We’re in a different moment. The idea of Medicare for All has been around a long time. But as the 2020 campaigns kick in, there is clear momentum. Disappointed by the insurance industry role in the ACA, more and more

Under Trump, only white Christian people should be considered citizens. Karen J. Greenberg, Director of National Security at Fordham Law School, argues in this discussion that expanding the definition of enemies moves us toward unraveling society. By taking away citizenship

As it did in the 1920s with the Scopes Trial, the American right hates science. It presents them with truths they need to deny. Clearly on climate change but also when it comes to enabling the social change needed to

One of the things Trump has finally accomplished for the economy is shedding needless regulations which hold back business. Or at least that what many believe. Of course it’s not true. Health and Safety regulations build economic strength, according to

Always out of the headlines, on purpose, America’s military footprint truly spands the globe. And how well is our nearly 18 year old “war on terror” going? Is it working? After what she calls a “research odyssey” Stephanie Savell of

How many of us have looked longingly at our neighbor to the north with it’s sane liberal government? Justin Trudeau promised a fresh approach to politics based on openness, decency, and liberalism. Now corruption scandals swirl about him and his

It’s not a shooting war. Not yet anyway. But already begun is a 21st century version of war. And the fate of the earth is at stake. As both the US and China pour hundreds of billions into this intense

Announced with boundless optimism in 1941, “the American Century” is nearing its end. Since WWII, America has taken over from Britain as the leading empire.  So what caused our decline, what must we learn, and what about America may survive

If you thought something was fishy about what we’re being told about Venezuela you were right. The scene of blocked humanitarian aid at the bridge? Well the bridge has never opened. Our guest Alliance for Global Justice’s Chuck Kaufman goes

Unions are making a comeback. The Flight Attendants scared the heck out of the Trumpists, teachers’ strikes enjoy broad public support. Historian Colin Gordon examines the trends and find that, after years of attacks, the direction of labor unions is

What’s the point? Trump’s policies on immigration and refugees rely on  blatant cruelty and they accomplish nothing. According to researcher and author Arnold Isaacs, who has written widely on refugee and immigration issues, Trump’s policies hurt people instead of fixing

Two minutes every four years, just going into the voting booth to choose a president, is hardly a sufficient tool to leverage the changes which we both need and are possible. As author Paul Street points out, idling capital is

Gandhi and Nehru took their inspiration from the Irish, people like Arthur Griffith. Who? Though violence gets all the headlines, rendering the powerful suddenly powerless though noncooperation is by far the most effective tactic. Our guest Professor David C. Cochran

It’s African and Catholic. Caribbean and European. Our guest Jason Berry’s new book is called City of a Million Dreams: A History of New Orleans at Year 300. And talk about colorful. For cultural identity, Allen Toussaint clashes with Robert

Had Obama announced pull back of troops from Syria and Afghanistan, our guest Major Danny Sjursen says there’d probably be a ticker tape parade. But because of our reactive hatred for all things Trump, a bizarre thing happened: Democrats opposed

Liberal-initiated efforts to eliminate poverty have been top down for about 50 years. But to be successful, development can’t be done to them from on high; it has to be done by the people most affected. We shouldn’t have low

Of course Trump’s wall is useless. If we want to stem the flow of refugees from Central America, and stop wasting billions of tax dollars, a new Marshall Plan is needed. What motivates Central Americans to make the thousand mile

After nearly 50 years, she’s back in the news, and she keeps on pushing.  Angela Davis gained fame/notoriety as the Afro-coiffed California professor/activist speciously charged with helping Jonathan Jackson trying to free his brother George, author of Soledad Brother, from

What is “populism?” It sure is not Donald Trump. Our guest today former Oklahoma Senator and chair of the DNC, Fred Harris, who ran for president in 1976, says of the media “to call Trump populist is complicity in a

This is not your father’s Republican Party. Conservatism has been left behind, replaced by the politics of cruelty. The common good is no longer a concern; Trumpism has openly enshrined greed, and the old checks and balances of democracy as

It’s a uniquely powerful new tool: undermining peoples psychological ability to know and accept reality. In his new book: State of Confusion; Political Manipulation and the Assault on the American Mind, nationally renowned clinical psychologist and author Bryant Welch answers

Democracy in 18th century America worked fairly easily. Nearly 250 years later, we are the least democratic of all the world’s republics. Right, left, or independent: nearly all Americans feel frustrated that the ability for average citizens to have power

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, the people on the streets

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

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

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. Populism today is cultural:

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

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

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,

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