Current Affairs17 Huhti 2023

The Dysfunctions of Our "Democracy" and How To Fix Them (w/ Tom Geoghegan)

Thomas Geoghegan is a labor lawyer and writer whose latest book is The History of Democracy Has Yet To Be Written: How We Have to Learn to Govern All Over Again. MSNBC's Chris Hayes says of the book: "This book made me laugh out loud and also gave me glimpses of an entire horizon of possibility I hadn't seen before.” Indeed, while Tom's book examines the hopeless dysfunction of our political system (including amusingly describing his own effort to run for Congress), it's also a look at how we could make a much, much better system of government if we were committed to getting rid of the filibuster, making voting mandatory, restructuring congress, and passing the PRO Act. Even though we often assume that we stand on the cusp of an authoritarian end to democracy, we actually have within our grasp the possibility of making it far more stable and having a Congress that actually represents the people of the country. Today, Tom joins to discuss his book, telling us what it's like to run for Congress in Chicago in a freezing winter (not fun) and why democracy depends on making the labor movement flourish again.

"The labor movement is necessary to pull people into the political process. If it's the right kind of labor movement, it's going to have the goal of all true republican government: to help people govern themselves, to increase people's capacity to be citizens, to increase people's capacity to rule and take responsibility for all aspects of their lives." — Tom Geoghegan

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Palestinians Shouldn’t Have to Be Perfect Victims (w/ Mohammed el-Kurd)

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Mohammed el-Kurd is a Palestinian writer from Jerusalem, The Nation’s Palestine correspondent, and ...

31 Elo 31min

AIPAC Knows Its Money Is Toxic (w/ Track AIPAC)

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Track AIPAC is an advocacy and watchdog project that tracks AIPAC and other pro-Israel political sp...

27 Elo 31min

Both Parties Are Failing Working People (w/ Dan Osborn)

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Dan Osborn is an independent candidate for U.S. Senate in Nebraska and a former union leader who fi...

25 Elo 19min

The Israel Lobby Is More Desperate Than Ever

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Eli Clifton is an investigative journalist and co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible S...

21 Elo 36min

The “Silent Genocide” in Cuba (w/ Abby Martin)

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Abby Martin is a journalist, filmmaker, and creator of The Empire Files. She joins Current Affairs ...

20 Elo 53min

Socialist Defends Medicare for All on Fox News

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Nathan J. Robinson returns to The Will Cain Show to defend Medicare for All, California’s proposed ...

18 Elo 4min

Send Ben Shapiro to Iran

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Why should other people’s children be the ones who die in the wars he promotes? 🌹 Full article by ...

13 Elo 13min

Graham Platner and the Left’s Misogyny Problem (w/ Yasmin Nair)

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Yasmin Nair is a writer, activist, and longtime contributor to Current Affairs. In this conversatio...

11 Elo 1h 17min