Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen
Latest Episodes
France’s Yellow Vest Movement Explained
Neither the traditional French Socialist Party nor the right wing National Front, the yellow vest movement sweeping across France is something new, leaving the political powers including President Macron befuddled. With about 70% public support,
Democrats Took The Wrong Lessons From McGovern ’72
Conventional Democratic Party wisdom is that McGovern lost to Nixon because he was too liberal, and as a result of that belief, ever since that loss party insiders have trended steadily to the right. But if today’s measuring tools had
Obvious Migrant Solution//CNN Fires Professor
A wall isn’t going to work. What will work is addressing the reasons desperate Central Americans walk a thousand miles. Foreign Affairs columnist Patrick Lawrence suggests ways to alleviate the conditions causing the caravan. And on part two, why did
Populism Ain’t What It Used To Be
At its birth, American populism was about economic fairness: The average citizen demanding power over his or her own life against the un-American economic royalist political influence of the rich and powerful. But that was then.
Cracking Down on Democracy//White, Rural, Republican
In an unprecedented power grab, Republicans in Wisconsin are doing all they can while they still have the power to shut out democracy itself. On part one, The Progressive’s Ruth Conniff in Wisconsin describes the brazen moves by the lame
Worshiping Waste As Long as It’s Military Waste
If the word conservative means anything, it means conserving and not wasting money. Especially public money. How long can politicians claim to be conservative when they studiously avoid looking at obvious waste? Billions, hundreds of billions,
Ensuring Poverty: Welfare Reform in Feminist Perspective
When myths inform legislation, harm often results. So much of today’s welfare reform, based on myth, works to keep people in poverty. It’s been created from a top-down, men-dominant model and it brings not dignity but despair. In her new
Not Learning From History: Franco Not Dead Anymore//WWI Women
It’s right there for us to learn from. Not facing history has terrible consequences. With the rise of right wing authoritarian Trumpism in America the long dead Spanish dictator Franco is being reborn. As Spanish political history professor at Oberlin,
Midterms Reveal Dangerous Regional Divides
America was not created as one nation. There were, and still are, eleven distinct nations in North America. The recent midterm elections show that we remain more and more like a set of different nations divided by geography. To gain
The Death of Democracy: The Weimar Republic. And America?
Antiglobalism. The little guy not feeling heard. City sophisticates and their culture mistrusted by country people. A pretend anti-elite which actually caters to the powerful elites. Intense hatred of the press.