The Reason Roundtable

Untethered from real-world constraints, progressive Democratic policy goes utopian.

Reason editors discuss the contents, significance, and symbolism of the Green New Deal, and what it means for both the Democratic Party and the future of utopianism.

Untethered from real-world constraints, progressive Democratic policy goes utopian.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown talks about DHS's "Blue Campaign," which is pushing hotel and airline workers to call the feds if they suspect human trafficking.

In her blockbuster exposé "Are You a Woman Traveling Alone?," Reason's Elizabeth Nolan Brown does a deep dive on the Department of Homeland Security "Blue Campaign." This campaign pushes the hospitality industry, air travel companies, and other businesses to call the feds if they suspect customers are involved in "trafficking"—an increasingly loose term that covers everything from slavery to traditional prostitution. The Marriott hotel chain, for instance, recently tweeted that all of its 750,000 employees worldwide are "being trained to help spot sex trafficking in our hotels."

For today's Reason Podcast, Nick Gillespie talks with Brown about her story. More often than not, she writes, crackdowns on trafficking translate into rousting women sitting alone in bars and other common areas, snooping on fathers traveling with teenage daughters, or calling federally funded tip lines on guests who have "too many" condoms. In several recent high-profile cases involving airlines, "staff trained to 'spot traffickers' have harassed interracial couples and families. When people are asked to use gut instinct to stop real but rare horrors, relying on racial stereotypes and other biases tends to rule." Brown also documents the role of Polaris Project and ECPAT-USA, nonprofits that operate tip lines and provide training on spotting trafficking, in promoting these fears.

Whatever the intentions behind the Blue Campaign, and despite Donald Trump's promise in his State of the Union address to crack down on traffickers smuggling women across "wide-open areas" on the U.S.-Mexico border, there is no evidence that sexual slavery is on the rise in the United States. The result, Brown argues, is that consensual sex work is being redefined as trafficking and the privacy of all Americans is taking another hit.

"The agenda I will lay out this evening is not a Republican Agenda or a Democrat Agenda. It is the agenda of the American People."

In a quick reaction to the State of the Union, Reason Editor in Chief Katherine Mangu-Ward and Features Editor Peter Suderman talk rockets, socialism, American greatness, alliteration, uteruses, and Nazis.

"The agenda I will lay out this evening is not a Republican Agenda or a Democrat Agenda. It is the agenda of the American People."

This past weekend gave witness to one of the most unimaginable political scandals of the 21st century, as yearbook photos from 1984 of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam in either blackface or a KKK costume surfaced. Northam, 60, first apologized for the pictures and then denied he was in them. But he acknowledged that he had used blackface during a Michael Jackson dance competition in his twenties, and he seemed like he might be about to demonstrate his moves at a press conference until his wife told him not to. According to Big League Politics, the site that published the photo, a medical school classmate leaked it because of Northam's support for a bill that would have lessened restrictions on late-term abortions.

On today's Reason Podcast, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, Matt Welch, and Nick Gillespie discuss whether Northam will survive and the changing politics of race. We also talk about Sen. Cory Booker (D–N.J.), the latest Democrat to announce a presidential bid, and his shift away from school choice, which he supported heavily as mayor of Newark; why Medicare for All has no chance of happening; and why baby-boom icons dominated Super Bowl ads. We also preview President Trump's State of the Union Address, which takes place on Tuesday, February 5, at 9:00 P.M. ET.

Audio production by Ian Keyser.

'Railroad's Whisky Co' by Jahzzar is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

What comes next in the Virginia governor scandal, why "Medicare for All" ain't happening, and how Baby Boomers are a fatberg clogging America's cultural sewers