July 3 - The Next Trump Could Be Worse; "Searching For Our Fiscal Soul"; Dark Money Trickles Down to State and Local Races

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an analysis of the political trends shaking the foundations of both the Republican and Democratic parties that suggests there is worse to come and that this critical election year may be eclipsed by an even more important election year in 2020. John Feffer, the co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies joins us to discuss his latest article at Tom Dispatch “The Most Important Election of Your Life – Is Not This Year” and the possibility that even if Donald Trump goes down in flames in November, Trumpism and the electoral anger that fuels it, is likely to live on. Furthermore, Feffer argues that a more skillful and presentable Republican candidate along the lines of a more likeable Ted Cruz could emerge and capture the movement and ride into Washington as a much more ominous retrograde political force.

Part 2

Then we look into the economics of empathy and speak with Edward Kleinbard, a professor of Law at the University of Southern California who served as Chief of Staff of the U.S. Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation. He joins us to discuss his latest TEDx talk “Searching for Our Fiscal Soul” which makes clear this rich country, filled with anger and mired in inequality, is in need of salvation and could be redeemed if politicians would push for and the public would understand the value of a complementary economy in which government spending is reframed as purchasing investments and insurance which the private sector cannot and will not do.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Douglas Keith, the Katz Fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice who works primarily in the Democracy Program. He is the co-author of a new report at the Brennan Center, “Secret Spending in the States” and we discuss how, since Citizens United, dark money has trickled down from presidential and congressional races, to state legislatures and now to local government races where the investments in campaigns can be small but the rewards huge.