Just Politics U.S. Catholic

In our Season 3 finale, Just Politics engages in conversation with one of the fiercest advocates for democracy in U.S. politics today: Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the assistant leader of the House Democratic Caucus. A lifelong champion for civil rights, Rep. Clyburn sees the connection between policies that improve people’s daily lives and the strengthening of democracy. He is also a person of faith who recognizes the valuable role that faith plays in U.S. politics, helping connect people with the values that build a more just society for everyone. To listen to the rest of this season dedicated to democracy, check out previous episodes:
What’s a Catholic to do? (featuring Sister Anita Baird)
https://uscatholic.org/articles/202311/just-politics-whats-a-catholic-to-do/ 
The perilous legal landscape (featuring Celina Stewart)
https://uscatholic.org/articles/202310/just-politics-the-perilous-legal-landscape/ 
Actual strategies for saving democracy (featuring Rachel Kleinfeld)
https://uscatholic.org/articles/202310/just-politics-actual-strategies-for-saving-democracy/ 
What just happened!? (featuring Ronnate Asirwatham)
https://uscatholic.org/articles/202310/just-politics-what-just-happened/ 
How did we get here? (featuring Lisa Sharon Harper)
https://uscatholic.org/articles/202310/just-politics-how-did-we-get-here/ 
It may be nationalism, but you can’t call it Christian (featuring Amanda Tyler)
https://uscatholic.org/articles/202309/just-politics-it-may-be-nationalism-but-you-cant-call-it-christian/ 
When it’s your community (featuring Nichole Flores)
https://uscatholic.org/articles/202309/just-politics-when-its-your-community/ 
What we mean by fragile (featuring Jarrett Smith)
https://uscatholic.org/articles/202309/just-politics-what-we-mean-by-fragile/ 
Just Politics is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries.
https://claretiansusa.org 
https://myclaret.org 

On this season of the podcast, we’ve looked at Christian nationalism, voter suppression, threats of political violence, and other threats to democracy. In this episode, we ask: What’s a Catholic to do? What role do people of faith and goodwill have in repairing these structural issues? And who’s to blame for creating the conditions that got us here? Sister Anita Baird, D.H.M. offers insights on these questions. As a Black Catholic sister, she offers a distinct perspective on what it means to participate in a system that impacts people’s lives and well-being. She also draws parallels between the struggle for the future of U.S. democracy and the unprecedented listening that is occurring in the Catholic Church via the synod process.
More from Sister Anita: Watch her participate in a dialogue panel on the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington hosted by Georgetown’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life: https://catholicsocialthought.georgetown.edu/events/the-sixtieth-anniversary-of-the-march-on-washington-for-jobs-and-freedom 
Just Politics is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries. 
https://claretiansusa.org
https://myclaret.org 
 

Some threats to democracy, such as the insurrection on January 6, 2021, are lawless and loud. But others draw on the workings of the law to turn them against democracy itself. In this episode we talk to Celina Stewart, chief counsel and senior director of advocacy and litigation for the League of Women Voters, about those threats. They include gerrymandering, restrictive voting laws, and other measures enacted at the state level and through court decisions—most notoriously, the Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby County v. Holder, which gutted portions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

You can learn more about Celina Stewart and her work at the links below:

More on Celina Stewart
https://www.lwv.org/about-us/staff-leadership/celina-stewart

More on the League of Women Voters
https://www.lwv.org/
Background on Shelby County v. Holder
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/court-cases/shelby-county-v-holder
How do democracy issues relate to building up the common good? Check out this deep dive from Virginia Schilder at NETWORK.
https://networklobby.org/build-anew-series-democracy-102923/
Just Politics is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries.
https://claretiansusa.org
https://myclaret.org 

Just Politics will be taking a little break this week. We'd hoped to bring you an interview with a member of Congress, but as you may have heard, things are a little chaotic in Congress right now, and our interview was postponed due to the votes to elect a new House Speaker. As we've discussed this season, our democracy is in peril, and the past couple of months have been a clear illustration of that fact.
This conversation is more important than ever. We will keep diving into it in the coming weeks to give you insight on where our democracy is and what you can do to preserve, protect, and expand it. We look forward to being back next week with a new episode of Just Politics.
 

Democracy’s decline at the global level can prompt feelings of helplessness and despair. But inaction is not an option for justice-seekers, and fortunately, there are ways to take action. Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow in Carnegie’s Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program, has studied the issue and recommends five strategies for supporting democracy. She also names tactics that, while necessary for supporting democracy, are insufficient alone. In dialogue with Just Politics cohost Joan Neal, Kleinfeld reflects on her recommendations, as well as the group that she sees playing a critical role in movements to save democracy in the long term: Catholics.

You Can learn more about Rachel Kleinfeld and here work at the links below:

More on Rachel Kleinfeld 
https://carnegieendowment.org/experts/699

“Five Strategies to Support U.S. Democracy” by Rachel Kleinfeld 
https://carnegieendowment.org/2022/09/15/five-strategies-to-support-u.s.-democracy-pub-87918

Freedom House report on the decline of democracy worldwide 
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2023/marking-50-years
Just Politics is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries.
https://claretiansusa.org
https://myclaret.org 

It’s been a chaotic week in Washington, D.C., with a narrowly averted government shutdown and the historic ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. We speak with NETWORK government relations director Ronnate Asirwatham, who explains why it doesn’t have to be this way—that the drama surrounding a still-possible government shutdown involves a small group of extremist legislators determined to slash funding to vital human needs programs and introduce punitive immigration provisions into the federal budget, or else. 

NETWORK and allies helped keep these provisions out of the short-term deal that keeps the government funded until November 17. But the harm of these measures, to say nothing of the harm that an actual government shutdown would cause to millions of people, remains a real possibility as the weeks ahead unfold. Through all of this rings the question: What does it say for the health of U.S. democracy when the very people we elect are so fixated on stopping the functions of the federal government?

You can learn more about Ronnate Asirwatham and the averted shutdown in the links below:

From the BBC: Why government shutdowns seem to only occur in the United States:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66965637

NETWORK’s Ronnate Asirwatham was named one of the 500 most influential people in Washington by Washingtonian magazine two years in a row:
https://www.washingtonian.com/2023/04/27/washington-dcs-500-most-influential-people-of-2023/#Immigration

The October 2 rally for a moral budget organized by NETWORK in Louisville, Kentucky:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3j6QvDZKRI

The Washington Post story Ronnate mentions about a crisis in access to nutritious food among children:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2023/nonalcoholic-fatty-liver-disease-kids/
Just Politics is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries:
https://www.claretiansusa.org
https://www.myclaret.org