OK Talks

In this episode, I look at Democrats narrow loss in last week's elections in Virginia. I discuss the context for that defeat, ranging from President Biden's temporarily low approval numbers (I go especially into detail on the Afghanistan of it all), to the Republican candidate's success in channeling what I think is voters broad concern about the excesses of the PC movement into the issue of "education" in Virginia schools. Views very much my own.

In this episode, I channel a bit of personal resentment grounded in some facts of life in Barcelona, where I live, to discuss why crime hurts the left and center-left politically in the US and in other democracies around the world. I focus on the importance of addressing the deep need for police reform while also taking crime seriously and proposing some solutions that feel a bit more concrete in the short term.

In this episode, I discuss the reality that America's two political parties are held to a drastically different set of standards. From willingness to tank the US economy just to make their opponents look bad while claiming to be SuperPatriots, to complete disregard for the moral standards they set in their frequent pronouncements of extreme religiosity, the modern Republican Party puts on a clinic on how to be comically hypocritical.

Despite clearly being in the majority in the US voting populace, the Democrats are often frustratingly bad at getting power, and then wielding it when they manage to. In contrast, the Republicans are ruthless and creative in the pursuit and exercise of power to implement their (mainly bad) policy ideas. ...that's terrible, and I basically complain about that reality in this episode.

In this brief episode, I reflect on 9/11, where we are 20 years later, and the tragic loss and sacrifice that started that day and has continued since.

In this episode, I discuss the laws, politics, and culture around paid vacation time in the U.S. versus most of the rest of the world, and the impact that has on the travel habits of Americans, with implications for our politics and collective psychology.

This track serves as the third and, for now, final installment of a multi-part look at some vulnerabilities in American democracy, and what could be done about them. In this episode, I review the importance of addressing these threats to American democracy, and discuss what is probably the biggest impediment to some of these solutions going into effect: the Senate filibuster.

This track serves as the second installment of a multi-part look at some vulnerabilities in American democracy, and what could be done about them. In this episode, I have a conversation with Democrats Abroad Global Chair Julia Bryan, focusing on those threats to democracy, and the steps being considered by Democrats in the House and Senate (HR1/S1/For The People Act) to enact reforms.

https://www.democratsabroad.org

This episode will serve as the first installment in a multi-part look at some flaws in American democracy, and what could be done about them. In this episode, I go back in time to imagine what might have been prevented had the Democratic Party taken advantage of their huge majorities in 2009 to fix some of the vulnerabilities in America's democratic system, and discuss some of what could be done now to start making American politics fairer and more representative of what the people actually want and are, in fact, voting (or attempting to vote) for.

In this episode, I review some of the negative impacts of the Trump presidency, and discuss the need for American voters to remember the damage that can be done in a single four-year Presidential term. We can't afford to gamble with our democracy by ever allowing something like this to happen again.