Persisting

On this episode, Terry & Alexa talk about a country at a political crossroads that leads either to an improved democracy that is on the real road to working for all of us, or a future that is authoritarian, and increasingly cruel. We use Jalani Cobb's excellent article, What Black History Should Have Already Taught Us About the Fragility of American Democracy to think through the importance of race for our democracy. And our kudos this week go to NFL player Carl Nassib who became the first active NFL player to come out as gay. He also donated $100,000, which was also then matched by the NFL, to The Trevor Project, ad suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ youth. 

One of the Republicans' favorite words is FREEDOM. And on this episode, Terry & Alexa talk about how it has become a code word for some pretty bad behavior that impacts ALL of us.

We use as our framework an excellent article by Scott Galloway titled The Myth -and Liability - of America's Obsession with Rugged Individualism. 

Republicans have passed or are trying to pass hundreds of bills to suppress the vote in our country. As you might imagine much of this effort is focused on key midterm senate election states like AZ, GA, WI, Co, IA and FL. And on this episode, we talk about what President Biden and the Dems are doing about it. Is it enough? What more can they do if it isn’t?

Today’s discussion is informed in large part by two thoughtful articles by Ron Brownstein in the Atlantic. 

While many of us weren't looking, anti-abortion Republicans have been stripping women of their lawful right to abortion. The battle seems endless. Republicans are pushing 536 bills in 46 states targeting abortion access. Of those, 146 bills aim to completely BAN abortions and 61 anti-choice bills have already gone into effect in the past four months!

So far this year, GOP lawmakers in 36 states have introduced more than 90 anti-protest bills aimed at stopping Americans from exercising their rights under the constitution to protest. For example, Florida’s new law defines a “riot” as any public disturbance involving three or more persons that results in any injury or damage to property. It also grants immunity to drivers who hit protesters with their cars. Oklahoma and Iowa have now passed similar laws. And many others - including more progressive ones like Oregon - have similar bills in the hopper.

So where are these laws are coming from? They are the backlash to the BLM protests of last summer.  

We had so much to say last week about the culture war Republicans are launching against Joe Biden’s American Family Plan (and specifically how they relate to what we call the ongoing War on Women) that we are back for Round 2. 

Nearly 3 million women left the workforce in 2020, and only 1.5 million had returned by late April of this year. Schools closed, which forced children home and increased burdens on women again to look after them. But that's just one part of the picture. 

On this episode we talk about the culture war Republicans are launching against Joe Biden’s American Family Plan and specifically how it's related to the ongoing War on Women. Overall, women have lost a net of 5.4 million jobs during the pandemic-induced recession compared with 4.4 million lost by men.

On this episode, we talk about how broken policing is breaking our democracy. Negative interactions Black and Brown citizens consistently have with police contribute to lost trust in our government. This episode is informed by a great article by Zack Beauchamp published in VOX which talked about the recent incident where a group of boys on bicycles were stopped by police officers in the town of Perth Amboy, New Jersey.

Caron Nazario. Adam Toledo. Daunte Wright. Robert Delgado. On this episode, we talk about the epidemic of police violence, the ugly history of policing in America, the militarization of the police, and what actions Persisters can take. 

THIS WEEK’S ACTION: 

SIGN THE ACLU’S PETITION TO STOP THE MILITARIZATION OF THE POLICE