On Democracy with FPWellman Fred Wellman

It has been one of the biggest weeks in U.S. political history as President Biden stepped away from the race and Vice President Kamala Harris stepped in at light speed. Since then she has raised record amounts of money, volunteers, and support. It’s leaving almost all Democrats feeling something they haven’t in a long time…hope. Fred sits down with the biggest hopium dealer in the nation to discuss the moment and what lies ahead. Simon Rosenberg is the producer of the Substack community the ‘Hopium Chronicles’ and was the founder and president of NDN/New Policy Institute, a center-left think tank in Washington, DC. He moved on this year to take his fight for our democracy into a direct mission of motivating and informing Americans on the way we can take back our nation. Simon has been a leader in efforts to modernize the center-left in American politics over the past generation and was the leading voice who predicted the supposed 2022 ‘Red Wave’ would be a crashing failure. He was right.

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This week included an attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a rally in Philadelphia by a young kid with a high-powered rifle. Many of his supporters called for revenge and “2nd amendment solutions.” This kind of rhetoric has been rising on the far right for years and nowhere has so much of it swirled than Nashville. From Nazis marching in the streets to militias guarding extremist local political candidates and conspiracy nuts serving as assistant police chiefs. One long-time local journalist has been tracking all of it and he joins Fred to piece it all together. Phil Williams is chief investigative reporter for NewsChannel 5's nationally award-winning investigative team. For more than three decades, Phil has set the standard for serious investigative journalism on the state and local level, making a difference in his community year after year and earning him the industry’s highest honors and praise from his peers. Phil is the 2023 recipient of the prestigious John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism, which is presented each year to a reporter with courage, character and integrity for cumulative professional accomplishments. Phil is the first local television journalist to ever receive the honor. In addition, Phil is a four-time recipient of the prestigious duPont-Columbia Award and a three-time recipient of the George Foster Peabody Award. He is the only TV journalist to ever receive a coveted Toner Prize for political reporting. Beginning his career as a print reporter, Phil was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

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It’s been an absolutely insane couple of weeks. From Bidenmania, Christian Nationalists putting the Bible in schools, and Trump doing the hits on his own golf course. To get it all in perspective Fred turns to two lefties in the middle of the reddest of the red states with Oklahoma’s Jennifer Welch and Angie “Pumps” Sullivan the hosts of the now iconic and wildly popular “I’ve Had It” podcast. Longtime friends and former stars of Bravo’s ‘Sweet Home Oklahoma’ they regularly offer their thoughts on the news, humorous perspective, and raw honest takes on all of life’s difficulties and Republican politics from the eye of the storm in a deep red state. When Angie Sullivan told her eldest son about their plans to launch a podcast he gave a brutally direct perspective, “Just what the world needs, two middle-aged white women bitching.” It appears the world needed it and we are lucky to have them!

Catch them and their show at https://ivehaditpodcast.com/

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The Supreme Court shocked the country this week deciding that a President can actually be above the law flipping centuries of American tradition and a fundamental concept of our nation that no man is above the law. It’s the last ruling in a string of increasingly outrageous decisions that have tossed out one precedent after another. Lisa Graves joins Fred to discuss the mess, how we got here, and how we can fix it. Lisa Graves hosts Courier News new Grave Injustice podcast, which explains key cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court this summer and how they relate to larger issues, with a focus on the decades-long right-wing capture of the court. She is also the founder and Executive Director of True North Research, a national investigative watchdog group that works to shine a light on the dark money fueling regressive agendas targeting vital institutions in our republic, such as our courts and public schools. Graves is one of the nation’s foremost experts in exposing how special interests distort public policy and try to thwart the public’s interest in a thriving and inclusive democracy and to impede measures to protect our environment and mitigate climate change.

Watch her podcast Grave Injustice on Courier News: https://couriernewsroom.com/grave-injustice/

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The Christian Nationalism movement is gaining momentum with a goal to make the United States a Christian nation and subservient to the Bible. Long time journalist Heath Druzin has spent the last year following the movement right in his home state of Idaho for the second season of the Extremely American podcast on NPR titled ‘Onward Christian Soldiers.’ He and his partner James Dawson focus on the rise of Christian nationalism, a conservative religious movement with a rapidly expanding epicenter in a surprising place: the college town of Moscow, Idaho. Across eight episodes they zero in on Christ Church, a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches based in Moscow. Heath Druzin is the host and creator of Extremely American, a sound-rich podcast series that looks at the intersection of extremism and politics. In the first season, he took listeners inside the militia movement, from weapons training to the campaign trail. Heath has covered extremism since 2018, first as a reporter with the public radio project Guns & America. He has reported for outlets such as NPR, BBC and the Daily Beast. Previously he spent more than six years as a war correspondent in Iraq and Afghanistan for Stars and Stripes.
 
Catch both seasons of Extremely American on NPR: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510381/extremely-american
 
Fred Wellman’s Legal Defense Fund: https://gofund.me/89a239c5
 
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The Supreme Court is showing us over and over how out of touch they are with not just the American people but actual reality. Last week in a shocking decision written by none other than Clarence Thomas, they twisted themselves in knots to approve the sale of bump stocks over the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. A rule implemented after the devices were used in the slaughter in Las Vegas in 2017. Our guest this week had to cancel at literally the last minute, but we thought it was a good time to revisit the gun violence issue as poll after poll shows most Americans support reasonable gun violence prevention measures from universal background checks to age limits on purchases. A recent poll shows that 85% of Americans support a ban on bump stocks. Fred interviews Kris Brown, the president of one of the leading gun violence prevention organizations, Brady, last March. That interview is as timely now as it was then. She and Fred had a robust discussion about how the continued refusal by Congress and leaders to enact laws to end this scourge is a true failure of democracy. Kris is President of Brady one of the oldest and most respected anti-gun violence organizations in the United States named after legendary White House Press Secretary and gun violence advocates Jim and Sarah Brady. Kris has led Brady since 2016 and is a long-time veteran of gun violence prevention work starting her career on Capitol Hill working for Rep. Jim Moran, advocating for the bill that would eventually become the groundbreaking Brady Bill requiring background checks on federally licensed gun sales. You can learn more at and support their work at https://www.bradyunited.org/
(This interview originally aired March 20th, 2023)
 
Fred’s Legal Defense Fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/defend-democracy-against-maga-litigation
 
Forgotten Democrats: https://contribute.forgottendemocrats.org/join_fd?sc=hhb
 
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