Beyond Politics

Like many people, we are still reeling from the mass shooting in Texas that killed 19 children and two adults and injured many others. Parents like me are raw with anger, despair, and hopelessness. And what feeds our hopelessness is that at the federal level, there is no prospect of doing even the slightest thing to stop more of this from happening again. Which is why an article caught my eye this morning that is about the real, achievable, practical things that counties and cities can do to curb gun violence. One of the authors of that article, Alex Barrio, is the Director for Advocacy for Gun Violence Prevention at the Center for American Progress, and he joins us to talk about the very real prospect of making a difference on the local level even if our federal government won't. This is a crossover episode of Great Ideas and Beyond Politics. Photo by Colin Lloyd on Unsplash

There's no shortage of virtual ink being spilled over the idea that Democrats are in Big Trouble in November.  As I point out in my new Newsweek article, the President’s party has almost always bled seats in midterms, and this year, even a handful of losses will mean a Republican majority. So for Democratic members of Congress desperately trying to hold on to the slimmest of majorities, the question becomes, what should they do and what can they do in the dwindling number of months before the election? We wanted to pose that question to one of our favorite guests, Ryan McConaghy, who was US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's former right-hand man on the connection between policy and politics. Now at Forbes Tate, Ryan continues to provide advice to advocacy groups across America, but we drag him in for some wisdom for Democrats right now. 

OK, there's no escaping the onslaught of eye-crossingly crappy news, but at least we can try to laugh about it. Andrew Heaton is a comedian, author, and political satirist, and the host of “The Political Orphanage” comedy and news podcast (plus the scifi deep dive podcast “Alienating the Audience” -- go ahead nerds, you know you wanna). Plus he’s the author of 3 best-selling political satire books including Los Angeles is Hideous: Poetry About An Ugly City. And he's a former congressional staffer too.  So Matt and Andrew dive in to how being a staffer ain't what it used to be, how hard and how important satire is these days, what William Shatner said about him, and why Los Angeles truly sucks. 

Chris Hill of Motley Fool Money walks through what the earnings from big retailers like Walmart says about how businesses, consumers, and the market are reacting to inflation...and what we can expect later this year.  Also, how companies are trying to keep their customers amid rising prices, and who is raising prices because they know they can keep their customers.

After we finished recording a really terrific, eye-opening episode with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on how dark money drives Republican candidates and conservative judges to the hard right on issues like guns and abortion, former Congressman Paul Hodes and Matt Robison had a short follow up conversation to digest what we had just heard, why it matters so much, and to provide a little insight from Paul into what goes on behind the scenes in Congress on an issue like this.  Photo by Sivani B on Unsplash

The right wing takeover of the Supreme Court by hand-picked ideologues -- who are now on the cusp of overturning Roe v. Wade -- was a carefully orchestrated effort funded by a flood of "dark money." In just the last 8 years, investigators have identified at least $580 million of those hidden funds, channeled through a tangled network of right wing groups. But even more disturbing is what we don't know: where these funds come from, whose interests both foreign and domestic they represent, and how they all connect. And it isn't just the judiciary: dark money is also flooding into efforts to stop Biden nominations and win American elections. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island has been the Senate's most dogged pursuer of uncovering what is happening, and he joins us to explain what he is seeing. 

The draft opinion that would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling has led to a torrent of analysis about how this moment culminates a five decade-long quest for the religious and ideological right wing in this country to accomplish their most cherished goal. But that history is wrong. Dr. Randall Balmer of Dartmouth College has written extensively about the religious right and he says that under closer examination, the real driver of the story over the last five decades was not really abortion at all. It was segregation. In fact, his Politico Magazine article about it from 2014 that set the record straight became one of the most-read articles on their website again last week.  Dr. Balmer joins us to explain what actually happened, and why it matters so much today.

Even though it was widely anticipated, the release of a draft Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade sent a jolt through America. But the opinion itself is a maze of choppy logic, invented legal tests, and cherry picked precedents - an exercise in stretching an argument to reach a preordained conclusion. To understand what is going on and the impact it could have, we turn to Kimberly Whele, a law professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law and a former Assistant US Attorney who is highly regarded for her clear legal explanations as a CBS News legal analyst and in her appearances on CNN, MSNBC, NBC, BBC, and NPR. Professor Wehle walks through why the ruling is so misguided, and how it could deal a profound blow to many fundamental rights that Americans have come to take for granted.

What is up with the market falling off a cliff? The NASDAQ is off to its worst start of any year this century. Netflix is way down. Tesla shareholders are nervous about Elon's Twitter adventure.  And yet the"aristocrats" of American industry keep delivering. Chris Hill of Motley Fool Money explains.

Why does it seem like so many Republicans are trying to be Tucker Carlson these days? Because consciously or not, they are.  Imitating Carlson's playbook of explosive provocation has become the go-to move for aspiring politicians on the right. Jason Zengerle, the outstanding New York Times Magazine Writer at Large and author of the recent analysis The Rise of the Tucker Carlson Politician, explains why this is happening and what it says about how the Republican party and media landscape has changed in the past two decades.