December 13 - A Scathing Takedown of Trump in USA Today; An Optimistic Leftist Sees the Political Tide Turning; Will the Punishment of California in the Tax Bill Backfire on the State's Republican Delegation?

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the extraordinarily scathing editorial from the centrist national newspaper USA Today that asks “will Trump’s lows ever hit rock bottom” then goes on to say “a president who would all but call Senator Kirsten Gillibrand a whore is not fit to clean toilets in the Barack Obama Presidential Library or shine the shoes of George W. Bush”. Jennifer Mercieca, a professor in the Department of Communications at Texas A&M University where she teaches courses on Political Communication and Presidential Rhetoric, joins us to discuss how Trump has broken the mold of traditional presidential decorum and to quote the editorial “if recent history is a guide, the unique awfulness of the Trump era in U.S. politics is only going to get worse” because of “Trump’s utter lack of morals, ethics and simple humanity”. We will assess whether, just as the people in Alabama grew tired of Roy Moore’s antics and the baggage of sexual assault accompanying him, the American people may well tire of the daily embarrassment the vulgarian in the White House brings to the office of the presidency.

Part 2

Then, following an election victory in Alabama that many see as a repudiation of Donald Trump and Steve Bannon, we will explore whether the political tide in turning in America and the bad guys are no longer winning as the good women in particular make a stand with a good guy like Doug Jones elected to the U.S. Senate instead of fire and brimstone theocrat and child molester. Ruy Teixeira, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and author of a new book “The Optimistic Leftist: Why the 21^st Century Will Be Better Than You Think”, joins us to discuss the beginning of what he sees as a revival of the American left galvanized in opposition to Trump and mobilized to vote for change.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Marc Sandalow, the editor-in-chief of the California News Service who spent 21 years with the San Francisco Chronicle including 11 years as the paper’s Washington Bureau Chief. We will analyze whether the punishment of California in the Republican tax bill and the double standard of relief for hurricane victims in Florida and Texas but not for fire victims in California, will backfire on California’s Republican delegation in the 2018 election since 11 of the 14 voted for the tax bill.