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Part One:
We speak with Howard Polskin, president of TheRighting, a website that covers stories coming from right-wing media, which did not spring full-blown as the juggernaut that it is today. We discuss how Rush Limbaugh and Fox News have very strategically amplified their message and expanded their reach, to the point where they are essentially the sole news source for nearly one-third of the American people. Should progressives adopt a similar model and try to articulate our ideas to as many people as possible? Is it possible to accomplish that, in light of the extent and depth of the right wing’s success in creating a loyal and trusting audience?
Part Two:
We talk to Sam Fulward III, columnist at Think Progress, about the New York Times’s 1619 Project and about the need to put enslaved Africans at the center of America’s origins story. The facts have been known for a long time, but the right wing denies such knowledge. Even the Cato Institute’s research acknowledges the crucial role of slavery in shaping the development of U.S. capitalism and workplace norms. Cato also compares early 19th century efforts to preserve slavery with 21st century Tea Party trying to nullify federal government policy.
Now even the conservative governor of Texas is recognizing that the center can no longer hold. In part to protect his political future, he has convened a blue-ribbon commission to study domestic terrorism and how it’s driven by white nationalism. Similarly, we must make sure that our educational system (including secondary schools and college) exposes all students to the deeper facts about our “peculiar institution” (slavery) and about how our country’s entire history has been shaped by it – right up until the present day.
