In the Shadow of the Trump Presidency, the Democrats of the Red Rocks, One of Democratic Perspective’s Long-Time Sponsors, Discusses Its Future Priorities. Democratic Perspective’s Mike Cosentino and Steve Williamson welcome Karen McClelland, John Hake, and Mik Jordahl from the Democrats of the Red Rocks, a local Sedona Democratic club, for a discussion of the issues the organization is focusing on in the run-up to the 2018 mid-term elections. The future of immigration, education, and the environment are especially critical to Arizonans, and DORR is already at work on them.

If You Prick Us, Do We Not Bleed…If You Wrong Us, Shall We Not Revenge?: Jewish-American Physician Alice Rothchild Addresses the Legacy of Injury And Retribution That a Purely Geopolitical Approach To the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Has Inflicted On the Inhabitants Of the Region. Democratic Perspective talks to Alice Rothchild, obstetrician/gynecologist and long-time human rights activist,  about her experiences in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank. Working with both Israelis and Palestinians who are trying desperately to mitigate the effects of seemingly intractable political and military conflicts on the daily lives of Palestinians, she provides us with a searing record of what it really means to live one’s entire life in a in environment of foreign occupation, humiliation, violence, and vengeance, one which no one seems able to end.

Fake News, Satire, and the Bottom Line: What Paul Horner’s Fake News Tells Us About the Supposedly Ancient and Honorable Concept of Objective News Reporting. The Democratic Perspective tag-team talks to Paul Horner, (in)famous manufacturer of Internet hoaxes, about how our national political divisions and Facebook combined to turn an Internet satirist and media iconoclast into a) a darling of the far right, b) a supposedly evil purveyor of fake news, c) a Kardashian-level icon of the age of celebrity, and, finally, d) a poster child for being-careful-what-you-wish-for.

The Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security: Regardless of What Donald Trump and Paul Ryan Tell You, These Programs May Be All That Stands Between You and A Genuinely Miserable Old Age. Steve Ryan, a local Sedona attorney, joins Democratic Perspective’s Mike Cosentino, Gary LaMaster, and Steve Williamson for a discussion of the unwarranted Republican attack on federal benefit programs, and the vicious, unconscionable threat to ordinary people’s well-being and hopes for the future which it represents.

The Example of Cottonwood, Arizona: Why Transparency and Citizen Participation Are the Keys to Effective Government. Tim Elinski, newly elected mayor of  Cottonwood, joins Democratic Perspective’s Mike Cosentino and Steve Williamson for a discussion of the challenges facing small town governments in Arizona. If you want to hear how a genuine commitment to open and transparent government can help ensure that the people’s needs are served, this is the show for you. In an age when many governments seem to have gone into business for themselves, Tim’s presentation serves as a textbook example of how government representatives ought to approach their duties to the people who’ve elected them.

It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times: Democratic Perspective Looks Back At the Obama Years. On the eve of President-Elect Trump’s inauguration, Mike Cosentino, Gary LaMaster, Klaus von Stutterheim, and Steve Williamson evaluate the successes and failures of President Obama’s eight years in office. What was and what might have been — given what we have to look forward to in the next four years, we should probably count our blessings. It wasn’t exactly the change we’d been hoping for, but we could certainly have done — and may yet do — a whole lot worse.

Don’t Mourn, Organize: Answers For Those Who Want To Know What We’re Supposed To Do Now. Mike Cosentino, Gary LaMaster, and Steve Williamson discuss Indivisible: a Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda, a 26 page document by former Congressional staffers which provides tactical advice for a defense of progressive values. After an election which delivered both houses of Congress and the Presidency as well as a majority of state legislatures and governorships into the hands of the Republican right, an effective defense of these values is essential. With our electoral system structured the way it is, and the country as divided as it is, sitting at home and hoping for the best is simply not an option. If citizenship means anything, especially in times of adversity, it means taking action to ensure that what we believe in is represented on every local, state, and national agenda.

Things Fall Apart; The Centre Cannot Hold: Democratic Perspective’s 2016 in Review. The Democratic Perspective crew contemplates a year that has changed everything, albeit not in the way that we’d hoped for when we went to the polls on November 8th. Those of us who still hold to the principles of political and economic liberalism are now challenged not only to make sense of what has befallen us, but to live and act, in public, according to those principles.

Billionaires, Generals, and White Supremacists: Donald Trump Introduces the Ship of State to Its New Crew. Gary LaMaster, Klaus von Stutterheim, and Steve Williamson look at President-Elect Trump’s picks for Cabinet and senior advisory positions. Compared to past administrations, this one appears to be stuffed with quite a rogue’s gallery of right-wing ideologues. Clearly, much of what we’ve gotten used to over the past decades about the operations of the Federal Government is going to change, and not for the better. Democratic Perspective takes a closer look at the individual appointees and their past records for clues about what we should expect from the new Trump Administration.

Now More Than Ever, the ACLU Is At the Forefront In the Defense of Our Civil Liberties, As It Has Been Since 1920: Alessandra Soler, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, returns to Democratic Perspective for a discussion of the state of civil liberties in Arizona and the nation since the defeat of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the victory of President-Elect Donald Trump. Hard times may be upon us, but as always, the ACLU is hard at work doing what is necessary to defend the rights guaranteed us by the Constitution against the assaults of those who find them inconvenient.