Day: December 12, 2022

Background Briefing: December 12, 2022

 

At Saturday’s Celebration of American and European Fascists and Their Sympathizers, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene Called for an Armed Insurrection

We begin with Saturday’s gathering of American and European fascists and their sympathizers at the New York Young Republicans Club’s annual gala at which in closing remarks, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said to rapturous applause that if she and Steve Bannon had organized the January 6 storming of the Capitol, “We would have won. Not to mention, it would’ve been armed.” The significance of this is that the new Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has sold what is left of his pathetic soul to Greene in the hope she will help him get elected speaker and as a quid pro quo, lawmakers in the next congress will be supporting lawbreakers. Joining us is someone who attended then was tossed out of Saturday’s gala, Michael Edison Hayden, a Senior Investigative Reporter at the Southern Poverty Law Center. A three time grantee of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, he is the author of a new report at the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch blog about Saturday’s fascist’s festivities, “White Nationalists, Other Republicans Brace for ‘Total War’.

 

How the House Was Flipped by Black and Latino Republicans Who Won Decisively Without Moderating Their MAGA Politics

Then we look into the new black and Latino Republican members of Congress who helped flip the House from the Democrats and ran as full-on MAGA candidates winning decisively without moderating their politics. Joining us to investigate the seven, four of whom won seats previously held by Democrats, is Joseph Lowndes, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Oregon and an expert on conservatism, the Tea Party, social movements, the GOP, race and elections. He is the author of From the New Deal to the New Right: Race and the Southern Origins of Modern Conservatism, and co-author of Producers, Parasites, Patriots: Race and the New Right-Wing Politics of Precarity. We discuss his article at The New Republic with Daniel HoSang, “How Right-Wing Candidates of Color Delivered the House to Republicans.”  

 

The Pledge to Primary Sinema Who Bernie Sanders Says Sabotaged the Most Important Legislation and Voting Rights

Then finally, with Senator Bernie Sanders suggesting Arizona Senator Sinema’s switch from Democrat to Independent happened because, “I think Democrats there are not all that enthusiastic about somebody who helped sabotage some of the most important legislation that protects the interests of working families and voting rights and so forth. So I think it really has to do with her political aspirations in Arizona.” Joining us is Kai Newkirk, a progressive organizer in Tempe, Arizona who co-founded Democracy Spring and was the architect of the largest American civil disobedience action of this century. He has trained thousands of people across America in movement organizing and nonviolent direct action and he is the co-founder of the Arizona Coalition to End the Filibuster and the Sinema Primary Pledge project.