December 07th, 2020

The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen, December 7, 2020

We rethink the week with Valerie Endress, professor of political communications, Rhode Island College; Dean Spiliotis, Civic Scholar and Presidential Scholar at Southern New Hampshire University; and Robert Hennelly, investigative reporter for Slack.com, the NJInsider, @stucknation, and for The Chief/Leader, a public employee union journal in NYC.

Among the topics that we discussed are:

          What is a fair – and effective – way to decide how COVID vaccines are distributed (initially and over time)?
          Rudy Giuliani has tested positive for COVID-19.  Has he (and other Trump supporters) spread the virus to large swaths of the population?
          Will the U.S. have a peaceful transition of power from Trump to Biden?  What problems – short-term and long-term – will result from Trump’s false  allegations of fraud/ denial that he lost/call for armed protest and violent rebellion?  Must we take serious precautions against a civil war or martial law?  Will the military stand up and defend our democracy or will some enable Trump’s illegal attempts to stay in power?
          Even after Trump is gone, our country suffers from a fundamental distrust of institutions – on both sides of the political spectrum.  What can we do to overcome that?  How can we rebuild that trust?  While we do that work, how much more will our democratic processes erode?

          Our economy continues to turn downward.  What can we expect the new administration and Congress to accomplish in an effort to restore economic prosperity?  And what about a more equitable distribution of the fruits of that prosperity?