Start Making Sense

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How can we save democracy from white nationalism and right-wing authoritarianism? Steve Phillips argues we need to organize and turn out the millions of non-voters – people of color and young people – with a long-term, data-based strategy. Steve’s new book is “How We Win the Civil War: Securing a Multiracial Democracy and Ending White Supremacy for Good.”

Also: a story about Black landownership, starting in Piney Woods, North Carolina, one of the oldest examples of uninterrupted land ownership by Black people in the US, going back to before the Civil War. Cameron Oglesby has that report.  11-3-2022

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Stacey Abrams, running for governor in Georgia, is behind in the polls of likely voters, which the pollsters define as people who vote regularly, especially in the last midterms, four years ago. But her whole strategy is to organize and mobilize people who do NOT vote regularly – to expand the electorate with young people, people of color, and those the political scientists call “low-propensity voters.” She explains in this interview, from April, 2019, after her first campaign for governor.

Also: Mike Davis, author and activist, radical hero and family man, died on Tuesday, Oct. 25. After talking about his life and work, we play part of an interview with him on this podcast from November, 2016, one week after Trump was elected.  10-27-2022

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What will Republicans do if they win control of the House in the midterms? Now they’ve said something about that, officially: they call it their “Commitment to America.” Chris Lehmann calls it “a grab bag of cultural resentments papering over an anemic policy wish list.”

Also: The Trump years are not the only time American democracy has been threatened; the World War One years, when Democrat Woodrow Wilson was president, were another. That’s what Adam Hochschild argues –his new book is “American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis.”  10-20-2022

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Joe Biden has just made marijuana legalization a campaign issue–the Democrats should run with it, says John Nichols.

Also: Greil Marcus talks about Bob Dylan, from “Blowin’ in the Wind” to “Murder Most Foul.” He has a new book out, it’s called “Folk Music: A Bob Dylan Biography in 7 Songs.”  10-13-2022

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Nurses have taken the lead in the wave of this year’s labor activism. The largest private-sector nurses’ strike in American history took place recently in Minnesota – 15,000 nurses walked off the job for three days in the Twin Cities and the Twin Ports. Other nurses threatened strikes in half a dozen other places. Bryce Covert reports a key front in the fight for better health care in America.

Plus: Dahlia Lithwick talks about some of the heroes of the Trump years: the women lawyers who fought him on the big issues—the Muslim ban, neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, and voting rights. Her new book is “Lady Justice.”  10-6-2022

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Can Republicans win control of the Senate? Trump’s candidates are the GOP’s biggest problem, starting in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin. The Nation’s National Affairs Correspondent, John Nichols has our analysis.

Also on this week’s episode of the Start Making Sense podcast, a discussion about Ken Burns’ new documentary on PBS, “The US and the Holocaust.” Historian David Nasaw comes on the show to discuss why the film may be the most politically engaged and relevant work of Burns’ career.  9-29-2022

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Should Bernie Sanders run in the Democratic primaries in 2024? President of The Nation, Bhaskar Sunkara says “yes” IF Biden doesn’t. Sanders transformed American politics and, Bhaskar argues, he remains a uniquely important figure for Democrats and the left.

Also: 20 years before the January 6 attack on the capitol, a Republican mob attacked a central hub of government operations claiming the vote count in the presidential election that year was fraudulent, trying to reverse the results. That was the “Brooks Brothers Riot” in Miami, a Republican effort long before Trump. On this week’s episode of Start Making SenseThe Nation’s DC Bureau Chief, Chris Lehmann reviews that history.  9-22-2022

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The transformation of the Southern Baptist Convention into a powerful right wing political force developed over the last 50 years. Before 1973, when abortion became a constitutional right, the Southern Baptists did not have a political position on abortion. Then came what they call the “conservative resurgence”—we call it the “fundamentalist takeover.” Sarah Posner explains that history. Her book “Unholy: How White Christian Nationalists Powered the Trump Presidency, and the Devastating Legacy They Left Behind” is out now in paperback.

Also on this episode, a new installment of The Children’s Hour: stories about Ivanka, Jared, Don Junior and Little Eric. This week: Jared writes a book! He called it “Breaking History.” We have comment from our Chief Jared Correspondent, Amy Wilentz.  9-15-2022

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Remember how Kansas was the first state to vote directly on abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe, and how Kansans surprised everyone by voting to keep abortion rights in the constitution, 59%-41%? Amy Littlefield went to Kansas to report on the election for The Nation and see how the victory had been organized and won.

Also on this week’s episode, we’re still thinking about Barbara Ehrenreich, who died last week. She was one of our best. We’ll listen to an interview with Ehrenreich from 2002, about “Nickel and Dimed,” her unforgettable book about trying to live on low-wage work which had just been published.  9-8-2022