Living in the USA

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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

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Bibi is keeping the war in Gaza going not only for his own political survival but to help Trump defeat Kamala – Harold Meyerson comments.

Also: Trump announced Friday that he would be voting against a abortion rights ballot measure in his home state of Florida. Amy Littlefield reports on the crucial referendum in the state that had been the South’s last refuge for abortion access.

Plus: Rachel Kushner talks about an informant and provocateur who infiltrates an anarchist eco-commune in rural France—the central character in her new novel, Creation Lake.  9-5-2024

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With ten weeks to go until election day, we’ll look at where we’ve been in the last several weeks – most surprising: Kamala Harris emerging as a great candidate. Harold Meyerson explains that it’s not so much that Harris has changed but that the Democratic Party has.

Also: Summer Reading: M: Son of the Century is a 750-page historical novel about the rise of Mussolini by Antonio Scurati – John Powers, critic-at-large for NPR’s Fresh Air draws parallels between 1920s Italy and Trump’s America.

Plus: The Warmth of Other Suns, about the great migration of Black people out of the South, has made The New York Times 100 Best Books of the Century list; from the archives, my discussion with its author, Isabel Wilkerson (originally recorded in 2010).  8-29-2024

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The Trump campaign – it’s not going well right now. Marc Cooper has our analysis, and advises, rather than follow the two-or-three-point difference in polling, that we should instead look at the trend lines. Also, he reminds us that at the end of July in 1988, Michael Dukakis was leading George Bush by 14 points.

It’s still August — and time for more summer beach reading. While the Democrats hold their convention in Chicago, the number one nonfiction bestseller in America is “Hillbilly Elegy” by J.D. Vance. Luckily for us, Becca Rothfeld, author of “All Things Are Too Small” and the nonfiction book critic of The Washington Post, has read it, so we don’t have to.

From the archives: The legendary Father Greg Boyle, Jesuit pastor of Dolores Mission in Boyle Heights starting in 1986, has made it his mission to help gang members who want to quit. He founded Homeboy Industries in 1988. We spoke about his wonderful book “Tattoos on the Heart: Stories of Hope and Compassion” (Originally broadcast Jan., 2012)  8-22-2024

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Trump mostly stays home at Mar-a-Lago while Kamala and Tim Walz meet huge crowds in the swing states. Harold Meyerson comments on the current asymmetrical state of the campaign.

Plus: Talking politics, and history, with Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown – he’s up for reelection this year, in a state where Biden got only 45%.  (originally recorded in October 2020)

Also: Elon Musk has been a leader in the transition to renewable energy, and has made Twitter into a threat to democracy. He has become the face of 21st-century capitalism. David Nasaw has our analysis. (recorded in October, 2023.)  8-15-2024

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Tim Walz was a great choice for Kamala’s VP – Harold Meyerson explains – and takes up the question, what’s happening to the Trump campaign?

Also: 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.

Plus: Your Minnesota Moment: David Carr was a great New York Times media columnist; here he talks about his days as a drug addict in Minneapolis.  His book is Night of the Gun.  (originally broadcast 9/10/08)  8-1-2024

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Kamala’s first 10 days have been “what any candidate would dream of” – and have given the Democrats an “energy jolt”. Also, Donald’s bad day with the largest annual gathering of Black journalists –Harold Meyerson comments.

Next: Every four years, people die, people turn 18 and the electorate changes. Steve Philips reports on the new electorate.

Plus: The phrase “homeless veterans” should be an American oxymoron – instead, administration after administration, including that of Biden, has fought against disabled veterans’ right to housing. Public Counsel lead attorney Mark Rosenbaum discusses the class action lawsuit set for trial on August 6th.  8-1-2024

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America ready to elect a Black woman president? Harold Meyerson examines the opportunities facing Kamala Harris, 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, to say the least. The Nation‘s Sasha Abramsky has our report.

Plus: from the archives: Barbara Ehrenreich on the wellness industry, starting with those pink ribbons. Her book is “Bright-Sided.” (originally broadcast November 2009)