Current Affairs17 Apr 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

Subscribe to Current Affairs on Patreon to unlock all of our bonus episodes and get early access to new releases.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(600)

Neoliberal Economics Has Always Been Bogus

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Eric Beinhocker is a professor at the University of Oxford and executive director of the Institute...

16 Jul 44min

How an AIPAC Smear Campaign Works

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership The Israel lobby’s attempt to destroy Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign is a disturbing example of how mone...

14 Jul 17min

Kshama Sawant Is Taking On a Pro-War Democrat

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Kshama Sawant is a socialist organizer, former Seattle City Council member, and candidate for Cong...

9 Jul 32min

Trump Might Really Invade Cuba

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership There’s barely any pretense that Trump cares about Cuban democracy. This is about privatizing Cuba...

6 Jul 13min

Of Course The Founding Fathers Would Have Hated Trump

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership They rejected kings and were sincerely concerned about the possibility of a dictatorship. But we ne...

3 Jul 15min

Charles Booker Has a Plan to Win Kentucky

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Charles Booker is a former Kentucky state representative and the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate...

2 Jul 41min

The Internet Is Being Erased

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Mark Graham is the director of the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive, and Chris Freeland is t...

30 Jun 49min

A Trillion Dollars Isn’t Worth It If You Have to Be Elon Musk

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Elon Musk is a miserable deadbeat whom no amount of money can make loved, cool, or happy. 🌹 Full a...

27 Jun 45min