Learning from the Midterms: John Nichols, Sasha Abramsky & Katha Pollitt

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The 2018 Midterm Elections: What can we learn from what happened in the Midwest and the Rust Belt? John Nichols has the report on Pennsylvania, Michigan, and–of course–Wisconsin, all of which voted for Trump in 2016, and all of which elected Democratic governors and Senators last week.
Next,  Sasha Abramsky on the Southwestern states: Arizona, Nevada, Texas–comparing and contrasting progressive and centrist candidates and their successes and failures — and of course California, where Orange County, once the home of right-wing politics–from Goldwater to Reagan and beyond — now will be represented by zero Republicans in the new Congress.
Plus, Katha Pollitt talks about all those women candidates — the Democrats in their multicultural glory (and the Republicans, the party of white men). 11/15/18

“Chasing an Elusive Centrism is Ridiculous”: Frank Rich on politics, plus Erwin Chemerinsky on Matt Whitaker and Laura Carlsen on the Caravan

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Frank Rich finds lessons for Democrats in the midterms: seeking “the political center,” as recommended by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff, running on “clean-government themes and promises of incremental improvement to the health care system rather than transformational social change,” is “ridiculous.” Frank writes about politics for New York Magazine and is executive producer of VEEP on HBO.
Also: Trump’s appointment of a new acting attorney general, Matt Whitaker: is it legal? He hasn’t been confirmed by the Senate – or even nominated. Erwin Chemerinsky comments—he’s dean of the law school at UC Berkeley, and his new book is “We the People: A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the 21st Century.”
Plus: a report on that caravan from Central America headed across Mexico toward Tijuana, from Laura Carlsen, who has has been with the caravan. Trump has stopped talking about it, now that the midterms are over and his fear-mongering failed to win key House seats.  11/14/18

The Jeff Sessions Firing: Erwin Chemerisky & Ahilan A., Plus Elections Analysis w/Harold Meyerson

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Remembering just how terrible Jeff Sessions was, especially on asylum and refugees: Ahilan Arulanantham, ACLU SoCal Senior Counsel, who argued in the 9th circuit against Sessions’ policies — and won. Also: the latest on DACA.
Also, Harold Meyerson on the midterms: they deepened the Dem hold on cities and suburbs — and the Republican hold on the hills and the dales.
Plus: Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the law school at UC Berkeley, on the old Attorney General, and the new one–and what the change could mean for Mueller and his investigation. 11/8/18

A Blue Wave for Progressives and Women—With Some Heartbreakers: John Nichols and Joan Walsh on the Midterms, plus Andy Robinson on Brazil

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Tuesday night was a good night for progressive Democrats, John Nichols argues—and Democratic control of the House will bring an epic change to Washington politics—starting with a return to Constitutional principles and an insistence that the president is subject to the rule of law.
Also: women won unprecedented victories in the midterms.  Joan Walsh analyzes the feminist insurgency that will bring almost a hundred women to the House of Representatives in January—including the first two Muslim women (Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib and Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar); the first Native American women (New Mexico’s Deb Haaland and Kansas’s Sharice Davids), Texas’s first two Latina congresswomen (Veronica Escobar and Sylvia Garcia); plus three young black women (Massachusetts’s Ayanna Pressley, Connecticut’s Jahana Hayes, and Illinois’s Lauren Underwood).
Plus: Brazil last week elected Jair Bolsonaro.  Our man in Rio, Andy Robinson, says he is “worse than Donald Trump,” and “as close to fascism as you will get in the world today, despite a growing number of contenders.” 11/7/18

Women Voters and the Midterms: Katrina vanden Heuvel, Joan Walsh, and Cecile Richards; plus Ari Berman on vote suppression and Gary Younge on the Midwest

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Women voters—and candidates—are mobilized as never before for next week’s midterms: Joan Walsh and Cecile Richards report from across the country at a Nation event introduced by publisher and editor Katrina vanden Heuvel.  Joan is the magazine’s National Affairs Correspondent and Cecile recently stepped down as head of Planned Parenthood after leading the organization since 2006.
Also: the Democrats are focusing now on voter mobilization and turnout, while the Republicans are at work on voter suppression.  How significant will the Republican effort be in this election–and where is it likely to have the biggest impact?  Ari Berman reports—he wrote about vote suppression for the New York Times opinion pages.
Plus Gary Younge, The Nation columnist, talks about politics in the midwest, the heartland, the rust belt – he’s covering the midterms from Racine, Wisconsin, an old Democratic factory town on Lake Michigan.  After so many defeats in the state, Democrats there told him they “can’t afford the luxury of hope.”  11/1/18

Midterm Countdown: John Nichols & David Dayen; Plus Sandi Tan on “Shirkers”

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With five days until the November 6 Midterm elections, we have two political updates: John Nichols comments on national matters–Trump’s closing, he says, is bound to get worse; and David Dayen reports on the California situation–where Democrats hope to flip five or six House seats.
Plus: Singapore-born film-maker Sandi Tan joins us in-studio to talk about her Sundance award-winning documentary, “Shirkers,” now streaming on Netflix–the story of teenage filmmakers and the amazing film they made–20 years ago–and then lost.
11/1/18

We Have a Problem With White Men: They Support Trump—Kai Wright, plus Jill Lepore on Trump and History and Michael Kazin on Hubert Humphrey

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62 per cent of white men voted for Trump, 31 per cent for Clinton.  Kai Wright has our analysis–he’s host of WNYC’s podcast The United States of Anxiety, and he’s also a columnist for The Nation.  It’s easy to get confused by the crosscurrents of misogyny and racism and xenophobia, he argues; they are not  discrete issues, but rather “the interlocking tools of white men’s minority rule.”
Also: Trump’s place in American history: Jill Lepore of the Harvard history department and the New Yorker talks about her new book These Truths which starts in 1492 with Christopher Columbus, and ends in 2016 with Donald Trump.
And we’ll recall the 1968 presidential election, when Richard Nixon won, and many of our current problems began.  The man who almost defeated Nixon was Hubert Humphrey, the onetime Minnesota senator who had become LBJ’s vice president.  Anti-war activists hated Hubert Humphrey in 1968–Michael Kazin explains.  10/25/18

The Mail Bombs and the Midterms: Harold Meyerson, plus Guerilla Theater in L.A.–Hieronymous Bang

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From the mail bombs sent to prominent Democrats, to Trump’s efforts to distract voters with stories about migrants on the march in Mexico — Harold Meyerson analyzes the state of the midterm elections, now less than 2 weeks away.  Our special focus: the swing districts of southern California, of course.
Also: pop-up Guerilla theater in Los Angeles: the great Hieronymous Bang explains what’s going on with the political play whose name cannot be spoken on the radio, and Alan Minsky joins in.
10/25/18

 

Can Progressive Momentum Transform The Democratic Party? Jeff Cohen, plus Sasha Abramsky on Arizona and Joan Walsh on Georgia

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What lessons have the Democrats learned from the disaster of 2016?  Jeff Cohen talks about the progressives’ fight to win the party away from dependence on corporate contributions —and instead to mobilize the grassroots.  Jeff is one of the co-authors of “Democratic Autopsy—One Year Later” at TheNation.com.
Also: Arizona is a red state, ground zero for Trump’s anti-immigrant politics, but it’s changing.  Sasha Abramsky has returned from Tucson, with a report on how and why the Democrats seem likely to flip a key House seat there.
Plus: A historic challenges to the Republicans is underway in Georgia, where Stacy Abrams is campaigning to become the state’s first black governor, and first female governor.  The polls have her tied with her opponent, a far-right figure endorsed by Trump.  Joan Walsh just got back from Georgia with a report.  10/18/18