Original Air Date: 11/10/2020
Today we take a look at the long and shifting history of the myth of democracy in America. We've never had it since the beginning but the reasons have shifted, ebbed and flowed over time. Now, in the midst of an attempted slow-motion coup, we look back at this most central American myth.
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: "Let the People Pick the President" The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College - Democracy Now! - Air Date 10-30-20
Two of the last three presidents — George W. Bush and Donald Trump — came to office after losing the popular vote. "The Framers who met at the Constitutional Convention really had no idea what they were doing when they established how to pick a president"
Ch. 2: The Second Revolution - Scene On Radio - Air Date 2-19-20
After the Civil War, a surprising coalition tried to remake the United States into a real multiracial democracy for the first time. Reconstruction, as the effort was called, brought dramatic change to America. For a while.
Ch. 3: Democracy: Past, Present... and Future? - The Laura Flanders Show - Air Date 6-26-19
Don't remember the past? Does that mean you're condemned to repeat it? What does our country's past tell us about our present— and how can it help us imagine a better future? This week, two leading thinkers on the tricky challenges of democracy.
Ch. 4: More Democracy - Scene on Radio - Air Date 6-10-20
What will it take to make the United States a more fully functioning democracy, and how can we, as citizens, bring about that change?
By host and producer John Biewen, with series collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika.
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Produced by Jay! Tomlinson
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#1614 Deep-Fakery and Deep Consequences for Democracy: AI-generated fake news threatens elections around the world and makes people question the ability to know what is real
Bonus Sample #292 Techno Authoritarians vs Interoperabilities
#1613 Breathless Speculation: Biden's Baggage, Trump's Tyranny, Misleading Media, Courts and Criminality
#1612 New Tech and the New Luddite Movement; Inequitable Distribution of Benefits from New Technology Always Sparks Demands from Labor and AI is Rekindling the Old Arguments
Bonus Sample #291 Recommendations and Manipulations
#1611 Higher Education: the Myths, McCarthyism, and Change Makers at a time when education is under attack for free speech, DEI and CRT but arguably needs changes to meet a changing world
#1610 The Border, and Our Border Politics, Are a Mess - As Trump and MAGA-driven misunderstanding and panic about the nature of immigration dominates election concerns.
#1609 The Post-Roe World is Bad But it Could Still Get Worse - Abortion Bans in the US Are Causing Widespread Suffering for Both Patients and Doctors Attempting to Navigate the New Normal
#1608 Widespread Loneliness is a Solvable Social Problem - Urban Design, Architecture, Co-housing, and Community Action and Support Can Make Our Towns Better
Bonus Sample #289 A Cul-de-Sac of Ignorance
#1607 The Tangled, Flammable Web of War in the Middle East
Bonus Sample #288 Make the Children Cry in Order to Save Them
#1606 Biden's Barriers and Boons to Reelection
#1605 Our Prison System is a Demonstrable Failure
#1529 Monopolies Run By Morons (Repost)
#1604 The Border Crisis is Manufactured for Political Opportunity
Bonus Sample #286 Looking to the Past to See Ourselves
#1603 Clarence Thomas and the Highest Court in the Land with the Lowest Standards of Ethics
#1535 We Don't Do Accountability (Trump and GOP Crimes That Go Unpunished) (Repost)
Bonus Sample #285 The Christians and the Pagans
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