Background Briefing: July 26, 2022

On By gram

 

Pence and Trump’s Dueling Speeches and Some Legislative Victories For Biden

We begin with the dueling speeches in Washington today from former Vice President Pence and former President Trump in which Pence rejoiced, “We save the babies, we’ll save America” and Trump declared darkly, “Our country is going to hell.” Joining us for an assessment of the speeches and of some legislative victories in the pipeline that may help reverse Biden’s sinking poll numbers is Harold Meyerson, one of the nation’s best-known progressive columnists and editor-at-large of The American Prospect. He also writes regularly about California politics for the Los Angeles Times and other national publications, and we discuss his latest article at the American Prospect, “The Good, the Bad and the Omitted in the Electoral Count Act” as well as examine the possibility Attorney General Garland is acting with excessive caution because he is afraid that indicting and trying Trump could spark a civil war. 

 

How the Oligarchy Bought the Supreme Court to End American Democracy by Decree

Then we look into the contrast between the January 6 hearings bringing to light how Trump was determined to overthrow the government by force while at the same time the three judges he appointed to the Supreme Court showed how to overthrow the government by decree. Joining us is Robert McElvaine to explain how the greedy American oligarchy decided the best way to achieve their objectives was to buy the least democratic branch of the American Republic and are now in the process of attaining their goal. He is a Professor of History and Chair of Arts and Letters at Millsaps College and is considered one of the world’s leading historians of the era of the Great Depression and is the author of ten books including The Encyclopedia of the Great Depression. His most recent book is The Times They Were a-Changin’ – 1964: The Year the Sixties Arrived and the Battle Lines of Today Were Drawn and we discuss his article at Salon, “Seven days in June: A coup more effective than Donald Trump’s.”