America's Democrats

The Pentagon Papers at 50. The people who profit off of racism. Plus Bill Press with CNN’s Don Lemon. 

Author Geoffrey Stone on his new book National Security, Leaks and Freedom of the Press: The Pentagon Papers Fifty Years On. Author Jim Freemen on his new book, Rich Thanks to Racism. And Bill Press with Don Lemon, author of This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism. 

The Pentagon Papers revealed decades of lies by the U.S. government about the Vietnam War, and confronted the nation on the dangers of putting government secrecy over the public’s right to know. Author Geoffrey Stone says it’s an issue still unresolved today. 

Coming to terms with racial inequality in America means coming to terms with why it persists.  Author Jim Freeman says that has to include understanding who stands to benefit the most from racism. 

Bill Press with CNN’s Don Lemon on the need to fight complacency in the fight for a more equal nation. If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com. 

Can GOP Autocracy Outlaw American Democracy?

Ralph Waldo Emerson told of a dinner guest who went on and on about the virtue of honesty, offering his own life as a model of perfect rectitude. “The louder he talked of his honor,” said Emerson, “the faster we counted our spoons.”

That’s my reaction to the cacophony of phony piety arising from Republican governors and legislators who are trying to enact more than 250 new state laws to stop Black, Latino, Asian-American, Indigenous, and other non-Caucasian voters from casting ballots.

Race and the history of gun rights in America. Why it’s time to expand Social Security. Plus Bill Press on the continuing threat of right-wing media. 

Historian Carol Anderson on her new book The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America. Nancy Altman on her new book Social Security Works For Everyone!: Protecting and Expanding America’s Most Popular Social Program.Plus Bill Press with CNN’s Brian Stelter on Fox News and its relentless grip on the Republican party.

In her latest book, Carol Anderson offers a critical new look at the evolution of the right to bear arms in American History. It’s a story that begins with the nation’s founding and the desire to put down slave revolts.

Across the ideological divide, poll after poll shows Americans are united against any cuts to Social Security. Nancy Altman says it’s time to listen to the will of the people and go a step further by expanding the nation’s most popular social program. 

Bill Press with CNN’s Brian Stelter on the influence of Fox in a post-​Trump era. If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.

Hey Washington: Follow The People

“Those in the know” say that We the People should forget any progressive fantasy that – at long last – Washington might finally produce the kind of bold FDR-style agenda that America needs. They smugly lecture us that recalcitrant Republicans in Congress, not to mention a swarm of corporate lobbyists, are opposed to progressive change, so who could get it passed?

Here’s an idea: Try the people themselves.

A historic fight against privatized public services. The battle over how to talk about race in schools. Plus Bill Press on Donald Trump’s dangerous hold within the GOP.

Former Cleveland mayor Dennis Kucinich on his battle to save the city’s public electric utility. Scholar Christopher Lehman on the conservative backlash against critical race theory. And Bill Press with conservative commentator Charlie Sykes on why it’s time to dump Trump.

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.

Republican-controlled legislatures across the country are advancing legislation to ban the teaching of critical race theory in schools. Christopher Lehman says what will be lost is the full story of American history and what we can learn from it.

Bill Press with Charlie Sykes on Donald Trump’s big lie and what he calls the “doom loop of crazy.”  If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.

Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and You. Which One Pays Taxes?

Here’s a thought-provoking bumper sticker: “The system is fixed. We must break it.”

This thought came into vivid focus recently when a news report by ProPublica revealed that a nest of preening multibillionaires – led by the likes of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Michael Bloomberg – have been playing America’s rigged tax system to dodge paying their share of upkeep for the society that so-lavishly enriches them.

A plan to cut child poverty in half. Artificial intelligence and the future of work. Plus Bill Press with an insider account of why Joe Biden won, and Hillary Clinton didn’t.

Anti-poverty advocate Arohi Pathak on why a stimulus measure to cut child poverty should be made permanent. Economist Daron Acemoglu on redesigning artificial intelligence in the interest of workers. And Bill Press with Edward-Isaac Dovere, author of Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats' Campaigns to Defeat Trump.

An expanded child tax credit signed into law in March is set to expire at the end of the year.  Arohi Pathak explains why making it permanent can lead to a transformational change in how our nation confronts child poverty.

Artificial Intelligence is already making a profound impact on the lives of American workers.  Daron Acemoglu says the choices we make now will determine whether AI deepens inequality or leads to shared prosperity

Bill Press with journalist and author Edward-Isaac Dovere on his new book, Battle for the Soul Inside-The Democrats' Campaigns To Defeat Trump. If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com. 

Your Dog Knows Better Than To Let The GOP “Fix” Our Postal System

When Donald Trump declared he would fix the US Postal Service, he was using the word “fix” the same way veterinarians do when you bring in your dog.

Trump wasted an inordinate amount of his presidential power and prestige in a failed attempt to neuter an agency that literally delivers for the people.

The limits of bipartisanship in today’s politics, and an opening for moral leadership. Plus Bill Press on Donald Trump’s mounting legal problems.

Veteran political insider John Lawrence on how reaching across the aisle can come at a cost for the Biden agenda. Historian Daniel Rodgers on why presidential moral leadership is more imperative than ever. And Bill Press with Washington Post reporter David Farenthold on what to read into investigations of Donald Trump and his businesses.

After GOP senators blocked the creation of a January 6 Commission, some Democrats are questioning the value of a bipartisan strategy to advance  Biden’s legislative agenda. John Lawrence has written extensively about Congress and American politics. He says that the political climate needed to make bipartisanship work is evaporating.

Times of profound crises call for presidents to step in with a moral vision that can inspire the nation. Historian Daniel T. Rodgers calls on President Biden to seize this moment of crisis and assert a vision that goes far beyond it.

Bill Press with Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold on the state of play with Donald Trump’s growing legal jeopardy. If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.

Let’s Create a Bank System That Serves People, Instead of Bankers

Corporate ideologues never cease blathering that government programs should be run like a business.

Really – what businesses would they choose? Pharmaceutical profiteers? Big Oil? Wall Street money manipulators? High tech billionaires? Airline price gougers?

Millennial politics comes into its own. The untold history of citizenship stripping in America. Plus Bill Press on where the Republican Party goes from here.

Author David Freedlander on the AOC generation and its political evolution. Author Amanda Frost on citizen stripping from Dred Scott to the dreamers. Plus Bill Press with former Northern Virginia Congresswoman Barbara Comstock on why the GOP needs to distance itself from Trump. 

The Trump presidency continues to reshape the political landscape, and that includes a resurgent young left. That’s the subject of a new book from David Freedlander, and at its center is the rise of Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. 

In her newest book, author Amanda Frost takes us into the little-known story of when and why our government has made the choice to revoke citizenship. It’s a practice that expresses the history of racism and xenophobia in America and remains all too present today.

And now, Bill Press with former Northern Virginia Congresswoman Barbara Comstock on why the GOP is better off without Trump. If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com. 

Banker Greed That Would Even Shock Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie had a lot to say about the greed of bankers who made crop loans at usurious interest rates to hardscrabble farmers, then foreclosed on them when they couldn’t pay off the loans, leaving thousands of farm families homeless. Woody mocked them with a sarcastic anthem, singing “I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.” He also penned a stinging verse about their thievery: “Some’ll rob with a six gun/ some with a fountain pen.”

But even this populist poet of the people would be astonished by the shameless grabbiness of today’s farm lenders.

Moving toward a racial justice agenda. Transforming policing from the ground up. Why history matters.  Plus Bill Press with journalist Ron Brownstein.

Civil rights leader Ben Jealous on why cities and states have to take the lead in reimagining public safety. Scholar Sheryll Cashin on why it's critical to confront government’s role in creating racial inequity if we want to undo it. Plus Bill Press with journalist Ron Brownstein on the year a cultural shift in LA turned into a sea change for politics across the nation.

Ben Jealous welcomes efforts at the federal level to rein in abusive policing, but says they won't go far enough unless they are matched by transformative reform at the local level. 

Scholar Sheryll Cashin’s latest book explores the history of government’s role in expanding segregation in housing. She says that a shared understanding of this racist past is key to uniting the nation on a racial justice agenda going forward.

Bill Press with journalist and author Ron Brownstein on the long reach of 1970s pop culture on the politics of today. If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.

What Floats Jeff Bezos Boat?

Not only are the rich different from you and me – they’re getting more different than ever.

I’m not referring to mere millionaires, but to the billionaire bunch. In the past year, while ordinary Americans have lost jobs, businesses, and homes due to the pandemic economic crash, America’s 664 billionaires have found themselves nearly 40 percent richer than before COVID!

What we get wrong about saving the planet. Why the Green New Deal needs to be a jobs program. Plus Bill Press on what drives Nancy Pelosi.

Author Jenny Price on getting environmentalism right before it’s too late. Activist Wallace Mazon on why the Sunrise Movement is fighting for good jobs. Plus Bill Press with journalist Susan Page on her new book, Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and The Lessons of Power.

In her new book, author Jenny Price writes about how environmentalists view and talk about their movement. And all too often she writes, they become part of the problem.

With the nation facing an economic crisis and a climate crisis at the same time, the Sunrise Movement has launched a new campaign to tackle both. Activist Wallace Mazon says the fight for good jobs has to go hand in hand with the  fight against climate change.

Bill Press with journalist and author Susan Page on her new political biography about our nation’s first female Speaker of the House. If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.

Can Corporate Profit and Morality Be Compatible?

Is “corporate ethics” an oxymoron? Do you have to be a jerk to be a successful CEO? Is exploitation the only path to profit?

The good news is that many companies, big and small, in the food economy are blazing a different path through Wall Street’s jungle of greed, demonstrating that money and morality can be compatible.

The fascism Trump left behind. Avoiding the next power grid disaster. Plus Bill Press on redefining infrastructure in the American Jobs Plan.

Jason Stanley on his latest book How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. Julie Kohn on lessons learned from the Texas power grid failure. Plus Bill Press with White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein.

In his newest book, Jason Stanley makes the case that nations don’t have to be fascist to suffer from fascist politics. He says that even with Trump gone, his authoritarian attack on democracy is still being embraced by Republicans.

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.

Bill Press with White House economic adviser Jared Berstein on the limits of trickle down economics and why Biden’s big infrastructure plan is the right response. If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.

Are CEOs Really “Worth” Millions of Dollars?

These days, the haughty rich in our country have developed such an arrogant sense of self-entitlement that they’ve gone from being merely irritating to infuriating.

Unsurprisingly, their plutocratic greed and rigging of the system has generated a political backlash, including a widely-popular push to tax the massive stashes of wealth the upper-upper class has amassed by stiffing the middle class and poor. Alarmed by this uprising, the rich have launched a major effort to defuse public anger – not by altering their own behavior, but by a semantical twist.

The price we pay for corporate consolidation. How the rich hide their wealth. Plus Bill Press with a view from Congress of the chances of passing the American Jobs Act.

Pat Garofalo on an antitrust agenda for working people. Chuck Collins on his newest book The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Spend Millions to Hide Trillions. Plus Bill Press with Congressman John Yarmuth, chair of the House Budget Committee on what it will take to pass Biden’s infrastructure plan. 

In a recent report, the Economic Liberties Project offers a roadmap to how the Biden Administration can reverse a corporate concentration crisis.  Pat Garafola says there is a growing sense across the political divide that this is an issue lawmakers need to confront. 

In his newest book, Chuck Collins explores how the richest Americans are able to hide their wealth and pay next to no taxes, and how this is deepening our nation’s economic divide. 

Bill Press with Representative John Yarmuth, head of the House Budget Committee,  on the necessity of passing Biden’s infrastructure plan. If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com. 

Should Water Be A Wet Dream for Wall Street Speculators

Oh great – here comes a new stealth attack on the fragile, life-sustaining natural resources of Planet Earth. This assault is by Wall Street alchemists who’re out to redefine one of our most basic resources: Water.

Everyone knows that water is “invaluable” – it’s literally life, requiring a constant intake by each of us… or we quickly die. But the Wizards of Wall Street want to reduce potable H2O from its environmental, humanitarian, and spiritual essence to just another perishable economic good that they can market-price and sell to the highest bidder.