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There has been a lot of talk during this election season about rural America. The Republicans like to think that it's their territory alone and only "real Americans" live in those small towns. We know what they mean by that. Recent events have shown us that their definition is far out of date and Democrats aren't writing it off at all. A number of organizations are in the fight to reach out and mobilize the proverbial 'dirt road Democrats' and it's a focus of the Harris-Walz campaign. It doesn't hurt to have a VP nominee from a tiny town in Nebraska either. Our guest Paolo Cremidis is the Executive director of the Outrun Coalition, a grassroots led volunteer organization that helps rural county Democratic parties and progressive organizations elect the next generation of local elected officials. Outrun has now reached 523 rural local elected Democrats across 17 states. Outrun is a coalition partner in the Rural Americans for Harris steering committee, which is helping to mobilize rural Americans across all 50 states to generate momentum for the Harris/Walz ticket.
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One thing we are seeing without question is the true specter of dictatorship in America. Trump has said he will be a “dictator on day one.” No one believes he will stop on day two. The Supreme Court has done little to assuage those fears and seems hell bent on giving the President unlimited and unchecked power. It seems a good time to talk to an expert on how democracies slide into authoritarianism as we face the final weeks of the election. Professor David M. Driesen, University Professor at the Syracuse College of Law, focuses on constitutional law, law and economics, and environmental law. Professor Driesen has written four books including The Specter of Dictatorship: Judicial Enabling of Presidential Power (Stanford University Press). Driesen engages in public service defending democracy, environmental law’s constitutionality and efforts to combat the climate crisis. He has written numerous amicus briefs in Supreme Court cases and has represented Senators Hillary Clinton and others in Clean Air Act litigation in the DC Circuit. Driesen joined the Syracuse College of Law faculty in 1995. Driesen holds a J.D. from the Yale Law School, a Master of Music from the Yale School of Music, and a Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory.
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There have been mistakes made by past Democratic campaigns in taking the youth vote for granted or not pursuing them directly. The Biden-Harris Administration enacted a slew of programs and policies that directly helped our younger generations of voters building goodwill. Now the DNC and Harris-Walz campaign are going directly for this important cohort and the results are starting to show in big ways. What are they doing? How is it paying off? Will it matter in November? Fred speaks with the leading researcher in the field on the topic joining the show for the 3rd time, John Della Volpe. John is the director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, and the author of Fight: How Gen Z is Channeling Their Fear and Passion to Save America (St. Martin's Press, January 2022). John is also founder of SocialSphere, a Cambridge based public opinion and analytics company.
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One of the strangest stories to come out of the Democratic National Convention last week was the media's odd battle with the 200 content Creators credentialed by the DNC to attend. While they worked hard to get interviews, offer unique angles on policy, and experience the historic event the Creators themselves were scrutinized, mocked, and dismissed by the media and even Steven Colbert. Our host Fred Wellman was one of them and with 100 episodes under our belt we are only growing. He discusses what happened and how the political media is failing while the Pentagon media picks up the Arlington stunt story and runs with it. Watch Fred in this special solo fighting a bug show!
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Our host Fred Wellman spent the entire week at the Democratic National Convention as a credentialed Creator. One of 200 creators that the DNC brought in to cover the convention from their unique angles. It's the first time in history that so many internet creators got access to a party convention and it was an incredible experience. Fred spent his time visiting council meetings, special events around town, and every night of the convention. He had the opportunity to interview former Arkansas gubernatorial candidate Chris Jones about Dirt Road Democrats, Rep. Abigail Spanberger the Democratic nominee for Virginia governor about the impact of Project 2025, Rep.Jared Moskowitz about Democrats on the offense, and actress Busy Phillips on why she is in the fight for Dems. In addition, he has clips of speeches from Governor Wes Moore at the Veterans and Military Families Council, actor Sean Astin, and our friend Simon Rosenberg..and much more. This episode has a lot!
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Thanks to J.D. Vance deciding to attack fellow veteran Tim Walz’s service, veteran’s issues have suddenly been thrust into the Presidential campaign like never before. From outrageous accusations of ‘stolen valor’ to support for our veterans and their families the issues that face the military community are suddenly at the forefront. Fred dives into it with fellow West Point grad and Iraq veteran Terron Sims who is the co-chair of the Democratic National Committee Veterans and Military Families Council. Sims served on active duty in the US Army as a Field Artillery officer. Since leaving the military he has served in a host of political roles of increasing responsibility. In 2008 and 2012, he was Director, Virginia VMF for Obama and served on the Defense and Veterans Policy Teams, where he wrote the Service Member Life Insurance policy. In 2010, Sims wrote the Democratic National Committee’s VMF candidates’ platform, which is used in federal campaigns nationwide. During Sec. Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, Mr. Sims wrote her DoD and VA Intergovernmental Agency Policy. For the 2020 Biden campaign, Mr. Sims wrote five pieces of veterans policy, primarily in the areas of entrepreneurship and business for military spouses and veterans. In addition to his political accomplishments, Terron has published two novels, With Honor In Hand and Hands of Honor, and has written his third novel, For Hands to Honor, along with his Iraq memoirs, Baghdad Peace, as well as other pieces of work. He also writes regularly about veterans and military families and national security issues.
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J.D. Vance is obsessed with the importance of having children, but his party has been against nearly every proposed policy solution to help them. They are now attacking Governor Tim Walz for implementing family friendly laws like free meals for school children, a child tax credit, and much more. Democrats are clearly the family focused party, and they have a chance to enact real policies to back that up. So, Fred talks families with guest Justin Talbot Zorn. Zorn is an author, adviser, and policymaker. He has served as Legislative Director for three members of the US Congress. His first book, published with HarperCollins in the US and Penguin in the UK, was printed in 14 languages globally and topped Audible bestsellers lists in diverse categories including philosophy, meditation, and business. Justin is a Senior Adviser to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a Truman National Security Fellow, and co-founder of a first-of-its-kind talent pipeline for Congressional staffers. A former Fulbright Scholar, Justin received graduate degrees in international relations and public policy from Oxford and Harvard.
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It has been another insane political week in the United States and now more than ever the lack of ethics and even morals from Donald Trump and his propagandists have never been more clear. What do we do when politics becomes unmoored from norms and any sense of public service? Longtime Democratic attorney Bob Bauer set out to answer the question in his new book ‘The Unraveling: Reflections on politics without ethics and democracy in crisis’ and joins Fred to discuss this dangerous path. Bauer has been involved in many of the biggest political struggles in the five decades since the post-Watergate 1970s. He has been a leading legal adviser to the national Democratic Party and to its candidates on strategies for winning elections and protecting voting rights, and he has represented the party in national political conflicts and controversies. He was the chief counsel to both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns and was the President’s White House counsel. He was counsel to the Democratic Senate leader during Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial. He was a senior adviser to the Biden presidential campaign on voting rights and election protection, and on vice presidential selection. Bauer is also now on the faculty of the New York University School of Law.
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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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Project 2025 is an insidious and extensive blueprint to dismantle the federal government and roll back Americans fundamental rights in the name of an authoritarian agenda. Led by the Heritage Foundation with over a hundred other extremist and MAGA organizations, funded by millions of dollars in dark money, and recruiting the most extreme MAGA people to flood the government if Donald Trump wins a second term, the thousand-page plan is one of the greatest threats we’ve faced in decades. This week Congressman Jared Huffman and several of his Democratic colleagues in the House announced the Stop Project 2025 Task Force to coordinate a strong response to this horrendous agenda. Congressman Huffman joins Fred this week to discuss the danger of Project 2025, what they plan to do with the Task Force, the rise of Christian Nationalism in the Congress, and much more in this important episode. Jared Huffman represents California's 2nd Congressional District which spans the North Coast of the state, from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border, and includes Marin, Sonoma, Mendocino, Humboldt, Trinity, and Del Norte counties. He was first elected to Congress in November 2012 and currently serves on the Committee on Natural Resources and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. In the 118th Congress, he serves as the Ranking Member of the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries with jurisdiction over federal water projects, fisheries management, coastal zone and oceans policy, and wildlife and endangered species.
Fred also updates us on his ongoing battle with disgraced former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn. You can support his legal defense fund as this process drags out to drain his finances and silence his voice. https://www.gofundme.com/f/defend-democracy-against-maga-litigation
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Link to the GoFundMe that I'd like to put on screen and hot link too. https://www.gofundme.com/f/defend-democracy-against-maga-litigation -
Donald Trump is increasingly unhinged, and his followers are constantly threatening retribution and revenge for his prosecutions and other perceived attacks. The likelihood of political violence hasn’t been this high since the run up to January 6th, 2021. The threat is growing. How bad is it and how can we stop it before it gets out of control? Fred speaks with one of the leading researchers on the topic of gun and political violence and where we’re headed. Dr. Garen J. Wintemute is a renowned expert on the public health crisis of gun violence and a pioneer in the field of injury epidemiology and prevention of firearm violence. He is the director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California-Davis which recently published a highly regarded study on American attitudes about political violence and is in the midst of an updated survey. He has testified before Congress and served as a consultant for the National Institute of Justice; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. You can learn more about his work at https://health.ucdavis.edu/vprp/ and read the entire study for free at https://injepijournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40621-023-00456-3
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The battle for the soul of our country is being fought from Washington D.C. to school board meetings across the country. A coordinated and well-funded movement has been sweeping the nation to roll back diversity, support for LGBTQ and minority students, and leverage vouchers to defund public schools. It started in Southlake, Texas and Mike Hixenbaugh has been following it all along. His new book ‘They Came for the Schools’ details his painstaking research and what this movement means nationally, and how they are starting to lose too. Hixenbaugh is a senior investigative reporter for NBC News, has been named a Pulitzer Prize finalist and won a Peabody Award for his reporting on the battle over race, gender, and sexuality in American classrooms. They Came for the Schools, his first book, is the winner of the prestigious Lukas Work-in-Progress Award. Hixenbaugh’s work at newspapers in Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, and Texas has uncovered deadly failures in the U.S. military, abuses in the child welfare system, and safety lapses at major hospitals. He lives in Maryland with his wife and four children. Learn more at www.mikehixenbaugh.com.
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We are all hearing how the youth vote is in peril for Biden as the Gaza War drags on and support for Israel has become a dividing issue for many college students and young Americans. Sam Schwartz lost a cousin in the Parkland High School shooting and has taken up the cause of activism leading a coalition of youth advocacy groups in a nationwide bus tour to motivate young Americans to vote for Democrats in swing districts. He joins Fred to discuss the movement and what has really happened for youth under the Biden Administration and what will fall apart if Trump gets a second chance. Fred also discusses the latest Guardian/Harris poll on American opinions on the economy that you don’t want to miss. Sam Schwartz was 14 when the Parkland shooting occurred and soon realized adults weren’t going to fix our gun laws and has taken up the cause. He is currently a college student in Boston and is leading the Tour to Save Democracy across the country this summer. Learn more at https://tourtosavedemocracy.org/.
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Trump is promising to be a dictator on Day One and the co-chair of the Republican Party has promised “scorched Earth” when he returns to power. In a new book Federico Finchelstein lays out how Trump can become a modern fascist if returned to power and how he’s already three quarters of the way there. Fred discusses it with Professor Finchelstein a world-renowned expert on fascism, populism, and dictatorship. Finchelstein is a Professor of History at the New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College in New York City as he releases his new book ‘Wannabe Fascists.’ His previous books include From Fascism to Populism in History and A Brief History of Fascist Lies.
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Each day the political media is showing their inability to meet this important moment in U.S. history. From the New York Times using polls to determine priorities to running fake stories as simple differences of opinion. The media can’t seem to call it like it is when it’s needed more than ever. Fred discusses it with former Chicago Tribune metro editor turned media critic Mark Jacob. In addition to decades in journalism Mark is a co-author of eight books on history and the author of the weekly Stop the Presses newsletter at stopthepresses.news, which examines how right-wing extremism is exploiting the weaknesses in American journalism.
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