Start Making Sense

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As the Democrats meet to celebrate Kamala, Trump seems disoriented and unsure what to do next. Nevertheless he’s holding on to 44% of the electorate. How come? Marc Cooper has our analysis.

Also: Kamala may be rising in the polls, but the Number One nonfiction bestseller in America is still “Hillbilly Elegy” by J.D. Vance. Luckily for us, Becca Rothfeld has read it, so we don’t have to. She’s nonfiction book critic for the Washington Post.

Transcript HERE  8-22-2024

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What is happening with the Trump campaign? He seems to be losing his grip, while Kamala gets big crowds and dominates the news. Harold Meyerson comments.

Also: Sherrod Brown is up for reelection to the Senate in Ohio, where Biden got only 45% four years ago. He explains is political philosophy, which has enabled him to win reelection twice before. (originally broadcast in 2020).

Transcript HERE  8-15-2024

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JD Vance’s remark about “childless cat ladies” who “want to make the rest of the country miserable” continues to reverberate in the news. Katha Pollitt has our analysis, and rebuts Vance’s argument that people who don’t have children don’t have a stake in the country’s future.

Also: It’s August—and that means it’s time for summer beach reading. We asked John Powers, critic at large for Fresh Air with Terry Gross, for suggestions. His pick is Antonio Scurati’s M: Son of the Century, a 750-page novel about the rise of Mussolini.

Transcript HERE  8-1-2024

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Kamala Harris is likely to be the next president of the United States—that’s what Steve Phillips says. He’s on this episode of Start Making Sense analyzing changes in the electorate and suggests what the Democrats need to do to create majorities in the swing states.

Also on this episode: Los Angeles has 4,000 homeless vets, living on the streets. Now, a class action suit demanding the VA fulfill its pledge to provide housing for them is going to trial in federal court. The lead attorney for the homeless vets, Mark Rosenbaum, explains the arguments and the evidence.

Transcript HERE  8-1-2024

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John Nichols examines the tasks facing Kamala Harris – the opportunities, and the obstacles to be overcome.

Also: Democrats in Arizona are engaged in massive organizing to win an abortion rights referendum, elect a senator and flip a House Seat–and they are facing an Arizona Republican party that is pretty crazy. Sasha Abramsky has our report.

Transcript HERE  7-25-2024

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Biden’s efforts to renew his candidacy are “risk-averse, uninspired, and dangerously misguided” – that’s what John Nichols says, as we review the efforts to persuade him to drop out of the race.

Also: During the Supreme Court term that just ended, the conservative majority granted new constitutional rights to hedge fund managers, big business—and Donald Trump. David Cole explains the shocking decisions that have transformed our government.

Finally, Jane McAlevey died Sunday–she was The Nation’s strikes correspondent, and one of our best.

Transcript HERE  7-12-2024

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Marc Cooper argues that the narrative for Joe Biden’s presidency has now been set – he’s “too old.” And the Supreme Court decision on immunity for Trump makes it essential that he be defeated. Kamala Harris would be the choice of the Party establishment, if he agreed to step aside; at the convention, she might be nominated by acclamation, without a vote among alternative choices.

Also: Harold Meyerson analyzes what it would take to get Biden to decline the nomination: polls about the opinion of the Democratic rank-and-file; the views of Democratic senators and House members– those in danger of losing their seats and political careers; and Biden’s own circle–the crucial factor for them will be their assessment of Biden’s legacy.  Transcript HERE  7-4-2024

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What should the Democrats do about white voters? Most of them have voted for Trump, twice. How much of that can be changed? Steve Phillips reports on new research that should reshape Democratic strategy.

Also: 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; she joins us on the podcast.

Transcript HERE 6-27-2024

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“1974,” the new memoir by Francine Prose, recalls the year when “the sixties” came to a definitive end, when it became clear that the changes we’d wanted, the changes we’d fought for, were not going to happen. She spent that year in San Francisco, where she got to know Tony Russo of the Pentagon Papers case.

Also: On May 31, Joe Biden declared, “It is time for this war to end.” But the leaders of both Israel and Hamas seem content for the war in Gaza to grind on into the indefinite future. Hussein Ibish explains why.  Transcript HERE  6-20-2024

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The Israel lobby AIPAC is spending millions to defeat Representative Jamaal Bowman in the New York state Democratic primary. That’s because he called for a permanent ceasefire back in October, and describes what’s happening in Gaza now as “an ongoing genocide.” Alan Minsky has our analysis fo the campaign–he’s Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America.

Also: at a time when Republicans have a lock on the Supreme Court, state constitutions can provide a basis not only for protecting abortion rights, but for criminal justice reform, voting rights protection, the right to public education and even, in some states, the right to breathe clean air. Eyal Press reports.  Transcript HERE  6-13-2024