Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen Burt Cohen

Though it is finally a federal holiday, a lot of people still don’t really know about Juneteenth. It was the day in 1865 when formerly enslaved people learned of the Emancipation Proclamation. But what kind of freedom was it then and where is it today? At least 44 states have passed or proposed legislation to prohibit teaching about structural racism, and books are being banned from school libraries in record numbers. Our guest Jessicah Pierre of the Institute for Policy Studies looks at some issues most whites would rather avoid. She argues that instead of social programs being a handout to black people, “slavery was a handout to white people.” How far have we come, really?

Across the United States there is tremendous support for a taxing the wealthiest among us. So why doesn’t it happen? Well, in Massachusetts, it has. As Inequality.org’s Sam Pizzigati explains in this segment, there was powerful resistance  to the new tax from big corporations but now the state constitution includes a Fair Share Amendment which levies a new 4% tax on the incomes of the super rich. As Pizzigati reminds us, there was much greater prosperity in the mid-20th century when we did tax the wealthiest at a much higher rate. And despite the threats, rich people have not fled from the Bay State. Your state can replicate this!

In his new book The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America, prolific author Larry Tye shares what he learned about the lives of the three men, now recognized as great Americans. The racism they faced their whole lives and the truly unique role Black musicians played in integrating America. In one example, he tells how the mobsters speakeasies opened otherwise closed doors.

Used to be Labour was left, Tories were conservative. Now it seems each party is trying to be just like the other. This right before PM Rishi Sunak shocked everyone by scheduling a new election for July fourth. And stirring it up is the infamous right wing racist Nigel Farage who plans to campaign for Trump and is head of he far right Reform Party. Meanwhile there’s the Greens who are a growing force.  Then there’s We Deserve Better, which is backing independents like former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose successor as Labour leader – and therefore contender to become Prime Minister – is Keir Starmer who our guest says is more Blair than Tony Blair. Embracing Tory positions.  Why should we in America care what happens? They are a lot like us, only different. And the fate of Britain matters a lot to the whole world. Just ask Gazans.

The final chapter in our guest’s new book, Liberalism as a Way of Life asks the question: Requiem for a Liberal Way of Life? Well, is it really over? Reached in Sydney Australia where he’s professor of politics and philosophy at the University of Sydney, Alexandre Lefebvre delves into the weeds of the overlooked but very real pervasiveness of liberalism, not just as politics but as a successful way of life. The freedom from rigid hierarchy of illiberalism scares the crap out of social conservatives and right wingers. And just as gays used to hide, now is the time for liberals to come out loud and proud.

Many Americans were appalled at the violent January 6th assault on the capitol. The thought was: That’s not who we are. But in truth throughout our history, a great number of Americans have supported hierarchies and authoritarianism; freedoim for us but not for those others. On this show Professor Steven Hahn author of Illiberal America: A History, talks about how pervasive this far right has been and continues to be. The liberalism of the 20th century was the outlier, not illiberalism.