Mainline Presents: To the Left

Mainline contributor and author Sylvia Johnson joins Aja this week to dive into why we should really care more about gentrification. Besides the obvious problems gentrification brings — increasingly expensive rents and mortgages, higher eviction rates, displacement of lower-income communities of color, and so on — there are deep relations between gentrification, police brutality, and climate/environmental justice that are too often circumvented in the media. Using Atlanta's history and current development stories as a prime example, Sylvia and Aja expand the conversation to where it needs to go: to include and center the two biggest existential threats to Black and Indigenous communities.

This week, Aja is joined by contributor Ryan DeMattia to discuss what's next for the working class and progressives now that Georgia has flipped blue. This year marks the first time Georgia went blue for a presidential candidate since 1992 for President Bill Clinton — and administration that ultimately granted the U.S. the 1994 Crime Bill and the militarization of the police force we see today.

Meanwhile, the nation's eyes remain on Georgia as both Democrats and Republicans charge down the barrel of two Senate runoffs: the special election race between Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democratic contender Raphael Warnock and the crucial running between longtime Republican incumbent Sen. David Perdue and Democratic nominee Jon Ossoff.

What is likely to change under a Biden-Harris administration for working class Americans? How will Georgians' material conditions improve with two blue Senate seats? We reflect on these questions (and more) in today’s episode.

Aja, Chris, and contributing guest Miles Jenson discuss the news of Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis, the new ICE ban on Communist-associated immigrants, Harper Bazaar's latest interview with Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, and updates on the polls in Georgia.

The Mainline presents a new podcast entitled "To the Left," featuring founding editor Aja Arnold and contributing political analyst Christopher Luke. In the official pilot episode, the two cover the Breonna Taylor case decision, the passing of RBG, Trump's new Supreme Court appointee Amy Coney Barrett, the election, what Democrats are (and are not) doing, and what's ahead in the elections in Georgia.