#1464 Fighting to Preserve Democracy With Only Democrats to Turn To
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 6 January 2022
⏱️ 73 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date 1/5/2022
Today we take a look at a few of the recent failures and challenges facing the Democratic Party in the face of an oncoming wave of anti-democratic forces bent on establishing an entrenched, minority-rule government through aggressive gerrymandering and voter suppression.
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: Julie Hollar on Moving Democrats to the Right - CounterSpin - Air Date 11-13-20
Blaming the left has been the practice of elite Democrats and their media abettors for decades.
President Biden’s signature $1.75 trillion Build Back Better package appears to be dead after Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced on Fox News this Sunday he would not support the plan to expand the social safety net
Ch. 3: Nancy Pelosi DEFENDS Stock Trading In Congress - The Young Turks - Air Date 12-6-21
Congress has been noticeably inconsistent when it comes to enforcing the STOCK Act, a law that is supposed to stop insider trading and conflicts of interest for Congress members and high-ranking staffers.
Ch. 4: Remembering the legacy of Sen. Harry Reid - All In with Chris Hayes - Air Date 12-28-21
Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has died at the age of 82. Faiz Shakir, a senior adviser to Sen. Reid joins Chris Hayes to discuss his legacy.
Political lines are changing, as states across the country redraw their congressional maps — a process with huge implications for the balance of power in Washington, especially heading into 2022 elections. Lisa Desjardins explores.
Ch. 6: What Can Biden Do For Voting Rights - The Brian Lehrer Show - Air Date 7-14-21
Ari Berman recaps President Biden's major speech on voting rights which comes at the same time as some GOP-controlled legislatures have pushed ahead new state laws restricting ballot access.
Senator Rev. Raphael Warnock talks with Rachel Maddow about the need for Democrats to take it upon themselves to prevent the continued dismantling of democracy in the United States before there is too much damage to repair.
Ch. 8: Activism: Demand Democrats Pass Voting Rights and Election Protection Legislation
MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)
Ch. 9: Remembering the legacy of Sen. Harry Reid Part 2 - All In with Chris Hayes - Air Date 12-28-21
VOICEMAILS
Ch. 10: Thanks for making me coherent - Nick from California New
Ch. 11: To essentialize or not - Scott from Canada
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 12: Final comments on why essentializing race or sexual attraction is not good or even correct
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions):
- Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr
- Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent
- Activism Music: This Fickle World by Theo Bard (https://theobard.bandcamp.com/track/this-fickle-world)
- Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent
- Image Credit:
- Description: Poster on the side of an electric box which reads “SENATORS! MAKE GOOD TROUBLE. DEFEND DEMOCRACY. GET IT DONE! #GetItDone #GoodTrouble #JohnLewis” and a graphic rendering of the late U.S. Representative and Civil Rights Leader John Lewis.
- Credit: “Good Trouble on Capitol Hill” by Mike Licht, Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/notionscapital/51396502460/in/photolist-2kEB8fi-fTRP7-2miJvy9 | License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode | Changes: Cropped, increased brightness and increased contrast
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of Left Podcasts in which we shall |
| 0:06.8 | take a look at a few of the recent failures and challenges facing the Democratic Party |
| 0:11.9 | in the face of an oncoming wave of anti-democratic forces bent on establishing an entrenched |
| 0:18.1 | minority rule government through aggressive gerrymandering and voter suppression. |
| 0:23.2 | Clips today are from Counter-Spin, Democracy Now, The Young Turks, all in with Chris Hayes, |
| 0:29.4 | the PBS NewsHour, The Brian Lairer Show, and The Rachel Maddo Show with an additional members |
| 0:34.5 | only clip from All in with Chris Hayes. |
| 0:42.9 | Well, it's like no matter what happens, elites, including elite media, try to cram it into the same |
| 0:49.6 | frame. The lesson is always the same. Your latest for fair.org describes a post-election |
| 0:56.1 | phenomenon that listeners will recognize from today's headlines, but it's not really new at all. |
| 1:02.8 | What are you talking about there? Well, the last article I wrote is about this phone call that |
| 1:08.3 | happened right after the election among House Democrats. This is a private conversation, but it got |
| 1:12.8 | leaked to the press, in which the right wing of the party started to just go off on the left wing, |
| 1:21.6 | blaming the left for the election being not the blowout that they had hoped. So, you know, |
| 1:27.9 | there was a lot of expectation going into election night that Democrats would lose their House |
| 1:35.6 | majority. They would get the Senate. They'd get the presidency. They'd get a lot of state |
| 1:41.9 | legislatures. And very quickly, it turned out that that just didn't come to pass. |
| 1:47.5 | There was a lot of finger pointing that started from the right toward the left saying, well, |
| 1:54.3 | you know, the reason that this didn't play out how we thought is because you on the left were |
| 2:01.2 | talking about socialism. You were talking about Medicare for All. You were talking about the |
| 2:06.8 | Green New Deal. You were talking about all sorts of things that made it hard for us to get reelected, |
| 2:16.2 | to get new seats, to win the swing district. This is a moment of reckoning. We need to move forward |
... |
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