Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen

Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen

By Burt CohenSociety & CultureNewsPolitics
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Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen episodes

  • Can Democrats Address What Fuels Angry Populism?
    Populism is a legitimate form of anger at perceived elites dismissing everyday people. There are indeed real reasons for today’s populist anger. On this show Rutgers Law School professor Dennis M.Patterson explains why we need to take populism seriously. It is not what most of us think it is.  The up front elitism of Hillary Clinton looking down her nose at “deplorables” may be the most significant factor in the 2016 election. So many Americans feel overlooked, of course there is resentment, which is the main feature of populism.But it is not too late for Democrats to learnand adjust accordingly. There may be reason for hope after all.
    1 hr
  • Could the Military Save Us From Civil War?
    In normal times, it’s the the military making war elsewhere in the world, allegedly to protect our peace at home. But with armed white gangs afraid their dominance of America may be slipping away, and with a president egging them on, civil war is a real possibility.When no-drama Obama recently advised Americans “Do not let them take your democracy” he doesn’t say such things lightly. On this show, Andrea Mazzariano shares her informed concerns, as she asks: War Zone America? Perspectives on a Riven Nation from a Worried Military Spouse. Of the militarization of local police, having lived in Russia, she says “There is no end to the creativity of a police state.” America is becoming like countries she has seen: lacking resources, people are dividing against one another. If Trump loses and refuses to leave, Mazzarino says the military leadership is quite reluctant to take sides at home.
    1 hr
  • Anti-Racist Feminism Key To Covid, Environmental Solutions
    How did we get in this mess in the first place? Will little tweaks allow America to effectively address climate change, racism, and the deadly pandemic? Author Northeastern University professor Jennie C. Stephens argues that there is a “polluter elite” and that “energy democracy,” decentralization of political and energy power, are what is needed to meet the challenge. And the male-dominated structure focusing on preserving power and competition is not up to the job, where a new cooperation actually is. In her new book: Diversifying Power: Why We Need Antiracist, Feminist Leadership on Climate and Energy, Stephens says the problems, and solutions, are truly interconnected.
    1 hr
  • Women Lead March to Health Coverage
    Significant historic change it seems is often led by women. The movement for universal health care is not exception. Women telling their stories, leading from where they are is the key ingredient. In her new book Marching Toward Coverage, author Rosemarie Day points out how women can lead the fight for universal health care when despite decades of effort, we are still not there. And it does not have to be Medicare For All which leads to “lack of choice shock.” She helped create the Massachusetts solution which covers 98%. And she points out that 200 African Americans die every day from preventable health issues, like a jet crash every day. Of course the richest will have to do their part.
    1 hr
  • Trump and Netanyahu’s “Peace Deal”
    The president calls it a “previously unthinkable regional transformation.” But perhaps it both solidifies the power of medieval monarchies masquerading as modern states, as it ramps up sales of US weapons systems to them. Retired US Army Major Danny Sjursen says this alleged peace deal, announced with such fanfare on September 15th, does nothing for peace. Neither the people of Bahrain or the UAE or the Palestinians had any input in the process. Meanwhile the Saudis are of course behind the scenes, worried about the Shia people who live above where the oil is. And Sjursen says it is curious how Israel makes peace with avowed anti-Semites.
    1 hr
  • A New CCC to Save the Planet?
    FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps achieved remarkable success in so many areas: Creating meaningful work for young men in a time of mass unemployment, planting forests, conserving our natural resources. It ended with the start of World War II. Perhaps now is a perfect time for a new CCC. On this show, Jay Alexander, founder of the CCC Initiative talks about what life was like in the CCC camps, and how the parks we take for granted came to be. He suggests a new CCC could use aircraft carriers to clean up the massive islands of plastic floating in the seas, address forest fires and floods and other effects of climate change. Building real national security for a tiny fraction of what we spend on weapons. What a concept! There are bills in congress to make it happen.
    1 hr
  • Unsafe to Protest? Realities Behind the Portland Picture
    We’ve seen it on the nightly news: the police, the tear gas, the fires, and the wall of moms. Our guest today, David Rovics is there in Portland Oregon and he explains that the city’s police protected the far right thugs as brother cops,just not official. The invasion by secret federal troops, grabbing people and throwing them into vans, brought out many more locals. Rovics explains that protesters organized into effective affinity groups, and that burning barricades were defensive against violence to humans. Over the three months, the dynamics have evolved. America has much to learn from Portland.
    1 hr
  • The Pandemic is Boosting Unions in the South
    The standard picture we northerners have of The South may no longer be accurate. Average working people are starting to see that the anti-union governments there are really just serving the rich. The long-thought-dormant left populist tradition of people like Huey Long is being revitalized in large part by the realities of the Covid 19 pandemic. Today’s guest, Joseph B. Atkins is a veteran writer and professor of journalism at the University of Mississippi. He says more southerners are realizing that the church, which has traditionally taken the place of government when people need help, is funded by anti-union companies. And while Trump said he’d help working people, they see he has failed. Political leadership may still be anti-union but the average people are not. Who knew: hope in the South!
    1 hr
  • Racism in the Women’s Suffrage Movement
    There’s a brand new Central Park monument of feminist leaders Stanton, Anthony, and Sojourner Truth. It was a hundred years ago that the 19th Amendment became law: women won the right to vote. But what kind of compromises did the white women leaders decide to make? Black women had to be at the end of parades. Might the nomination of Kamala Harris for vice president mark a turning point when women of color finally get to lead the parade? On this show Melinda Henneberger, editorial writer and columnist for the Kansas City Star addresses the choice made by celebrated suffragist leaders to win support from the southern states. White supremacy was maintained. But young people today experience not a separation of struggles but a convergence, one movement now.
    59 min
  • Why is Sexual Freedom So Frightening?
    The nuclear family, white hetero male dominance and control is not the only way it can be. Why can we can have firearms freedom but not sexual freedom? On this show, Janet Jakobsen professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Barnard College discusses her new book: The Sex Obsession: Perversity and Possibility in American Politics. As with all questions of freedom, barriers to keep us separate and being fully human help no one. The narrow boundaries which have existed since the end of WWII serve to keep the powerful powerful, and as Jakobsen says “equality keeps not happening.” Oddly enough the pandemic is actually revealing new more liberating possibilities.
    1 hr

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