Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at background briefing. I'm me and Masters,

and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin on this New Year's Eve with an analysis of the year we are ending and the critical year about to begin

as the political realignment in this country changes with the previously sought-after center,

all but disappeared as a GOP is now a far-right party.

Joining us to discuss this and the headwinds Biden is facing in 2024 is Richard Parker,

who teaches economics and public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government

and is a senior fellow at the Schoenstein Center.

He is the former managing editor of Ramparts, was a co-founder

of Mother Jones magazine, and serves on the editorial board of the nation. His books include

The Myth of the Middle Class and John Kenneth Galbraith, his life, his politics, his economics.

Then we'll speak with a recovering Republican about his party's embrace of fascist language

and a leader who admires Hitler and the worst dictators on the planet, like Putin and Kim Jong-un.

Joining us is Michael Lofgren, who has spent 28 years working in Congress, the last 16 as an analyst,

on the House and Senate Budget Committees.

He's the author of The New York Times bestseller, The Party is Over,

How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats became useless, and the middle class got shafted,

and we'll discuss his article at Common Dreams, Stolen Elections, Then and Now.

And before we begin, as the year rapidly comes to a close, many are looking for tax

deductions. So I hope you'll consider making a tax deductible donation at backgroundbriefing.org

or at our foundation, publictruthmedia.org, so that we can continue to seek out facts and information

to awaken America's silent majority before democracy is trumped by fascism. And joining us now

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