We've gotten to the point where it's so much your opinion, my opinion. Instead of being a trust society, we've become a belief society. Where you have to respect what other people believe, even when it's total nonsense.

And in the same time, we've allowed our local news to crash. I think that's the underlying source of a lot of the problems we're seeing. People no longer have facts produced around them. They can no longer discuss the things that matter directly to them. And so we're thrown into social media, into controversies, into conspiracies.

So, for Mr. Biden, this means that it's not enough to project a sense of unity. There are also structural problems that have to be addressed. I think we need to get the facts on the table very quickly in the form of a report about what happened on the 6th of January. And I think he has to think looking over the next four years, what can we do, not just to make Americans feel like they're one country, but how can we spread, how can we pluralize factual information? How can we create a country where people have more to talk about, not just less to disagree about?

KRISTIN MYERS: Now, to that point, you talk about this moment as being a chance. And when it comes to moving forward, it seems as if the country right now is more divided than ever. But we do have polls that show commonalities. And unfortunately, where folks agree is on how bad things are right now.

We have the economy that is struggling. We are seeing divisions along race. I'm wondering, at least on this economic piece, we have the president unveiling a stimulus plan going forward. I'm wondering if this could be a great point to start, especially, as we move forward in a post-pandemic era, and folks, are some of them, still very much struggling financially. If you view this as a good-- the economy, perhaps, is a good tool to create some of that unity and to heal some of those divisions?

TIMOTHY SNYDER: Well, I mean, the word crisis means a point in time where you can make fundamental changes. That's what a crisis is, and we're clearly in a crisis. I think you're absolutely right.

I think the way to think about coming out of COVID is not just there's a quick technological fix to this disease called a vaccine. It should be something more like, how can we help people feel more secure and safe in their own lives? How can we make Americans lives more predictable? How can we make health care something that people can take for granted so that that great source of worry, and stress, and anger is removed from people's lives?

Because part of this sense of division and part of the sense of desperation that we have in our politics all over the place comes from these elementary human existential concerns. And I agree, the notion of stimulus checks, why can't we-- why can't we think of America as a place where people can be more certain that whether they have a job or not at the moment, they're going to be able to make it from one month to the next month?

We have the ability, we have the wealth to create much more stability in health care, much more stability for the welfare state in general, and that is actually good for the economy. Having people lose jobs, be uncertain, not have health care, that creates all kinds of micro disruptions, which are bad for the economy as a whole. So, yeah, I think this is a chance to rethink.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right, Professor Timothy Snyder, Yale University history professor, and again, author of that "New York Times" essay, "The American Abyss." I really encourage everyone at home to go and read it. Thank you so much for joining us.

TIMOTHY SNYDER: My pleasure.