Part One:
THE REVOLT OF THE CENTER-RIGHT
We speak with Walter Shapiro, fellow at the Brennan Center and an award-winning journalist. He now writes for the New Republic and Roll Call. A former speechwriter for Jimmy Carter, Shapiro is now covering his 11th presidential election. (An amazing feat — Do the math!)
We discuss Shapiro’s recent article on the demise of the Republican Party. It has been hollowed out to such an extent that many decent-minded former Republicans are looking for a new political home. “Pres. Trump may finally have gone too far for beaten-down old-school Republicans and military leaders.” Former Defense Secretary James Mattis lashed out at Trump for using taxpayer-paid police and military to brutally clear peaceful protesters out of Lafayette Square, merely so the president could strut across the park for a campaign-style photo-op. Other generals and police chiefs have expressed similar criticisms.
Now even the very few moderates remaining in the Republican Party are balking at voting for Trump in November. Colin Powell has declared his intention to vote for Joe Biden, a rare rebuke of a sitting president of one’s own political party. Senators Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski may soon follow Powell’s lead. Perhaps even more troubling for the Trump reelection campaign is that this revolt by prominent Republicans just might sway soccer moms in the Phoenix suburbs and GOP party loyalists outside Detroit to refrain from casting a vote for president, to vote for down-ballot candidates and then leave the presidential line blank.
Part Two:
CAN MONOPOLY POWER AND DEMOCRACY COEXIST?
We talk with Matt Stoller, author of “Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy.” He is the Director of the American Economic Liberties Project where he focuses on corporate financial and political power. The American economy has shifted from producing tangible goods – automobiles, machines, consumer goods, factories – to so-called “services,” which are means by which corporations with great market power have their “skids greased” by banks, other financial “service” providers, and Wall Street stock brokers aka capital-generators.
These changes, coupled with institutional and historic racism, have shredded the American social contract. The public used to vest our political power in the hands of government officials who had taken an oath to serve the public’s interest. Now, mega-corporations and wealthy donors have taken control of our elections and our government (as well as from our economy and society). They have removed the word “people” from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
African-Americans and other people of color were especially isolated from any positions of power or control. Thus, between the 1930s and 1960s, when white homeownership was subsidized and expanded, white people’s wealth grew enormously. And that gave whites a big stake in our society and maintaining stability. But black folks were excluded from the American dream of home owner-ship. They were given no stake in the system. Instead, they were made to resent their exclusion, to feel hurt and humiliated by the discrimination against them.
Stoller explained the social contract this way: People who disagree about certain issues either “cut a deal” or they “go to war.” A system of democracy mediates disputes through peaceful mechanisms and thereby avoid war. But when that social contract gets sufficiently frayed, and the power imbalance gets too unequal, the peaceful options tend to disappear from the table. People without a fair stake in our society may take to the streets and demand their right to equal justice.
Perhaps the beginnings of such a social movement is occurring right now, in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd. And perhaps a new social contract – a fair social contract that benefits everyone – may result from this movement and lead us to a society that is democratic, open, and community-oriented.
