Month: May 2020

Background Briefing: May 27, 2020

 

Can the Republicans Get Away With Unpopular Programs While Ignoring Popular Demands?

We begin with an analysis of why the Republicans are determined to enact unpopular measures like more tax cuts for the rich, immunity for big corporations, bankrupting the Post Office and forcing states into bankruptcy instead of going along with popular programs like giving relief to states, localities, frontline medical personnel and workers. Jacob Hacker, a Professor of Political Science a Yale University and co-author of American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper and his forthcoming book Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality, joins us to discuss his article at The New York Times, “Republicans Think They Can Get Away With It. They Might be Right; The leaders of the governing party can’t seem to stop doing and proposing unpopular things”. With Republicans finding all sorts of ways to throw money at Wall Street while short-changing Main Street as they continue to resist helping the 40 million unemployed and protecting workers from the coronavirus while trying to force states into bankruptcy, we assess why they are doing it and whether they will get away with it.

 

A Murder by Police in Minneapolis Could Sink Klobuchar’s VP Chances

Then we examine the tense situation in Minneapolis following the killing of a black man by a white police officer who kneeled on a man’s neck for 8 minutes until he died ignoring the man’s plea that he could not breathe and the concerns of onlookers who begged the police to ease up, calling out “he is human bro.” David Schultz, a Professor of Political Science at Hamline University and the University of Minnesota Law School, joins us to discuss why rioting against police brutality in Minneapolis is likely to get more intense and how this incident might sink Amy Klobuchar’s chances of being picked as Joe Biden’s running mate.

The Unholy Alliance of White Nationalists and White Evangelicals

Then finally we speak with Sarah Posner, a reporting fellow with Type Investigations about her latest book, just out, Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Alter of Donald Trump. She joins us to discuss Trump’s recent pandering to evangelicals demanding churches be reopened and the alliance Trump has forged between white nationalists and white evangelicals as well as offering insight into why the Religious Right turns a blind eye to Trump’s outrageous lying as though the 8th Commandment “Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Thy Neighbor”, no longer mattered.