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

  • The Attack on Democracy: What’s Behind Trumpism
    As Trump kicks off his fall campaign, and we wonder who is behind it, who benefits from destroying our republic, here is the story. The religious nationalists see him as a fierce leader. They believe God sends such kings to rule us. Author Katherine Stewart explains the mystery of why they punch above their real political weight in this discussion of her new book The Power Worshippers; Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism. She explains that this new nationalism is part of far right ethno-states emerging worldwide. Distinct from the culture wars of the past, this is a political war, with churches being used for political organizing.  The cultural struggles, such as abortion and gay rights, were seized upon as a way to create this new nationalism which is ensconced in the White House, the Dept of Justice, the Dept of Education, etc. Traditional Americans can,and must fight back and win.
    1 hr
  • Armed Poll Watchers: To Protect or Intimidate?
    Blurring the lines between law enforcement and vigilantism, why are off duty police at the polling stations mainly in black and brown neighborhoods? New Jersey in 1981 is a case study in what has happened and most likely will happen again. The decree that prevented recurrence of the bogus “National Ballot Security Task Forces,” which threatened certain voters, ran out in 2017. Trump’s campaign lawyer called the lack of voter protection a “huge huge deal” for a “more aggressive” election day program. On this show New Jersey’s own Mark Krasovic, associate history professor at Rutgers (in Newark) tells the important cautionary tale. There are lessons to protect our right to vote.
    1 hr
  • Black and Indian, Kamala Harris: A New Mandate?
    She is exactly what Trumpists hate: a strong woman who is both black and Indian. Both groups were the subjects of white male dominance and control. American slavery and British rule over India both had their peak at the same time, while racism and sexism are overt in the Trump era. Our guest, history professor Dr. Manisha Singh wrote an op-ed in the New York Times about why Kamala Harris matters. She says freedom and democracy have been contested from the start, and with the VP nominee,  perhaps November will mean all are welcome.
    1 hr
  • Crowds Win in Waves Over Time
    Many of us were taught to be wary of “mob psychology.” But according to history professor Peter Stearns who has studied the effects of crowds on political change, emotion is not necessarily in conflict with rationality. The protests of the 60s did not end racism, for sure, but they did accomplish tangible results. The crowds in Portland and across the country for Black Lives Matter will similarly require patience and persistence. Stearns points out that despite the justifiable anger, there is a significant “weapons gap” between the crowds and law enforcement. No matter the resistance by unjust powers, popular enthusiasm brings results. Of course creativity is required in the age of Covid 19. Symbolic action, like removing statues, is important.
    1 hr
  • “Homeland Security:” Ideal Authoritarian Tool
    Other countries, like those we defeated, use the paramilitary domestically, not America. Or so it was before the Department of Homeland Security was transformed into the ideal authoritarian tool. Former CIA analyst and professor of government at Johns Hopkins University Melvin Goodman on this show tells us what the DHS has become. Military tactics that were used in Iraq were used on peaceful protesters in Washington. Goodman warns that what happened by the DHS in Portland could become a petri dish for the death of democracy. The politicization of intelligence, of the census, and the postal service, illegal searches and seizures, opening mail, these are done under the cover of “Homeland Security,” actually making America far more insecure.
    1 hr
  • What If Trump Loses? A Future for the Republican Party?
    Donald Trump IS the Republican Party of 2020. So what of the future of the party; is there one? According to David Smith, Washington Bureau chief for The Guardian, some party members quietly hope for a Democratic landslide so they can regroup and redefine. The non-Trumpist Republicans in congress have kept their heads down living in fear of Trump. And the “country club Republicans” have been pushed aside by Trump’s solid base which longs for the myth of dominance and feels that “finally someone is paying attention to us.” If Democrats win, what about the potential of violence by the far-right QAnon, Accelerationists, and Boogaloo Boys who have found a welcome home in the GOP? These Trumpists don’t care about Putin’s influence, the deficit no longer matters, but maybe this can help redefine the Republican Party after Trump. Listen in!.
    1 hr
  • The Jewish Tradition of Anti-Zionism
    How is it that Jewish liberals felt the State of Israel was exempt from criticism applied elsewhere? Our guest today Benjamin Balthaser, who teaches multi-ethnic literature at Indiana University, talks about a little known history: Most liberal and left Jewish Americans were anti-Zionist in the 1930s and 40s. After all, the Jewish culture is portable, and militaristic nationalism is antithetical to the spiritual identity. Jews spread across the world are taught to be citizens of where they are. Both the fascists and Zionists felt there was no place for Jews in Europe,but Balthaser says there were other options in 1945 in the wake of the Holocaust. Now, he argues, Jews should speak up for equal democracy for everyone in Israel/Palestine.
    1 hr
  • Lessons from Portland: Notice What Our Power Is
    Trump’s experiment failed. His TV ads trying to gin up fear of protesters backfired. According to George Lakey, long time activist, retired Swarthmore professor, and author of many books, the center is now even more likely to defend against invasions by any outside force. History shows that nonviolence can be more powerful and strategic than falling into the trap of violent reaction that Trump set. The way to win now against Trump’s ongoing planned coup is to lift up a positive program, learn what works and what doesn’t. Envision alternatives and then build pressure by winning those in the center. Americans overwhelmingly will defend something that already exists and works well. The best thing to do with our anger is to find courage.
    1 hr
  • Covid 19 and Authoritarianism
    The Covid 19 crisis is being used to bolster authoritarianism around the world: Trump, Orban, Bolsonaro, the list goes on. John Feffer, director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies explains how the coronavirus is being used to concentrate power and crack down on immigrants and “The Others.” The authoritarian base looks not to science but to magic in the hands of the man on a white horse. Feffer says while Covid starts the implementation of dangerous “political Darwinism,” we have seen in America a determined resistance to attempts to shut down and destroy democracy. And the military, which has felt the direct effects of Trump’s coronavirus disregard, is not about to go along with Trump’s push for authoritarianism.
    59 min
  • Joe McCarthy: Prelude to Trumpism
    As John Kerry said: “To understand Donald Trump, you have to understand Joe McCarthy first.” Though his name is only mentioned at the start and end of his new book, Larry Tye says Trump is there on every page of his newly published: Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy. From thousands of previously unseen pages of documents, Tye finds that instead of solutions, McCarthy would always point a finger. He even defended Nazi atrocities. Like Trump, he had an instinct for rural appeal. He too relied on everyman language against the elites. The good news is McCarthy is no longer a champion but is seen as a mere bully.
     
    1 hr

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