Beyond Politics

After we finished recording a really terrific, eye-opening episode with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on how dark money drives Republican candidates and conservative judges to the hard right on issues like guns and abortion, former Congressman Paul Hodes and Matt Robison had a short follow up conversation to digest what we had just heard, why it matters so much, and to provide a little insight from Paul into what goes on behind the scenes in Congress on an issue like this. 

Photo by Sivani B on Unsplash

The right wing takeover of the Supreme Court by hand-picked ideologues -- who are now on the cusp of overturning Roe v. Wade -- was a carefully orchestrated effort funded by a flood of "dark money." In just the last 8 years, investigators have identified at least $580 million of those hidden funds, channeled through a tangled network of right wing groups. But even more disturbing is what we don't know: where these funds come from, whose interests both foreign and domestic they represent, and how they all connect. And it isn't just the judiciary: dark money is also flooding into efforts to stop Biden nominations and win American elections. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island has been the Senate's most dogged pursuer of uncovering what is happening, and he joins us to explain what he is seeing. 

The draft opinion that would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling has led to a torrent of analysis about how this moment culminates a five decade-long quest for the religious and ideological right wing in this country to accomplish their most cherished goal. But that history is wrong. Dr. Randall Balmer of Dartmouth College has written extensively about the religious right and he says that under closer examination, the real driver of the story over the last five decades was not really abortion at all. It was segregation. In fact, his Politico Magazine article about it from 2014 that set the record straight became one of the most-read articles on their website again last week.  Dr. Balmer joins us to explain what actually happened, and why it matters so much today.

Even though it was widely anticipated, the release of a draft Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade sent a jolt through America. But the opinion itself is a maze of choppy logic, invented legal tests, and cherry picked precedents - an exercise in stretching an argument to reach a preordained conclusion. To understand what is going on and the impact it could have, we turn to Kimberly Whele, a law professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law and a former Assistant US Attorney who is highly regarded for her clear legal explanations as a CBS News legal analyst and in her appearances on CNN, MSNBC, NBC, BBC, and NPR. Professor Wehle walks through why the ruling is so misguided, and how it could deal a profound blow to many fundamental rights that Americans have come to take for granted.

What is up with the market falling off a cliff? The NASDAQ is off to its worst start of any year this century. Netflix is way down. Tesla shareholders are nervous about Elon's Twitter adventure.  And yet the"aristocrats" of American industry keep delivering. Chris Hill of Motley Fool Money explains.

Why does it seem like so many Republicans are trying to be Tucker Carlson these days? Because consciously or not, they are.  Imitating Carlson's playbook of explosive provocation has become the go-to move for aspiring politicians on the right. Jason Zengerle, the outstanding New York Times Magazine Writer at Large and author of the recent analysis The Rise of the Tucker Carlson Politician, explains why this is happening and what it says about how the Republican party and media landscape has changed in the past two decades. 

When I read the news that longtime US senator Orrin Hatch at passed away at the age of 88, I thought of only one person: Eric Loomis (@ErikLoomis) Associate Professor of history at the University of Rhode Island. Eric just wrote a deep dive on The Editorial Board on Hatch's complicated legacy, one that was at times surprising for someone with a reputation of being a relative moderate with some real bipartisan accomplishments.  Senator Hatch's career provides a lens into the evolution of the Republican Party. 

Matt Robison joins AJ Kierstead on WKXL's The New England Take to break down why the Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post Vs. "Libs of Tiktok" story became such a fact-free partisan spin cycle of stupid. Also, Matt defends his take on President Biden's first year grade (yep, the grade was A+) in light of continuing revelations about the end of the Trump presidency. 

Today, in America, the system is blinking red. Experts are sounding increasingly dire alarms that our politics have become so distorted by anger, partisanship, lies, manipulation, and disinformation – not to mention deliberate steps to subvert American elections – that American democracy itself is in real peril. There may be no more widely respected expert on election law and the role of disinformation that Rick Hasen. He's a Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of California, Irvine and is Co-Director of the Fair Elections and Free Speech Center. Dr. Hasen also served in 2020 as a CNN Election Law Analyst, and is the author of numerous books and articles, including op-eds and commentaries in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Politico, and Slate. His most recent book is “Cheap Speech: How Disinformation Poisons Our Politics—and How to Cure It.”

Chris Hill of Motley Fool Money, the #1 stock investing radio show in America, joins to look at the biggest business and financial stories including Elon Musk vs. Twitter, the clever things Amazon is doing to position itself, the end of mask mandates on airlines, and the big storylines coming out of earnings season.