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 Rise of History: Vital for Our Future
    Many reject science and embrace myth instead. But just as technological advance depends on knowledge gained through science, so the future of America relies on knowledge of our history. Until recently it has been tough times for History departments. While many parents still see STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) as the only worthy college investment, with the rise in robotics and Artificial Intelligence, humans will still be needed to  supervise. And to market products an understanding of public context is vital.  Trumpism has sparked a rise in interest in learning history. Our guest, author and journalist Knute Berger gives reasons why we need history majors to shape our future. Today’s challenges didn’t just pop up from nothing.
    1 hr
  • 1919/2019: Echoes on Immigration and Race
    Racism was certainly more honest and open a hundred years ago. Today’s voter suppression is far more subtle than blatant Jim Crow laws. But in terms of attitudes on immigration, surprisingly little has changed. On this show Author Arnold Skip Isaacs talks about where we were in 1919 and where we are in 2019. The fear of loss of white Christian male dominance may have been more open back then, but especially regarding immigration of The Other, depressingly little has changed. Attacks on civil liberties and a free press blossomed in 1919. Isaacs also points out that 1919 was a threshold year for income inequality.
    59 min
  • WBCN And The American Revolution
    Like a pebble tossed in a pond, the cultural and political ripples from the pioneering WBCN continue. Launched in March 1968 with Cream’s “I Feel Free,” it became a national phenomenon. With the release of the long anticipated documentary “WBCN and The American Revolution,” award winning filmmaker Bill Lichtenstein (who was a volunteer there at age 14) says the station “moved the zeitgeist.” At a groundbreaking antiwar rally on Boston Common a skywriter placed a peace symbol with the call letters in the sky above. Not just great rock and roll, WBCN figured largely in the women’s rights and gay rights movements, as Lichtenstein so colorfully describes. It was the start of something big: media and social and political change. If you like rock and roll and politics, you won’t want to miss this show!
    1 hr
  • Realistic Optimism for Actual Democracy
    Sure the super rich and powerful want us to accept our powerlessness. But we are not! Since the rule of white male aristocrats, the struggle to tamp down voting has been consistent and largely successful. The are determined to hold power. But not only is that not supposed to be how it works n a republic, but there is ample reason for optimism going forward to the next election. In his new book, Vote for US, How to Take Back Our Elections and Change the Future of Voting, author and law professor Joshua A.Douglas gives examples of average people, “Democracy Champions,” making great strides at the local level to increase voting participation. Ranked choice voting and enabling 16 year olds to vote are just some of the ways to increase democracy.
    1 hr
  • Assange: The Legal Bounds of Journalism
    Applying the standard of  “clear and present danger,” which is more of a threat; an anti-free press government or leakers? What is the state of our old First Amendment regarding Wikileaks? When Assange published the data leaks from Bradley Manning back in 2011, our guest Sandra Davidson published “Leaks, Leakers, and Journalists: Adding Historical Context to the Age of Wikileaks.” Davidson teaches media law at the University of Missouri. How does the Assange case relate to Daniel Ellsberg? Do Americans have a right to know about such things as waterboarding and the Collateral Murder video? How new (or not) is the threat to journalism? What is the legal precedent for this case? What is really at stake?
    1 hr
  • DCCC Fighting Against Democrats
    You would think the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee would be all about electing Democrats to congress. They are supposed to be neutral but instead the more conservative, 1990s wing is circling their wagons to keep out progressives. Even though it may cost them elections. They are pushing hard against the new progressives, against the Green New Deal and against Medicare for All. They seem intent on making the traditional liberals, the revitalized progressives, surrender. But according to Eoin Higgins, senior editor at CommonDreams.org, progressives are doing what’s necessary to fight the new blacklist.
    1 hr
  • Europe at Cliff’s Edge
    The middle fiddled and the right has risen. With the European Union elections fast approaching (May 23-26) the ascendancy of the racist right and the demise of the traditional mainstream left will be tested. On this show, Foreign Policy In Focus columnist Conn Hallinan talks about how the center-left’s adoption of globalism in the 1990s alienated many. And how the nationalist right is tapping in to widespread and deep concerns  which the left used to address. The austerity imposed by the EU has caused major economic inequality throughout much of Europe and increased anger at the centralized decision making of the EU. France’s Yellow Vest movement is one example of huge marginalization. There’s an opportunity for the left. Will they  meet the challenge?
    1 hr
  • Hamilton Against Democracy, Struggle Still Unresolved
    The hugely successful Broadway does a service: igniting the relevance of history to today. Of course it is largely fiction. As  author and historian William Hogeland tells it, Hamilton saw his job as just making America a good investment. He and others of his class intended to crush the threat of democracy. The Whiskey and Shays Rebellions were actually just two of many revolts by ordinary people across the country, demanding democracy not the oligarchy Hamilton and Washington insisted on. And today Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez symbolizes the ongoing unresolved struggle. The play is not over!
    1 hr
  • Heartland Momentum for Medicare For All
    We’re in a different moment. The idea of Medicare for All has been around a long time. But as the 2020 campaigns kick in, there is clear momentum. Disappointed by the insurance industry role in the ACA, more and more people–not just on the coasts–are demanding Medicare for All. On the first segment, Melinda St.Louis, Campaign Director for Public Citizen’s Medicare for All Campaign lays out what it is, what it isn’t, and the fiscal realities. And from Iowa, fourth generation family farmer and registered nurse Barb Kalbach talks about the urgent need for Medicare for All in rural midwestern America in particular. Which Democrats lost last time.
    58 min
  • Trump’s Redefining Citizenship Puts America In Danger
    Under Trump, only white Christian people should be considered citizens. Karen J. Greenberg, Director of National Security at Fordham Law School, argues in this discussion that expanding the definition of enemies moves us toward unraveling society. By taking away citizenship as the administration is trying to do, you make people stateless. And stateless people have nothing to lose; it does the antithesis of bolstering national security. And the use of the increased fear of late night police knocks on your door makes citizens silenced.But how many voices can you silence, she asks in her essay “Citizenship in the Age of Trump: Death by A Thousand Cuts.” Trumps border wall is but a symbol of a much larger cleansing of America. Silence enables it.
    1 hr

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