Red, White, and Confused

On this week's show, I chat with Jennifer Hayes Clark (University of Houston) about what happened last week with the vote for Speaker McCarthy, and what we can expect over the next two years with this U.S. House Republican majority. We also discuss the rules package that was adopted on Monday, and George Santos (NY-3).

The holidays are here, which means getting together with family and friends.  While that might sound like a wonderful time of the year, it can also be extremely stressful.  So often those get-togethers turn to politics – and why wouldn’t they? With high inflation, multiple tragedies, and the midterm elections, it’s hard to escape talking about politics all together.  If (or rather, when) politics comes up at our dinner tables this holiday season, how can we start to bridge any partisan divides that have developed between our families and friends?  This week I chat with Chris Gates, director of Philanthropy Bridging Divides, a national trans-partisan effort to explore how philanthropy can help bridge ideological divides in America, about how we can better engage in civil discourse.

The 2022 midterm election is finally in the books – and now everyone’s attention has already shifted to the 2024 presidential election.  Will Joe Biden run again, or will there be a new Democratic candidate for president?  Will DeSantis or Trump clinch the GOP nomination – or will another challenger step into the fray?  At this point, it is anyone’s guess.

This week the show focuses on the alignment of voters with the American political parties.  Are the parties what they used to be, and are we actually experiencing a “realignment” in American politics? Join me as I chat with Lee Peterson about realignment theory and what may be the future of the two major American political parties.  Lee is an international political consultant and has worked in more than 50 countries across the globe. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics.

Listen in this week as I and a few students from my Congress class (Trey Stidham and Kelli Parks) chat with Silas House about all things politics and Appalachia.

Silas House is the nationally bestselling author of the novels--Clay's Quilt, 2001; A Parchment of Leaves, 2003; The Coal Tattoo, 2005; Eli the Good, 2009; and Same Sun Here (co-authored with Neela Vaswani) 2012, and Southernmost (June 2018)--as well as a book of creative nonfiction--Something's Rising, co-authored with Jason Howard, 2009; and three plays.  His new novel, Lark Ascending, was just released in September.

In this episode, join me as I chat with two students from UVA Wise (Trey Stidham and Katelynn Parton) about one of their class projects this semester which required them to go out into the community and find out what issues citizens care about. Did residents in the 9th district know who was running in this congressional election? What was the most important problem facing people in the 9th? Finally, given all of their research findings, how would they use this information if they were to run for office in the future?

Over the next couple weeks on "Red, White, and Confused", our attention is going to turn to rural America – specifically our little corner of Southwest Virginia, and what we know about the politics of rural America in general.  I’m joined in this episode by Dr. Kal Munis (Utah Valley University) and Dr. Nicholas Jacobs (Colby College), who are leading academic experts on the urban-rural divide. Listen in as we chat about rural resentment and how Democrats can become a viable party in rural America again.

November 8th is Election Day, and depending on where you live, you might be experiencing a very competitive election, with lots of ads and mailers coming to you about the candidates – or you might live in a non-competitive district, where you rarely see information about the candidates. This week, join me as I chat with Lia Merivaki (Mississippi State University) and Mara Suttmann-Lea (Connecticut College) about their research regarding how different states' election officials are encouraging people to register and vote, and what activities are paying off for stimulating participation in our political process. 

In this current Supreme Court term, the Court will hear Moore v Harper – which is a case that surrounds the drawing of legislative districts by state Supreme Courts. Since many states, like Virginia, have moved their redistricting process out of the hands of their state legislature, the court's decision could have wide-reaching effects for the redistricting process nationwide. Join me today as I chat with Chris Warshaw (George Washington University) and Eric McGhee (Public Policy Institute of California) about the positive effects of independent redistricting commissions, like the creation of fairer and more competitive legislative districts.

Our elections and our dinner tables have become more contentious over time as many studies have shown increasing levels of partisan animosity.  Many Americans are concerned that our country is on the brink of losing its democracy, and studies have shown that there is a growing acceptance of political violence.  Can we stop this, and is beer the answer?  Join me on this episode as I chat with Jan Voelkel, a PhD candidate in sociology and a researcher at the Polarization and Social Change lab at Stanford University, about the “Strengthening Democracy Challenge.”

On August 24, 2022, the Biden administration announced a new initiative on college student debt forgiveness, where borrowers are eligible for $10,000 in loan forgiveness, or $20,000 if they are Pell grant recipients.  On today's show, I chat with Mallory SoRelle, assistant professor of public policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, and   Serena Laws, senior lecturer of political science at Trinity College, about the public opinion surrounding this initiative and debt relief more generally, and whether this policy might affect the upcoming midterm elections.