'BradCast' 6/2/2021 (Guest: Roosevelt Univ. political scientist David Faris on democracy in peril)

On today's 'BradCast':  We continue to sound the alarm about the perilous state of democracy in the U.S. right now, as Republicans around the country work to pass laws to make it harder for voters to vote and to allow Republicans to reverse election results they don't like. Heroic Democratic Texas state lawmakers who temporarily blocked a massive voter suppression bill are begging Congress to for a 'national response' to defend voting rights. More than 100 prominent academic democracy scholars published a 'Statement of Concern' about Republican-controlled state legislatures 'transforming...states into that no longer meet the minimum conditions for free and fair elections.' Author and Roosevelt University political scientist DAVID FARIS, one of the signatories on that statement, explains how these ongoing Republican machinations will allow them to steal the 2024 election, in a do-over of Trump's sloppy attempt to steal the 2020 election. Faris explains a chilling worst-case scenario, in which Republican legislatures, elected with a minority of votes in 2022 and 2024 thanks to gerrymandering and voter suppression, overturn the popular vote, or simply send their own slate of Republican electors to Congress regardless of who voters choose. Faris also discusses whether national Democratic leaders grasp the existential threat to our democratic system, and what actions can be taken now to defend it. Also today:  the Federal Elections Commission fined the parent company of the National Enquirer $187,500 for its role in illegal hush-money payments to one of Donald Trump's mistresses to prevent her story from influencing the outcome of the election. In New Mexico, Democratic state Rep. Melanie Stansbury won a special election for the U.S. House in a 'landslide victory' over her Republican opponent.