America's Democrats

Rebuilding our nation’s manufacturing muscle.

The supply chain is in the news lately, with most stories about it focusing on the end results for consumers. But how can government look out for the interests of American manufacturing workers in a way that protects their rights while strengthening domestic manufacturing? This week, we talk to two experts about how to achieve those goals. 

John Pouland explains a study that details how the conventional political wisdom has completely missed the biggest electoral earthquake of the last decade, specifically highlighting how both Democratic and Republican parties have discounted and misjudged their appeals to voters in manufacturing-heavy working-class towns. 

As head of North America’s largest industrial union, Tom Conway speaks for over 800,000 workers. He says now more than ever, we need to protect working people and fight to rebuild our nation’s manufacturing muscle. 

Enthroning Corporate Power Over America

“Equal Justice Under Law.” That’s the noble principle carved into the marble façade of the temple-like Supreme Court building.

Today, though, six right-wing, corporate-dominated activist judges control the present Court, and they’re implementing an elitist creed mocking that ideal. By putting the interests and power of the wealthy over the rest of us.

The Second Amendment is About Slavery

Elie Mystal returns to the Bill Press Pod with a withering takedown of the Second Amendment, Justice Alito and Supreme Court Ethics. He is The Nation Magazine’s Justice Correspondent. He's a frequent guest on MSNBC commenting on the intersection between the legal and the political. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, he gave up Big Law to fight for justice.

If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.

The legacy of Woody Guthrie

Ten years later, we revisit a show celebrating the Centennial of the birth of Woody Guthrie with interviews from Pete Seeger and former Senator Fred Harris.

Our first guest today was a truly great American, perhaps the leading progressive icon of our times. In honor of the centennial of the birth of Woody Guthrie, Pete had some fun telling stories on Woody, and revealing the history of the anthem “This Land is Your Land.” 

http://www.peteseegermusic.com/ 

http://www.woodyguthrie.org/

Fred Harris was a populist when he was the U.S. senator from Oklahoma. He talked with us about the legacy of Woody Guthrie and the lessons we learned from the Dust Bowl Era of American history.

An Angry Public Will Overcome Arrogant Officials

Donald Trump’s criminal attempt to steal the 2020 election failed, but it’s not the only recent coup attack on our democracy. In the last few years, a cabal of right-wing zealots have plotted to seize control of the US Supreme Court. By hook and crook, they’ve installed a six-judge majority, and now they’re using them as a political cudgel to try stealing not just a constitutional right, but an inherent human right from American women – the right to make their own reproductive decisions. By judicial fiat, the right-wing judges have decreed that the state will make birth decisions, regardless of what mothers want. This is the Republican Party’s current concept of “small government.”

The Man Who Could Primary Sen. Sinema

Congressman Ruben Gallego of Arizona. This is his fourth term in Congress where he focuses on national security issues and the health and welfare of veterans. He's a veteran himself having served in Iraq as an infantryman in the Marines. He is the son of Hispanic immigrants and the first in his family to attend college, in this case Harvard University.

If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.

Building infrastructure that is just and sustainable. Bill Press on flight attendants facing airline violence.

Kevin DeGood on the impact infrastructure projects can have on the goals of opportunity, equity, and sustainability. Plus Bill Press with Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants.

Kevin DeGood says the recently passed infrastructure bill is a powerful investment in jobs for American workers.  But the work is not over. It’s now up to us to make sure those investments advance inclusive economic growth and national climate goals.  

Bill Press talks with Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants. If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com. 

Making Work Work for Workers

As a writer, I get stuck every so often straining for the right words to tell my story. Over the years, though, I’ve learned when to quit tying myself into mental knots over sentence construction, instead of stepping back and rethinking where my story is going.

This process is essentially what millions of American working families are going through this year as record numbers of them are shocking bosses, politicians, and economists by stepping back and declaring: “We quit!”

Why it matters to have a Native American cabinet secretary. The recurring crises of American democracy and why this time it’s different. 

Julian Brave NoiseCat on the significance of Representative Deb Haaland's nomination as Secretary of the Interior. Suzanne Mettler on the unprecedented danger threatening our democracy. 

President Biden has nominated Congresswoman Deb Haaland to lead the Department of the Interior. If confirmed, she will become the first Native American cabinet secretary. Julian Brave NoiseCat says it’s a rare opportunity for the Biden Administration to restore trust with Native people and prioritize their concerns.

In her newest book, co written with Robert C. Lieberman, Suzanne Mettler explores four threats that weaken democracy. And what is alarming about this American moment is that never before have they come together at the same time.

Bill Press with two Politico reporters who have been covering the Biden transition.  If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.

The Plasticization of Planet Earth

Historian Eric Loomis says if we truly want to understand the history of labor movements in the United States, look to the moments when workers went on strike. Loomis reminds us of the powerful change that can happen when workers are willing to fight.

Corporate Sponsors Win Olympic Gold in “Downhill Ethical Backflip”

In this year’s Beijing Olympics, the top team performance has been Corporate America’s breathtaking “Double-twist Ethical Backflip.”

This group of corporate giants loudly tout their code of ethics, pledging to stand against repressive regimes that abuse human rights. But here came the Olympics, posing a direct test… and they flopped!

Defending Democracy with Republican Sarah Longwell

Sarah Longwell is a veteran Republican Political Strategist who is at the center of key never-Trump organizations. She heads Defending Democracy Together, The Republican Accountability Project, and is Publisher of The Bulwark. And is very outspoken about the GOP today.

If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.

Confronting the threat of right-wing extremism.

Alexandra Minna Stern on the changing face of America’s far right. Michael Koncewicz on why Trump’s impeachment was a different kind of challenge for Republicans than Nixon’s. Plus Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone tells Bill Press why He is speaking out against political violence and those who foment it.

Alexandra Minna Stern’s research takes her deep into the dark matter of America’s far right. She says it’s a movement in transition, and an ever growing threat to our democracy.

Michael Koncewicz’s most recent book on Republicans who defied Richard Nixon carries new relevance to the present day with Trump’s impeachment. Koncewicz says what makes today different is a greater fear among Republicans that challenging this President will be at their political expense.

How Money is Suffocating American Democracy

America exists today as a bizarre anomaly – we profess to be an electoral democracy, yet we are ruled by a governmental plutocracy.

One especially gross example of this incongruity is the overwhelming power of big money over the people’s will. By a wide margin, Americans of all political stripes want to ban the distorting force of huge, electoral campaign donations by favor-seeking corporations and ultra-rich elites.

One Cop's Battle for America's Soul with Michael Fanone.

Before January 6th 2021, Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone was a self-described redneck who had voted for Donald Trump. On January 6th, he was dragged down the Capitol steps, beaten with a Blue Lives Matter flag, tased and tear-gassed. Rioters had threatened to shoot him, but he pleaded for his life telling them he had children. That day changed his life forever. Now retired from the DC Police, , Fanone has written Hold the Line: The Insurrection and One Cop's Battle for America's Soul with John Shiffman. He is also speaking out against political violence and those who foment it.

If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.

The origins and legacy of the New Deal

Terry Golway tells us how the Irish political machine known as Tammany Hall became the forerunner of the New Deal. Historian Harvey Kaye reminds us of FDR’s Four Freedoms speech and the legacy that remains unfulfilled. 

Tammany Hall no longer exists, but when it did, the New York political machine created a social safety net at the neighborhood level long before government programs came along. Author Terry Golway thinks we still need strong political organizations like that.

New Deal historian Harvey Kaye says President Reagan turned FDR upside down and inside out and progressives have to reclaim his legacy.

Shhh, The Governor Is Listening

Although we haven’t even gotten through this year’s midterm congressional elections, it’s still not too early to start examining some of the characters who hope you’ll make them president in 2024.

I know, you don’t want to… but we must. That’s because corporate elites have already chosen their favorites, and they intend to use massive sums of money, lies, more money, PR slickum, and even more money to slide their toady into the Oval Office.

The Big Truth vs. The Big Lie with Major Garrett

The Big Truth: Upholding Democracy in the Age of “The Big Lie,”is the new book by Major Garret, chief Washington correspondent for CBS News.  His co-author is David Becker,  the Executive Director and Founder of the nonpartisan, non-profit Center for Election Innovation & Research, working with election officials of both parties, all around the country, to ensure accessible, secure elections for all eligible voters. 

If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.

Former Cleveland mayor Dennis Kucinich on his battle to save the city’s public electric utility. Julie Kohn on lessons learned from the Texas power grid failure.

In his new memoir, Dennis Kucinich writes about how he took on powerful interests to save a public utility. That happened over forty years ago, but the story still carries critical relevance today.

After a historic winter storm left millions of Texans in the dark and without heat, energy experts are looking for ways to stop it from happening again.  Julie Kohn says that means rethinking the state’s isolation from the nation’s power grid.

Beware: The GOP Has Chosen to Embrace The Crazy

Perhaps you remember Sen. Barry Goldwater, the GOP’s fringy, far-right-wing 1964 presidential nominee who famously said, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.” Today, however, the core of the Republicans Party has gone so far beyond the fringe that they would boo Goldwater’s right-wingism as insufficiently rabid. Instead, their new rallying cry is: “Nuttiness in the defense of extremism is no vice.”

The GOP’s mainline officialdom now proclaim themselves The Party of Extremism.

"Confidence Man" by Trump Biographer Maggie Haberman

Confidence Man. The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America by the foremost interpreter of Donald Trump, the New York Times' Maggie Haberman. Haberman, a Pulitzer Prize winner, takes a different approach to the “Trump Book.” She goes all the way back to his days in New York to understand the man who became president. Who, she says, is not much different than the man who raged through New York in the ‘70’s, ‘80’s and ‘90’s. If you want to understand Donald Trump, you have to understand Donald Trump in that uniquely New York milieu.

If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.

Can unions save democracy?  

Author and organizer Jane McAlevey on her new book,  A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy.  Plus, the millionaires who want to pay more taxes, not less.   

At a time when workers are under attack at historic levels, strikes are making a comeback. In that, Jane McAlevey sees an opportunity to reset power and politics in America, and clear a path to progressive change. 

Jane McAlevey about her powerful new book, A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy. She makes the case that unions are central to challenging the corporate class and restoring democracy in America. But what about the millions of workers who don’t have a union?  For Jane McAlevey, that translates into even more opportunities to build the power of organized labor.

My Newspaper Died

My newspaper died.

Well, technically it still appears, but it has no life, no news, and barely a pulse. It’s a mere semblance of a real paper, one of the hundreds of local journalism zombies staggering along in cities and towns that had long relied on them. Each one has a bare number of subscribers keeping it going, mostly longtime readers like me clinging to a memory of what used to be and a flickering hope that, surely, the thing won’t get worse. Then it does.

"A Presidency Totally Out of Control."

Peter Baker, The New York Times Chief White House Correspondent and Susan Glasser, a Staff Writer for The New Yorker have created a masterpiece of journalism in their new book, The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021. It paints a presidency that was totally out of control, far worse than any we've ever experienced. 

If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.

The complicated relationship between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and LBJ

Two historians of the civil rights movement assess the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Julian Zelizer is a Princeton scholar of Lyndon Johnson as well as the civil rights movement. He says civil rights activism is no longer as organized or coherent as it was when it sought, and won, passage of the Voting Rights Act.

Historian David Chappell explains the post-Martin Luther King Jr. trajectory of the civil rights movement, which he says may have been only a historical artifact with King as the central figure.

The Inflation Blame Game

Today, CEOs of big corporations are playing the tricky “Inflation Blame Game!” Publicly, they moan that the pandemic is slamming their poor corporations with factory shutdowns, supply chain delays, wage hikes, and other increased costs. But wait – inside their board rooms, executives are high-fiving each other and pocketing bonuses. What’s going on?

The trick is that these giants are in non-competitive markets operating as monopolies, so they can set prices, mug you and me, and scamper away with record profits.

"A Presidency Totally Out of Control."

Peter Baker, The New York Times Chief White House Correspondent and Susan Glasser, a Staff Writer for The New Yorker have created a masterpiece of journalism in their new book, The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021. It paints a presidency that was totally out of control, far worse than any we've ever experienced. 

If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.