Background Briefing: June 22, 2021

On By gram

 

The Debate About Having a Debate in Our Broken Senate

We begin with the debate in the senate today on the For the People Act which was not a debate because in order to have a debate in the U.S. Senate you have to have a supermajority of sixty votes and that is the mechanism by which the minority get to determine what bills are voted on. In effect giving Mitch McConnell control of the senate agenda without having to lift a finger. This is the system of obstruction without cost that Senator Sinema and other Democrats defend in the name of bipartisanship as meanwhile, the Republicans are getting away with rigging American democracy at the federal, state and county level to ensure a white majority party will have one party control over a multiracial majority into the future. Joining us is Alexander Keyssar, a Professor of History and Social Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and author of The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States. We discuss our broken system of government which is far from the perfect union the founding fathers had in mind and what beyond rhetoric can the Democrats do to “stop the steal” underway based on “the big lie” of a disgraced president behind the recent coup attempt of a violent insurrection to overturn the will of the people.

 

Will Biden Make Saving American Democracy a Priority?

Then we explore further what strategies could be employed to prevent the Republican takeover of elections and the dismantling of American democracy and speak with Charles Zelden, a professor in the Department of Humanities and Politics at Southeastern University and author of Bush v Gore: Exposing the the Hidden Crisis in American Democracy, The Supreme Court and Elections. He joins us to discuss the new “Freedom Riders” heading out of the South to the nation’s capitol arriving on Saturday and the need for Biden to make saving American democracy a priority.  

 

Are Conspiracy Theories Behind the Shortfall in Vaccinating 70% by July 4th?

Then finally we speak with Mark Fenster, a Professor of Law at the University of Florida and author of Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture. He joins us to discuss the admission by the Biden White House today that we will not reach the 70% mark of Americans vaccinated for Covid by July the 4th in part due to the influence of anti-vaxxing conspiracy theories that claim the vaccines magnetize your body and contain microchips implanted by Bill Gates so that he can track billions around the globe.