November 6 - What is Behind the Record Low Turnout?; A Minimum Wage Raise Passes in 4 Red States as Democrats Run Away from the Issue; A 90 Year Old Chef and 2 Pastors Arrested for Feeding the Homeless

Full Program

Part 1

We  begin with the record low turnout in Tuesday’s midterm election in which 83 million Americans voted, down from 91 million who voted in the 2010 midterms, compared to 130 million who voted in the last two presidential elections. Karthick Ramakrishnan, a Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at the University of California, Riverside who directs the Asian American Survey and is the founding editor of the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, joins us to discuss the reasons why two thirds of the electorate did not show up at the polls and who makes up this silent majority of Americans who end up getting a government unlikely to represent their interests.

Part 2

Then we look into the four red states where a minimum wage raise initiative passed; Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota, to try to explain why Democrats did not get behind this winning issue that across the board, conservative and centrist, as well as liberal voters supported. Peter Davis, a staffer at Ralph Nader’s Center for the Study of Responsive Law where he is the Campaign Director of “Time For A Raise”, joins us to discuss why a majority of small businesses support a raise in the minimum wage and the letter that he and Ralph Nader wrote to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, urging them to uniformly and exuberantly push for a minimum wage raise.

Part 3

Then finally, following the arrest of a 90 year old chef and two pastors in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for feeding the homeless, we examine the national trend towards criminalizing the homeless as American sentiment appears to be gravitating from compassion to callousness. Michael Stoops, the Director of Community Organizing at the National Coalition for the Homeless, joins us to discuss why more and more American cities are passing ordinances outlawing the feeding of homeless people in public places, and why there are no alternative facilities available or efforts to address the root causes of homelessness that often involve mental illness and alcohol and drug abuse.