A Public Affair

Project 2025 is the Republican plan to rapidly remake the US government if Donald Trump is reelected. It’s over 900 pages long and was created by the Heritage Foundation, an ultra conservative think tank. Project 2025 promises to abolish the US Department of Education and criminalize abortion pills, among other things. Though Donald Trump has claimed he doesn’t know anything about it, its authors include many people close to the former president.

Now democrats are trying to raise awareness of this document, and everyone from Joe Biden to Taraji P. Henson is talking about it. To break down what Project 2025 is and what it would do, host Ali Muldrow is joined by journalist Lisa Graves.

Graves says Project 2025 is an elite document written by Trump’s insider advisors who are trying to use the executive branch to impose unpopular policies.

Lisa Graves is the executive director of True North Research, a national investigative watchdog group. She is also the board president of the Center for Media and Democracy. Follow Lisa’s work on Project 2025 at project2025admin.com. 

Image from Flickr.

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Assembly District 47 covers Fitchburg and parts of Southeastern Dane County, from Stoughton, McFarland, the towns of Rutland, Dunn, Dunkirk, Albion, and Pleasant Springs. It’s both urban and rural, with sprawling suburban subdivisions and dense apartment complexes.

Joe Maldonado is a candidate running to represent this area in the Wisconsin legislature. On today’s show, he speaks with host Carousel Bayrd about his priorities for the district. Maldonado currently serves on the Fitchburg City Council and has a background in youth development. He says he wants to be a voice for historically underrepresented and working class voters. And he believes that “youth have the ideas, and youth have the solutions.”

As Dane County grows, Maldonado says it’s important for municipalities to control their own transit systems and to find ways to use the 3 billion dollar state surplus toward youth programming, like the new teen center in Fitchburg. He wants to keep legislators from drawing gerrymandered districts again. Joe says that voters he talks to care about reproductive rights, legalizing cannabis, expanding healthcare, and supporting teachers and students. 

Joe Maldonado was born in Milwaukee to a working class family. He participated in precollege programming through the YMCA in Milwaukee before becoming involved in youth programming himself. He has worked for the United Way of Dane County and now serves as the bilingual community youth development program manager for the University of Wisconsin-Extension. 

Note: Candidate Randy Udell declined to be interviewed about the race.

Photo courtesy of Sara Gabler/WORT.

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“I want destination Madison to also be destination MMSD,” says new Superintendent Joe Gothard. He joins host Douglas Haynes today to talk about his vision for Madison Metropolitan School District, Wisconsin’s second largest school district which serves over 26,000 students. 

Gothard returned to Madison last spring to take on this new role as Superintendent. The role comes with its challenges including a decline in student enrollment, a budget shortfall, and achievement gaps. 

Their conversation touched on MMSD’s 10 community schools, the role of public schools in supporting youth mental health, school safety, and the two referenda on the November 5 ballot. If approved, these referenda would increase MMSD’s budget and enable the district to replace or renovate 10 campuses. One of the items comes with a steep price for Madison homeowners, but Superintendent Gothard says that increasing the district’s operating budget would make it possible to really invest in students’ futures. 

Dr. Joe Gothard grew up on Madison’s east side and attended Elvehjem Elementary School, Sennett Middle School and La Follette High School. He launched his teaching career as a high school biology teacher at La Follette. Since then he has served as an educational assistant, a football coach, a principal, dean of students and as assistant superintendent for secondary schools in MMSD. Most recently, Dr. Gothard served as superintendent of St. Paul Public Schools (SPPS), a position he held for seven years before returning to Madison as MMSD’s new superintendent.

Photo courtesy of Sara Gabler/WORT.

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On today’s show, host Esty Dinur opens up the phone lines to hear from listeners. Callers weighed in on COVID, the upcoming Democratic National Convention, and the war in Gaza.

Have ideas for a future Friday edition of A Public Affair? Email [email protected].

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Allen Ruff discusses Israel’s military complex with author and political activist, Jeff Halper. They cover Israeli armaments, including F35s and training programs in the US, like the one at Georgia State University. Halper has written about instruments of population control and the use of Gaza as a “laboratory” to create “permanent pacification.”

Halper argues that you have to understand settler colonialism to understand what’s happening in Gaza right now. He defines settler colonialism as what happens when one population arrives in a place with the intent to take over. The occupying group then invents a narrative about why they’re entitled to the land rather than the indigenous population. In combination with ethno-nationalism, narratives of entitlement form the basis for Zionism.

Settler colonialism is a “unilateral” project, says Halper, who adds that we have to adopt an anti-colonial language. That means getting rid of the idea that there are “two sides.”

Jeff Halper is an anthropologist, Israeli anti-occupation activist, and founder and director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. He is also the author of multiple books including, War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification (2015).

Photo courtesy of Pluto Press.

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On today’s show, guest host Christina Lieffring speaks with Kavin Senapathy. In their new book, The Progressive Parent, Senapathy writes about how the “In This House We Believe” yard signs originated in Madison following the 2016 presidential election. Senapathy says that “whether or not someone chooses to display it around their dwelling, there’s power in its message for parents if we also act intentionally on these shared core values: science, truth, equity, and justice.” Their book is an exploration of what it means to live those values and raise children according to those values. 

In their conversation, Lieffring and Senapathy cover topics like breastfeeding, the “breast is best” slogan, and the formula industry. They delve into the ideology of biological essentialism and how this impacts trans rights, abortion rights, and racism. And they cover how the idea of biological essentialism appears at the Olympics. Overall, Senapathy’s book re-educates readers about the science of gender and sex, and it  argues for antiracist parenting rather than colorblind parenting.

Kavin Senapathy is an award-winning science journalist whose writing appears in SciShow, Slate, Scientific American, SELF, The Daily Beast, Salon, Forbes, and more. Their book, The Progressive Parent: Harnessing the Power of Science and Social Justice to Raise Awesome Kids, comes out August 6th.

Featured image courtesy of Harper Collins.

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On today’s show, longtime host Carousel Bayrd comes out of retirement to interview the three candidates for Wisconsin Senate District 16. The seat is currently held by Melissa Agard who is running for Dane County Executive. 

Because of Wisconsin’s new legislative maps, District 16 now looks a little different and represents a diverse group of rural and urban communities. It includes Sun Prairie, Cottage Grove, parts of North Madison, Fitchburg, Cambridge, Fort Atkinson, Stoughton, and even parts of Dodge and Jefferson Counties. 

Representative Melissa Ratcliff says that protecting abortion access is her top priority. As a candidate she also promises to support education, take care of teachers, fight for the environment and prevent gun violence. Rep. Ratcliff is currently serving in the Wisconsin State Assembly. 

Representative Samba Baldeh also serves on the Wisconsin State Assembly and before that served for six years on the Madison Common Council. He says that supporting immigrants, creating quality child care programs, and taking care of students and the elderly are top priorities. For Baldeh, access to broadband and clean water are issues that unite cities and rural communities. 

Representative Jimmy Anderson is a longtime advocate for disabled folks in Wisconsin. He also advocates for healthcare, environmental causes (from PFAS to flooding), and education. Anderson has served in the Wisconsin State Assembly for eight years. 

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Voters will see two proposed constitutional amendments on their upcoming August 13 primary ballot. To talk about what these proposed amendments mean and their potential impacts, host Douglas Haynes talks with Bill Davis of the River Alliance and Eileen Newcomer from the League of Women Voters. They say their organizations are opposed to both amendments because they would inhibit the governor from responding to emergencies like public health crises or natural disasters. 

Newcomer says that the first proposed constitutional change stems from lawmakers wanting a more active role in how federal funds are dispersed, particularly in light of COVID funds. But, says Newcomer, the republican controlled legislature has been very inactive when it comes to responding to emergencies like COVID. 

The second proposed change would make it impossible for the governor to respond to people’s needs in a timely manner, particularly to respond to natural disasters by disprusing federal relief funds. Because federal relief funds come from taxpayer dollars, Newcomer and Davis say that the Wisconsin government needs a speedy way to access and disperse these funds back to Wisconsin taxpayers.

The language of both ballot referendum questions is poorly worded, some say intentionally so.  Davis and Newcomer are concerned that placing these issues on a primary ballot when voter turnout is historically lower, means that too few voters will have the change to weigh in.

To learn more about what’s on the ballot, go to myvotewisconsin.org.

Bill Davis is a Senior Legal Analyst at the River Alliance of Wisconsin. 

Eileen Newcomer is the Voter Education Manager at the League of Women Voters. 

Image courtesy of Rep. Mike Bare’s office.

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This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received applause while addressing the US Congress. That’s despite the rising death toll in Gaza, which some analysts consider to be near 186,000. On today’s show, Jennifer Loewenstein joins host Esty Dinur to discuss the absurdity of Netanyahu’s visit to Congress. Loewenstein calls the genocide in Gaza a slow motion genocide and says that the US is “stoking the flames” of a major regional war in the Middle East by supporting Israel with military aid.

According to Loewenstein, Israel is significant to the US because it serves as an off-shore base and a branch of US power in the region. The state of Israel also enjoys a mythic power among the religious right in the US. But even democrats take part in the support of the Israeli state. Loewenstein says she’s not convinced that Kamala Harris’s presidential run will change the narrative on Israel among democrats. She predicts that there may be some “cosmetic” changes with the potential for Harris to express sympathy toward Palestinians, but she doesn’t expect policy changes. 

Jennifer Loewenstein is an American activist, journalist, and founder of the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project. Her work has appeared in academic journals such as The Journal of Palestine Studies, and she is a regular contributor to the CounterPunch magazine.

Photo of Benjamin Netanyahu addressing the US Congress in 2015. Image via Flickr.

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Wisconsin’s prisons continue to operate in a state of “modified movement.” That’s how the Department of Corrections describes conditions that are commonly referred to as lockdown. During this period of “modified movement,” specifically from June 2023 to February 2024, four inmates died in Waupun Correctional Institution. On June 5, Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt arrested Waupun warden, Randall Hepp, and eight other Waupun employees. They face misconduct and felony inmate abuse charges.

Today, Allen Ruff speaks with professor Steven Wright who says that the problems at Waupun are just the tip of the iceberg. The Wisconsin prison population has increased over the last few decades. Meanwhile, following Act 10, there has been a rapid decline in the number of people willing to work for the DOC, says Wright. That means that Wisconsin prisons are overcrowded with understaffing rates as high as 60%. 

The DOC’s solution to this understaffing problem has been to keep men in their cells and to cut back on social work staff and medical and rehabilitative services. Wright sees this as a lingering effect of Act 10. But, says Wright, we need to change the way that people conceive of the purpose of prisons in the US as well as address the ways that Black and Native individuals are policed, prosecuted, and sentenced in this country. 

Steven Wright is a clinical professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he directs the Constitutional Litigation, Appeals, and Sentencing Project. He is the former co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project and has litigated for the Voting Rights Act and other civil rights acts.

Image courtesy of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.

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