It's the Democracy, Stupid Featured Interviews

Edwin Eisendrath is joined by Samuel Bagenstos, the Frank G. Millard Professor of Law at the University of Michigan; he specializes in civil rights, labor and employment law, health law, and governance. 

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).   

And find “The Big Picture (Full Episodes)” podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Amazon and TuneIn.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Filling in for Edwin Eisendrath, Professors William Muck and Joel Ostrow are joined by Rima Ziuraitas, certified TACMED instructor and medic in Ukraine. 

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).   

And find “The Big Picture (Full Episodes)” podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Amazon and TuneIn.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Edwin Eisendrath is joined by Ezra Levin, co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible. 

Levin discussed the movement's multifaceted efforts to counteract Republican overreach, emphasizing the importance of local, group-based organizing, but conceded failure in stopping the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law July 4.

"It is one of the least popular pieces of legislation in American history," Levin told WCPT. "It is a piece of legislation that cuts Medicaid and other health care services for the vast majority of Americans while cutting taxes for billionaires and millionaires. The people were pushing against it. We were driving a massive amount of calls and actions to vulnerable Republicans, trying to convince them to vote in line with their constituents' interests, the kind of campaign that we ran in 2017 to save the Affordable Care Act, successfully. And it was striking how little success we had pulling over even vulnerable Republicans, Republicans who should fear for their future political lives for supporting this legislation, and they still voted for it. They still voted for it because they are more scared of Donald Trump and MAGA than they are of their own constituents right now. And that's dangerous. That's dangerous for democracy. And what it tells me is focusing on Congress is not enough. Focusing on the courts, I think we're finding, is not enough. We have to actively push back against this administration, this federal overreach, wherever we are, in red states, blue states and purple states, in rural communities, urban communities, suburban communities. That's what we need to do right now, and that's where our focus is now shifted in the in the aftermath of the reconciliation bill fight."

Levin detailed the success of the June 14 "No King's Day" protest, which he called "one of the largest protests in American history," adding: "We were in 2,169 communities, actually, not just in America; we were across 27 countries . . . . And we had 5 to 6 million people, showing up saying, we don't do kings in America. An incredible day, an incredible demonstration of the power of nonviolent, peaceful protest in America.  

He also spoke about the launch last week of One Million Rising. "We had 150,000 people register for this training on nonviolent, strategic noncooperation," Levin told Eisendrath. "The experts said this was the largest training in history on nonviolent, strategic noncooperation. So we are breaking records. Lots of people weren't engaged before lifting their heads up and asking themselves the basic question, What can I do? And we're trying to point them in the right direction."

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).   

And find “The Big Picture (Full Episodes)” podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Amazon and TuneIn.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Edwin Eisendrath is joined by Andrea Pitzer,  journalist and author of One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps.

Pitzer defined the concentration camp as mass civilian detention "without any real trial. So if there was a trial," she explained, "it was just a show trial, or a big group, 100 people getting sentenced at once, something like that, done on the basis of race or ethnicity or religion or political party, rather than an actual crime that was committed. And it's almost always done to separate a targeted group from society, to remove them from society, and it's almost always also done to consolidate and build political power."

She highlighted the evolution of concentration camps from the 19th century to the Nazi era and warned of their resurgence in the United States under the Trump administration. Pitzer emphasized the importance of independent courts, legal aid, community activism and protests in combating this development. 

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).   

And find “The Big Picture (Full Episodes)” podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Amazon and TuneIn.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Edwin Eisendrath is joined by David Nir, publisher of The Downballot.

Nir discussed the importance of local and state elections, highlighting the significant number of elected offices in the U.S. and their impact on democracy. He talked about the resurgence of interest in down-ballot races, citing Wisconsin's recent Supreme Court race as an example. He emphasized the role of independent media in providing unbiased information, contrasting it with the vulnerabilities of corporate media to co-optation. Nir also spoke about the challenges faced by the Democratic Party, including the need for generational change and the importance of endorsing primary winners. Additionally, he talked about the resources available in The Downballot Ultimate Data Guide.  

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).   

And find “The Big Picture (Full Episodes)” podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Amazon and TuneIn.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Edwin Eisendrath is joined by Anderson Clayton, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party.

Clayton talked about how North Carolina Republicans have, over the past 15 years, poisoned state politics with extreme partisanship. "I think it's really important to know that when Democrats had control of this state, the number one thing that they did was invest in public education. When Republicans took control of it in 2010 it became a 'we have got to deny and we have got to degrade public education in this state,' to the point where they have now given away billions of dollars over the next decade to private school vouchers, to take away money from public education in North Carolina. The teacher raises that the governor is fighting for in his budget right now is just trying to come back from where Republicans have lowered teacher pay so much over the last 10 years; we're just trying to give back teachers what the state used to do for them, actually. And I think it just goes to show . . . how much our state legislature is hurting communities with that."

Clayton also talked about the Republican-controlled state legislature's failure to pass a budget this year.  "The Republicans in the House cannot agree with the Republicans in the Senate on how much to cut, essentially, and we're at a place right now where [Governor] Josh Stein has asked for . . . a 10 percent raise on teacher pay in the state of North Carolina, and our state legislature is arguing whether or not to give them 3 [percent]." 

She added: "When you're a state legislator, the one job that you have is to pass a state budget. I mean, that's just basics of if. If you don't have a budget, you don't have a way to operate your business. And right now, Republicans, who are supposed to be best in business, are refusing to acknowledge the staple thing that we need to be able to move forward as a state."

The conversation touched on the impact of recent federal cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the prospect that North Carolina will no longer be able to provide SNAP assistance by 2028. "It won't be something that the state can provide because 1.4 million people are going to lose SNAP benefits from the federal government, and that would mean that the state legislature would have to fork over about $240 million a year to be able to keep SNAP up. That's the legislature that I just told you couldn't pass a budget. You think that they're going to be able to help people that are hungry right now in our state? Absolutely not." 

Clayton emphasized the importance of local engagement, citing a 50-county rural tour the party is undertaking this summer to connect with communities and elevate local issues. She also talked about the open U.S. Senate seat that recently opened when the Republican incumbent, Thom Tillis, declined to run for another term. 

Asked by Eisendrath why listeners should care about what's going on in North Carolina and why they should support the North Carolina Democratic Party, Clayton said:

"Because if North Carolina had not been a gerrymandered state, Hakeem Jeffries would be speaker of the House right now, and there would be a check on Donald Trump's agenda. We are paying the price right now for ignoring the state of North Carolina in 2020 and in 2022, and we do not anticipate for the national party and national apparatus to do that again to us, because North Carolina is the future of the South but also the future of the Democratic Party. And we need to make sure that we take back and that we repeal racial and partisan gerrymandering in the state by 2028, which we will do with our Supreme Court, and we're going to give four more United States House of Representative seats back to the Democrats, along with two Democratic senators that we're going to have both up in 2026 and in 2028. So we've got a lot of power left to give to the national level, and we're excited to do it." 

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).   

And find “The Big Picture (Full Episodes)” podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Amazon and TuneIn.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Edwin Eisendrath is joined by Allison LaCroix, the Robert Newton Reid Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School.

LaCroix discussed the evolving nature of federalism and states' rights. She explained that federalism involves distributed power among national, state, and local governments, tracing its roots to the British Empire and the American colonial period.

"What we have now, in 2025, through the text of the Constitution, actual practice and lived governance and cases coming from the Supreme Court says, yes, in fact, states are real," LaCroix told WCPT. "They have a domain that they can operate in and are supposed to operate in, and that domain doesn't totally overlap with the national government. And there are things that the national government can do, there are things the states can do, and that's not an overlapping set of things. 

"So states aren't just the agents of Washington, D.C. And we know this in lots of ways. We see it all the time. And we can think of, under the Biden administration, when we had the governor of Texas saying there's an invasion at the Southern border and putting up fences and all sorts of things. And then we can think of it today, with lots of different states saying we are going to protect migrants and protect other sort of populations and rights. So it's on both and all sides of the political spectrum, and always has been. But I think today it's a surprise to many people to see blue states, I'll say, claiming states rights, because our past hundred or so years of experience has been that it was the right, it was conservative, it's segregationist states saying to the federal government, no, you can't desegregate the schools. But in fact, states rights arguments go back and have always been found on all sides of the political spectrum."

LaCroix also addressed the Supreme Court's role in defining federal power.

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).   

And find “The Big Picture (Full Episodes)” podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Amazon and TuneIn.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Filling in for Edwin Eisendrath, Turi Ryder talks to Audrey Francis, artistic director of Steppenwolf Theatre and director of Steppenwolf’s “You Will Get Sick,” playing through July 20.

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).   

And find “The Big Picture (Full Episodes)” podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Amazon and TuneIn.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Edwin Eisendrath is joined by Tomás Kloosterman, national political director at Swing Left.

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).   

And find “The Big Picture (Full Episodes)” podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Amazon and TuneIn.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Edwin Eisendrath talks to John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation.

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).   

And find “The Big Picture (Full Episodes)” podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Amazon and TuneIn.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.