Leid Stories

Even if it weren’t already a cruel inside joke, it inevitably would become one: The Democratic Party is busily reshuffling the deck chairs on a sinking ship, and welcoming all aboard for a wonderful voyage.

So, you’re not on the boarding list? Don’t be so sure!

Leid Stories looks at how the Democratic Party’s leadership crisis has stymied “third-party” 

The Democratic National Committee held its expectedly raucous winter meeting in Atlanta, Ga., over the weekend, to take care took care of urgent party business. Most importantly, the DNC needed to name a chairperson.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Florida congresswoman who had headed the DNC, was forced to quit last year after DNC emails published by WikiLeaks showed Wasserman was actively sabotaging Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign and supporting her longtime friend and ally Hillary Clinton instead. Party insider Donna Brazile, a frequent political commentator on major media networks, was named interim chair, but when WikiLeaks documents showed that she had passed primary debate questions to the Clinton campaign, she quickly served notice she would not serve her term.

Various factions of the Democratic Party turned up in Atlanta to turn up the heat on the party’s lackluster leadership and to push the new ideas that several new candidates had been campaigning on. But they were outdone. The party machine announced a spectacular “remake” of its leadership to take on Trump and the future: Tom Perez, former secretary of labor President Barack Obama, and Rep. Keith Ellison, of Minnesota’s 5th District, as deputy chair.

Leid Stories discusses these and related developments and their impact on progressive politics.

Her historic 1972 presidential bid—the first for an African-American woman from a major party—all at once presented Shirley Chisholm, a congresswoman from Brooklyn, with a multitude of challenges, both within the Democratic Party and outside it.

In a speech at UCLA that election year, Chisholm discussed the barriers she had to overcome in life and in her professional and political career, why voters should take a new attitude to political involvement

 

 

Barely a month in office, President Trump has marked both his territory and his quarry, and, even in the face of widespread opposition, is making headway with his “vision” for America. Like it or not, the Trump train is on track and chugging along.

Trump’s PR machine points up his get-it-done leadership style and his responsiveness to his determined pledge to keep the faith with his support base. His detractors, especially the Democratic Party, seem unable to check his moves.

So, what is happening here? Is it that Trump, a political neophyte, is actually a political genius, or is it that he timed his entry into national politics when opposition forces had self-destructed, were disorganized, or weren’t even capable of waging a credible campaign. Bottom line: most voters on the flip side of Trump’s coin were demoralized and/or betrayed by the parties and independent movements they supported.

Leid Stories asks: Is a new political leadership to be developed? 

We conclude yesterday’s discussion about the social, political, economic and psychological toll of white supremacy as experienced by the program’s host in her native Trinidad and then as an immigrant in the United States.

We also hear a contrasting view from Nashville, Tenn.-born, self-described anti-racism activist Tim Wise, who discusses race-based life in his home country.

The flawed thread permanently woven into the fabric of American life—white supremacy—is examined from the point of view of its hidden social, political, economic and even psychological costs via our guest, self-described “antiracist” essayist and activist, Tim 

 

 

It’s “Free Your Mind Friday,” our weekly open forum, and listeners’ opinions are the star of the show.

Take on the issues of the day, or any topic you choose, with the intention of offering a view that’s considerably different. Call in (888-874-4888) and speak your truth. We’ll hear the sparks fly!

The crushing Republican sweep of last year’s elections was no fluke or luck of the draw. It was political carnage. Democrats were looking to gain five seats to take back control of the U.S. Senate; they got just two. They won only six House seats; Republicans have a 241-194 majority. Democrats needed 30 seats to retake control of the House; instead Republicans now enjoy a 256-194 majority. At the state level, Democrats got trounced; 28 Democratic governorships went down to 16. With a majority in the Senate, they torpedoed President Obama’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. And, they torpedoed Obama, who was dropping hints that things might have gone better for his party if he were allowed to run for a third term. The Democrats lost 1,042 seats during Obama’s two-term presidency.

President Trump starts his term with a severely wounded Democratic Party, which can do practically no harm to him and his administration. Once again, it falls to the people to fend for themselves. Leid Stories asks listeners: What should be done about the Democratic Party—fix it, or nix it?

Vice President Mike Pence yesterday cast a history-making, tie-breaking vote that confirmed as secretary of education Betsy DeVos, one of President Donald Trump’s most controversial Cabinet nominees. Pence’s vote came after two Republican senators—Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska—joined a unanimous Democratic vote against DeVos, a prominent philanthropist who twice served as chair of the Michigan Republican Party.

DeVos admitted at her contentious nomination hearing that she has no experience in education policy or administration. But Trump has said Vos’s vision for a revamped education system is where her strength lies.

Thomas C. Pedroni, an associate professor of curriculum studies and policy sociology, and director of the Detroit Data and Democracy Project; M. Denise Baldwin, the lead voice against school closures and lead defender of public education in the State of Michigan; and Russ Bellant, an expert on the DeVos family and the religious far right, explain the looming consequences of DeVos’s appointment as secretary of education.

 

 

Freedom. It’s a mighty powerful word. But what is it—or, more precisely, what do we understand it to be?

In the Era of Trump, merely two weeks old, the question of freedom won’t be rhetorical, neither for Americans nor for billions of people across the globe; we have markedly different definitions and ideas about freedom.

Leid Stories listeners define what freedom means in the United States.