Part One:
We speak with Russell Muirhead, Chair of the Government Dept at Dartmouth College, about how (whether?) the presidential election will take place in November, and what the message of this election might be. Will the election be a dangerous disaster, like the Wisconsin election last week? Will voters be able – or willing – to go to the polls in November? Will they be forced to choose between grave risks to their health and forgoing their constitutional right to vote?
Will all states and/or the federal government give voters the opportunity to vote early, vote by mail, get absentee ballots based on health risks (without requiring one actually to be sick or disabled)? Will we develop – and put into place – a system for voting that’s not “in-person,” without opening our election to even worse hacking and fraud than we experienced in 2016? Who will pay for whatever changes need to be made?
How will Joe Biden – and the Democratic Party – go about winning whatever election we end up having? Whatever we think of Pres. Trump’s actions, policies, rhetoric, and biases, he is getting his message in front of the American public with daily “press briefings” (not to mention countless tweets and other communications that are amplified by the media.
Does candidate Biden even have a message? How should he communicate it? Would it be wise for Biden to do his own messaging? Or might his campaign be more successful if he relied on a series of effective colleagues, experts, and other spokespeople? Will it be enough for Biden to emphasize that he is “a safe pair of hands” to take all necessary actions to protect the American people and help them return to a shared prosperity?
Part Two:
Our guest is Raymond Scheppach, the former executive director of the National Governors’ Association, now teaching public policy at the Univ. of Virginia.. We discuss the budget woes confronting the states. Their sources of income (including tax revenues) are plummeting, while the need for state expenditures on public health and economic stability are expected to skyrocket.
Governors will have a tough time prioritizing their state budgets. Unlike the federal govt, states can’t run a deficit, obtain loans, or print their own money. They will face a series of difficult choices as the pandemic will require many actions to maintain public health, while, at the same time, reducing taxes and other revenues upon which state governments now rely.
