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

  • One State: A Reality But Not Yet a Solution
    A two state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is no longer possible. In his book Paradigm Lost: From Two-State Solution to One-State Reality, our guest Ian S. Lustick, political science professor at U of Penn, reveals that Israel changed drastically between the wars of 1967 and 73. It has gone from what we’d see as a blue state to an Oklahoma-level red state, the far right firmly in charge. He says “there was a big boom of arrogance” after the military victory, resulting in avoidable problems. With the rapid advance of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, a long-sought two state solution is no longer possible. Lustick says that annexation can actually become a positive, that a new opportunity for full incorporation is emerging. One democratic state with equal rights for all. A very valuable perspective.
    1 hr
  • We Need Smedley Butler Now More Than Ever. Who?
    He was a famous military hero known throughout America. Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler was awarded two Congressional Medals of Honor between 1898 and the early ’30s for his outstanding military service. Eventually he realized those wars were not about protecting America but, despite the genuine best of intentions our young men and women, were instead about serving the interests of oil companies and profiteers. Butler labeled his own actions as being a “gangster of capitalism.” Butler took in what he experienced and toured the country opposing new wars. So now his name has been erased from history. Today instead we see “hyper-adulation” of the military culture. Army Major Danny Sjursen on this show shares the virtually unknown story of this brave patriot.  And he asks: why aren’t there other high ranking officers today speaking out? They surely know the truth about our now perpetual state of war. We need them more than ever.
    1 hr
  • Why The Runway To Adulthood is Longer Now
    How is it that we don’t see four and a half million young Americans? Kids who have fallen through the cracks,not connected to either school or work. People between the ages of 16 and 24 living in their parents basements or in the streets. With virtually no prospects. How is it that the runway to adulthood has gotten longer? Author Anne Kim’s new book Abandoned: America’s Lost Youth and the Crisis of Disconnection reveals that the problem is worst in rural areas. Unlike earlier times, manufacturing and other jobs have disappeared.Kim says “the structure of opportunity is stacked against young people.” The adultification of young people of color, the abandonment of aged-out foster kids, and the private sector unable to step up enough, along with the discovery that brain development at this age is as important as early childhood: there are programs which can cost effectively increase young people’s resilience. And this disconnectedness is one reason young people are drawn to Bernie Sanders!
    1 hr
  • Why Have We Not Gotten Smart About Race?
    When some say African Americans can also be racist, that is not accurate. So says noted sociologist and author Margaret L. Andersen. Individuals can be prejudiced, sure, but racism is linked to a system of power. Since there is no gene for race, what is it really all about? In her new and timely book Getting Smart About Race, Andersen argues that calling racists “racist” only makes them dig in their heels. No one wants to be thought of as racist. She says that statistics show that appealing to a moral consciousness actually does work. And with formerly majority white Americans fast becoming a minority, there is fear as if others will cut in line and get what they do not deserve. But she says one does not have to lose out on anything as a white minority. It is good to acknowledge the value of diversity, not like the colonizers did, but from instead sharing power. It’s been a frustrating long time coming, but Andersen has faith in young people addressing our old racism habits.
    59 min
  • Two Early 19th C. Fugitive Black Boys Change a Nation
    It’s an amazing story that started well before the Civil War. Conventional wisdom was that African Americans could only progress so far. Their race was believed to hold limits. But through education and some incredible bravery, the two boys James McCune Smith and Henry Highland Garnet beat the stacked odds and through harrowing circumstances revealed visions of freedom that hadn’t happened yet. When African kids were displayed as freak show exhibits, these men went on as contemporaries of Frederick Douglass and one spoke to Congress. They differed in their approaches, one more moderate, the other fiery. Sound familiar? It’s a fascinating story which perhaps Hollywood will notice.
    1 hr
  • After NH, Now What for the Democratic Candidates?
    Iowa and New Hampshire’s results are in. What’s the best way for Democrats to beat Trump? On this show former Oklahoma Senator DNC chair and presidential candidate Fred Harris, who embraced populism in the 1970s, talks about different approaches: going for the middle of the road or being bold. He says we face a truly existential threat to democracy and that people want candidates to stand for something, to have “moxie.”  Authenticity is crucial, he says, and TV does much to reveal if it is there or not. Senator Harris deals with the question of Bernie’s socialism, saying it is what FDR was all about. He believes when people understand what it is, they will go for it. The former DNC chair successfully democratized the Democratic Party, and with the internet, the big money powers have even less sway. The man knows his stuff!
    1 hr
  • Public Service Is Not a Deep State
    Twenty two million Americans. That’s the number of people working for the government. Trump insists this huge amorphous mass is the enemy of his administration and has it in for him. But our guest Cedric Alexander argues in his new book In Defense of Public Service that this “fourth branch” of government will save our republic. As they are humans and not automatons, they blow the whistle when something isn’t right. They bravely bring facts to light. And they worked through the government shutdown, sometimes without pay. Alexander argues it’s a good part of government that deserves recognition.
    1 hr
  • Australia’s Fires: Both Victim and Perpetrator
    Putting out wildfires is one thing but how about paying attention to the causes? Our guest today is Daniel Judt who wrote a cover story for The Nation: “Australia’s Devastating Wildfires Were Not Inevitable.” Australia is among the highest emitters of greenhouse gases. Yet Prime Minister Scott Morrison insists Australia has already taken robust climate action and that “the business-as-usual model gets us there” quickly. But Judt says they are actually hiding emissions growth and that the coal lobby is the most powerful of all. Many Aussies fear this could be the new normal. Meanwhile Australia’s indigenous people have done “cultural burning” for thousands of years, controlling and effectively benefiting the ecosystem. There is wisdom the white government has yet to tap. And what a price they pay.
    1 hr
  • Trump-Netanyahu Deal: Disappearing a People
    Trump calls it the “Deal of the Century.” Just announced with much fanfare, a new peace plan for Israel and Palestine. Only with no Palestinian participation. The ceremony was with Trump, Netanyahu, Jared Kushner, and Sheldon Adelson, and some may suggest it was timed to distract from both Trump and Netanyahu’s significant political troubles. Ethnic conflict specialist Sheena Ann Arackal dissects the plan and sees it as a way to ensure continued “Grand Apartheid.” The deal enables Israel to annex what are now illegal settlements, promising Palestinians self government when Israel decides they are ready, not unlike the British colonies. And Arackal notes that enforced apartheid is not stable and does not increase Israeli security one bit.
    59 min
  • Inequality in The Trump Era: More of The Same But With Cruelty
    “The Trump administration didn’t invent the policies that redistribute wealth and income to the top, but it has doubled down on them in characteristically cruel and petty ways,” according to today’s guest Colin Gordon, history professor at the University of Iowa who has written extensively on American economic inequality. A strong economy needs a middle class to stimulate demand but under Trump it has evaporated. Devolution, sending power to the states, has been in practice since Reagan; the effects today are spelled out by Gordon. And tax rates, he says, are one thing on paper but many profitable corporations are actually getting money back, with “money sliding around in a frictionless way” as rules are carefully evaded. The National Labor Relations Board, created by FDR to protect workers rights, now always favors employers in a remarkably dictatorial set up. All this is harming our real national security.
    1 hr

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