Living in the USA

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Trump’s initial nominees include Matt Gaetz for Attorney General – “the group that is probably most elated by this are his fellow Republican House members who hate his guts” – Harold Meyerson discusses Trump’s crazy cabinet.

Also: Hope does not mean saying ‘this is not bad,’ Rebecca Solnit argues; it just means we will not give up—because we know that what we do matters, and we also know we’ve been surprised by good things we never expected.

Plus: Melania has been absent from Trump’s side; and, is reported to have no intention of living in the White House for Trump’s second term; so, where ​IS Melania?​

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Big Picture: Trump won a landslide in the electoral college and control of the Senate; control of the House is unclear at this point. So much good work went into fighting Trump; but, a majority of voters know who Trump is and chose him. So, how did we get here? And, what do we do next? Harold Meyerson comments.

Also: John Nichols looks at the elections results: For starters: Trump got fewer votes than 4 years ago; 55% of voters in the CNN exit poll said he was “too extreme.”

Plus: Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery and returned again and again to lead others north to freedom. Now her story is being told in a wonderful new book, with the wonderful title “Night Flyer” –​ the author is Harvard historian Tiya Miles​ (originally recorded June, 2024).  11-7-2024

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If Harris wins Pennsylvania – a predominately working-class state – she probably wins the election; so, what could be the most effective closing argument to convince working-class voters there to vote for Harris? New research by The Center for Working-Class Politics tested messages and found that the strongest one singles out corporations for raising prices — Harold Meyerson comments.

Also: Melania has published a memoir, Melania, where she revisits plagiarizing Michelle Obama for her 2016 RNC convention speech, and wearing that jacket that said “I don’t care, do U?” when she visited INS detention camps for children separated from their parents at the border. Amy Wilentz comments on her explanations—and on the rest of the book.

Plus: Part of Michelle Obama’s speech in Kalamazoo last weekend where she said “to the men who love us, let me just try to paint a picture of what it will feel like if America, the wealthiest nation on earth, keeps revoking basic care from its women; and how it will effect every single woman in your life”; and about Trump: “a vote for him is a vote against us.”  10-31-2024

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World famous gambling and entertainment hub Las Vegas, Nevada is also home to one of the “the most politically potent” unions in the United States, representing hotel casino workers there: Culinary Union Local 226 — Harold Meyerson traveled to Las Vegas to find out what this powerful union is doing to help “push Kamala over the top”.

Also: Latino and Black voters in swing states, we are told by the New York Times, are “drifting away from the Democrats.” But how good is the evidence here? Steve Phillips has our analysis.

Plus: From the Archives: The final years of Martin Luther King Jr. — Taylor Branch discusses his book At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68 (originally recorded in March 2006).  10-24-2024

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One in six voters, pollsters say, are “still unsure of their choice.” What do people mean when they say they are “undecided”? Rick Perlstein says political writers have failed to understand the undecideds—and what Kamala might do to win their votes.

Also: Democrat Marie Gleusenkamp Perez won a House seat in a Trump district, pointing the way for others. Marc Cooper analyzes her current reelection campaign in southwestern Washington State, starting from the fact that she’s a working class woman in a rural area.

Plus: Kamala’s campaign is challenging the Republican conception of “freedom” as freedom from government regulation, advancing instead a positive conception of the government’s ability to protect and expand freedom. Eric Foner explains the history, and significance, of this conflict.

10-17-2024

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Kamala has been showing up: from “Call Her Daddy” – a podcast popular among young woman, to “The Howard Stern Show” – popular among young men; to “The View” and “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” – Harold Meyerson comments on Kamala’s media blitz.

Also: The polls have had disastrous failures for decades, but people continue to focus on them; Rick Perlstein has a better idea: ‘don’t follow polls—organize.’

Plus: From the archives: The great Gail Collins of The New York Times op-ed page talks about the adventures of older women – and her book, “No Stopping Us Now” (first recorded in ​November 2019).  10-10-2024

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If the election were to happen today, polls point to 276 for Kamala; 262 for Trump. Also: The vice presidential debate – “Walz, who was plainly unaccustomed to dealing with such adept obfuscation, particularly when couched in Vance’s one-night-only dulcet tones” writes Harold Meyerson in The Prospect; so, what did Walz win? Harold Meyerson comments.

Next: John Nichols has been driving to places in Middle America where Trump has gotten big majorities in the past: Iowa and Nebraska, central and western Illinois, and southwestern Wisconsin, asking Democrats there about politics in their towns right now. He’s on the podcast this week to discuss.

Plus: Your Minnesota Moment – from the archives: Our interview with Al Franken, when Fox News sued him for the title of his book “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right” (first recorded in 2003).  10-3-2024

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The polls right now show Kamala would win the electoral college if the election were held today–Harold Meyerson comments. Also: Trump Media stock – it’s sinking fast.

Plus: Trump has canceled his plan to visit Springfield, Ohio, but his lie about Haitian immigrants there eating cats and dogs continues to ricochet around the American political world. Amy Wilentz comments.

Also: The presidential election is the main political battle in America today, but Trump’s followers have also been fighting for years to take over towns across the country. Sasha Abramsky reports on two exemplary battles. His new book is Chaos Comes Calling.  9/26-2024

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The Republican Party and the Trump Campaign have no field operations of their own doing door-to-door work – for the first time all of that has been outsourced to PACs with independent funding, and the largest, run by Elon Musk, has just fired the company doing its canvassing in Nevada and Arizona. Harold Meyerson comments.

Also: Trump has made it clear he won’t accept the results of the 2024 election if he loses, and Republicans are doing everything they can make it harder for Democrats to vote. But it will be harder for Trump to challenge this year’s election, because of changes in the law–that’s what Rick Hasen says. He’s professor of law at UCLA, and his writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Slate and The New York Times.

Plus: Trump supporters in Appalachia: Arlie Hochschild has spent years talking with them about how they understand their lives, and how Donald Trump helps overcome their shame. Her new book is “Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right.”  9-19-2024

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Presidential Debate 2024: Harold Meyerson on how, in dealing with Trump, “Kamala hit it out of the park”; and then, “the Republicans immediately seized upon ‘Well, the moderators were hard on Trump’; but that’s what happens when what you say is constructed entirely of lies.”

Also: Homeless vets have been trying for years to get the VA to build housing for them in LA on land dedicated to that purpose. Now, a federal judge has finally ruled: The vets win, and the VA loses. Mark Rosenbaum, lead attorney in the vets’ class action suit, explains.

Plus: Democracy in America is being undermined by the Electoral College, the Senate filibuster, the gerrymandering of the House, and the corruption of the Supreme Court. It’s time to write, and ratify, a new constitution: that’s what Erwin Chemerinsky says. His new book is “No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States.”  9-12-2024