Behind the Scenes: How the Right Wing Is Quietly Planning to Seize Election Infrastructure
The Socialist Program with Brian Becker
The Socialist Program
4.7 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 27 September 2022
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The far right is on the move, installing themselves in key places throughout the election infrastructure of the country. States are considering further attacks, like eliminating early voting, after Republicans have spent decades filling the state legislatures. These attacks are racist, undemocratic, and coming to a head this November.
Brian is joined by Esther Iverem, a longtime journalist, producer and host of the show ‘On the Ground: Voices of Resistance From the Nation’s Capital,’ which comes out weekly on Fridays. Check it out at onthegroundshow.org and two dozen Pacifica stations nationwide.
Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram. We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Basic democratic rights and perhaps democracy itself, even bourgeois democracy, is under attack. |
| 0:10.0 | We need a new system. We need a new society. We need to demand that which may have sounded |
| 0:17.0 | impossible even a few weeks ago, but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. The Welcome to this episode of the Socialist Program. |
| 0:48.9 | I'm your host, Brian Becker. |
| 0:50.5 | If you enjoy or rely on this show or both, please show your support by subscribing to our show on |
| 0:56.4 | Patreon.com forward slash the socialist program. We can't do this show without the support |
| 1:03.5 | and backing and contributions from our listeners. Today we're talking with Esther Averum. |
| 1:13.3 | Esther is a longtime journalisttime journalist, producer, |
| 1:19.9 | and host of the On the Ground Voices of Resistance from the Nation's Capital Program, |
| 1:31.1 | which comes out every week on Fridays. Check it out again on Fridays at on thegroundshow.org and more than two dozen Pacifica stations nationwide. Esther, we're talking today about voting rights. I mean, on this program where you and |
| 1:39.0 | Nicole and Walter and myself have been talking for the past almost two years, we've talked about voting rights a lot, |
| 1:46.7 | but I want to have a particular focus for a couple shows that really sort of zero in on the |
| 1:53.8 | issue of voting rights, because in a way, when the language of the attack on voting rights |
| 1:59.0 | is used over and over again. In a way, it becomes |
| 2:02.2 | sort of clicheish or something that is just normalized. And we don't really fully understand |
| 2:09.2 | exactly how voting rights are under attack. And also, while we know voting rights have been |
| 2:16.1 | under attack, at least for black America, for |
| 2:19.7 | Latino American, for the immigrant community, earlier for women, for low-income people, |
| 2:25.1 | generally speaking, that's been a sort of a theme of American history. |
| 2:28.5 | We are now in an accelerated drive by the right wing in the United States to destroy voting rights, to undermine, |
| 2:37.4 | obstruct, subvert, inhibit, or end voting rights for big parts of the population. |
| 2:43.5 | So I wanted to talk to you. This is going to be the first of a multi-part series. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Socialist Program, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Socialist Program and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.