Kairoticast

In an interview with Anand Giridharadas Chuck Schumer said that he was looking for Joe Biden to have a First 100 Days like Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s.

Democrats, in many ways, look to FDR as the gold standard of Democrats. He was probably the most popular Democrat ever (I mean, he got elected four times!), he got us out of the Great Depression, his programs are some of the most popular and enduring of any programs ever. He certainly had his flaws – nobody is forgetting the internment camps – but FDR style leadership and economics set the bar for what Democrats would and should be for decades to come. So when Schumer, and others, say they want Joe Biden to have an FDR style presidency, they are making a comment about a number of things: [Read More]

It has been a WEEK, friends. I think I have aged. I am tired and emotional and as of Saturday morning the election has been called for Joe Biden. We’re just waiting to get the final count of electoral votes, and we don’t know how long that will take.

Friday morning Biden pulled ahead in Georgia and my timelines completely went berserk. Then he pulled ahead in Pennsylvania and the world totally turned upside down. My phone blew up and my twitter feed went crazy and my Facebook timeline was just nuts. Some groups were ready to call the election. A lot of editorial desks wanted to put that off until things were more certain, but everybody was talking about how these changes, and the definitive trends, made it look like a Biden win was more and more inevitable. [Read More]

Hello, welcome to Kairoticast. I’m your host ,Elizabeth Thorpe.

We usually record on Mondays and Tuesdays and post our podcast on early Wednesday morning. Obviously this week, that’s a little awkward.

Right now, as I am recording this, people across the nation are voting. [Read More]

Today I want to talk about free speech and citizenship. We’ve touched on it before, but we haven’t devoted a whole episode to just that topic before.

Consider this: In any kind of authoritarian government there is no need for free speech. In a monarchy, or dictatorship, or fascist, or any kind of tyrannical government there is no need for the people to have any voice because it is all top down. One guy (and it’s almost always a guy) makes all the decisions and that’s how things are done. The people have no say in anything – so why do they need the permission or ability to speak? There is no need for them to have a voice. But in a government where the people have power, it is absolutely essential for the people to be able to speak, both to each other and to those who rule. The right to speak and the power of the people within the government are directly related. The more powerful the people are to rule themselves the more voice they have in the public sphere to speak to themselves and to those who ostensibly are in charge. [Read More]

We have covered some hefty topics on Kairoticast, before. We’ve talked about truth, conspiracy, misogyny, and race, but today we are courting controversy in a way we have not done before. Of all the things we have talked about before today’s topic is possibly one of the most divisive and produces some of the worst arguments, on all sides, and leads people to do and say terrible things. It is emotionally charged and divisive and has been driving American politics and discourse for decades. This is the abortion episode. [Read More]