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

  • Defund Police? How Dangerous is That?!
    Chaos and anarchy engulfing America. Won’t that be the result of “defunding the police?” A Trump ad (audio included herein) gins up that fear. But using war-fighting methods and equipment demonstrably feeds and exacerbates violence. Fighting crime after the fact and even having police on patrol in neighborhoods has clearly  limited effectiveness. As our guest Loretta Graceffo of Waging Nonviolence details, the phrase “defund police” is an incomplete sentence. What’s left out is the need to re-direct funds to what actually works to prevent crime and violence. Why are people drawn to violent acts? How does the current way of paying to settle police brutality suits actually ensure more brutality? As Graceffo explains, police actually welcome alternatives.Of which there is no lack.
    57 min
  • “Prison Reform” We Can Do Lots Better. Now.
    The current system clearly tends to worsen already bad situations. Forcing people to see who they are as “bad,” not just they they did bad things. Did you ever think about how we came up with the prison system in the first place? Consider the word penitentiary! On this show, we examine what passes for “prison reform” in 2020. Victoria Law is co-author of “Prisons by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms.” A whole village pays the price today, not just the prisoner.  What does “community policing” actually mean? And what about the drug war? What if a system tells people they are valuable and are a needed part of the community? This may be a unique moment in history for positive change.
    1 hr
  • We’re all Historians Now!
    With the killing of George Floyd and the resulting rage in the streets, this is a year like none other. Old reassuring myths are falling away. Statues are being ripped down. What is still worth preserving?  Can we use today’s moral standards to judge the past? What about the dangers of what our guest, historian Rick Shenkman calls “mobocracy” reminiscent of a “Maoist spirit of fanaticism?” How did we find ourselves with truly fringe groups becoming normalized? He explains how the army bases became named after Confederates. And that it was the right that initiated “cancel culture,” not the left. Author Shenkman suggests a moral accounting is in order , that while morals constantly change, some are actually universal.  He argues history will show that we can’t just be consumers, the meaning of America, the old narrative from the 1770s, remains a good one.
    1 hr
  • Supreme Court Brings Back Legal Discrimination
    By intentionally eroding the traditional wall of separation between church and state, the current Supreme Court is essentially overturning anti-discrimination laws. Under new rulings in the name of “religious liberty,” the right wing dominated court allows institutions receiving public money to refuse service to, well, anyone they chose. On this show, Rob Boston, of Americans United for the Separation of  Church and State explains how recent court decisions enabling public moneys to go to religious schools is part of a truly radical long game to attack the very concept of public education for all, and the notion of government itself. For example, a baker is not a minister and must serve the public equally. A conservative American tradition protecting the rights of all has been eroded. But we are far from powerless.
     
    1 hr
  • Deeper Than You Thought: White Christian Privilege
    It goes back to the 1300s actually and not just non-Christian people are affected; we all are. Often in subtle but meaningful ways. The understanding of the meaning of “patriotism” is involved. When one has this privilege, less exertion is needed than for non-white non-Christians. Though we like to think of ourselves as having real religious freedom, according to our guest author Khyati Joshi in her new book White Christian Privilege, we are not all as free to practice our faith. And Christians are not free from the impact.
    59 min
  • Reagan’s Dog Whistles Worked; Trump Missed That Lesson
    In 1980, candidate Ronald Reagan had the advisors and discipline to be subtle enough about racist messages. Southern white fundamentalists and the NAACP’s Ralph Abernathy all endorsed him for president. As our guest author Rick Perlstein says, Trump turned a dog whistle into a train whistle, and it is not working.While Reagan used code words like “government over reach” and “welfare queen” he was less comfortable saying “states rights,” which he quietly said to a Mississippi State Fair. Reagan skillfully convinced his white audience they were innocent of racism, but not Trump. Perlstein bets it will not help Trump win.
    1 hr 1 min
  • Worshiping Waste As Long as It’s Military Waste
    If the word conservative means anything, it means conserving and not wasting money. Especially public money. How long can politicians claim to be conservative when they studiously avoid looking at obvious waste? Billions, hundreds of billions, trillions. On the first part, we look into hidden military realities in Afghanistan with Brian Cloughley former deputy head of the UN Military Mission in Kashmir, who argues “Afghanistan is collapsing. Get Out: Now.” What happens when the US does pull out? He says “the world will just yawn.” And on part two, award winning investigative reporter Dave Lindorff, who covers national security and military issues for The Nation, reveals the success of the Pentagon to crush a legally required audit. The accounting tricks are nothing short of astounding. He says it’s not secret money it’s fake money, in the trillions. Yet no one in congress speaks out. Time to stop the madness?
    1 hr
  • Kaiser Wilhelm and Donald Trump: Brothers from Another Mother
    The similarities are uncanny and deeply disturbing: Kaiser Wilhelm II and Donald Trump share an amazing number of attributes. Such as fascination with and envy of more powerful people, the need to belittle other heads of state, believing themselves physically irresistible, desperately needing flattery, living in fantasy worlds, and dismissing reality. According to our guest author of 2010’s  The Three Emperors: George, Nicholas, and Wilhelm, both men were basically illiterate. Her recent article asks “What Happens When a Bad-Tempered, Distractible Doofus Runs an Empire.” One important unanswered question is what happens to truth telling and democracy itself after Trump?
    1 hr
  • War Myths and Moral Injury
    Myths of glory and young men achieving manliness through combat serve to obscure the inherent moral injury. Especially in this period of a perpetual state of war. Without clear good guys and greater good clearly accomplished, today’s soldiers, and the institution of the military itself, experience what’s called “moral injury.”  Guest Vietnam War journalist and author Arnold “Skip” Isaacs describes what came out of a recent symposium on moral injury sponsored by the US Special Operations Command. Much to learn. Great monuments stand to reassure mothers and other loved ones that their son or daughter did not die in vain. But  clinging to this explanation serves to perpetuate war. And Trump’s recent pardoning of war criminals only adds to the moral confusion of military personnel.
    1 hr
  • BLM Movement and Shut Down AFRICOM
    Militarized police against African Americans and Africans as well. There’s a sharp rise in consciousness from the murder of George Floyd witnessed by millions. The many resources in Africa have been a curse for that continent, according to our guest Tunde Osazuwa, of Black Alliance for Peace. The “scramble for Africa” may have begun by the white colonialists in the 19th century but it continues today. AFRICOM has invested far more in drone bombing than in dealing with the horrendous Covid 19 plague. What is AFRICOM, and is it working to build alliances with the people of Africa? Osazuwa explains that Al Shabaab is a product of US policy. Now may be a truly historic moment of change. It’s up to us.
    1 hr

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