Part One:
We Libby Lewis about her article in The Atlantic arguing that freedom is meaningless under insurmountable debt. Payday loans and other usurious loans leave struggling families owing enormous amounts of money, which they’ve had to borrow, out of desperation, in order to subsist. With no prospect of ever digging their way out of the hole, people are reduced to a kind of slavery, having no control over their own labor.
We also speak with Graciela Aponte-Diaz, with the Center for Responsible Lending. We recognize society’s responsibility for the harm that debt-ridden families suffer, and examine what kinds of public policies might protect consumers from predatory lenders.
Part Two:
We visit again with “Dr. Politics,” Steffen Schmidt, professor of political science at Iowa State University. Now that the Democrats in the House have decided to go forward with articles of impeachment, we examine the various strategies, deflections, and unanticipated political ramifications of playing out a Senate impeachment trial during the ongoing election campaigns.
We wonder why the several minority presidential candidates have not had more success. Why was Pete Buttigieg able to emerge from “the pack” and not one of the minority candidates? Yes, Buttigieg is smart and articulate and charismatic, but so are Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, and Julian Castro. Can the answer be found in Pete’s collection of wealthy donors? Is the white patriarchy still the problem? Or is Pete’s centrist message the explanation of his appeal? I.e., is the Democratic Party still afraid to move beyond the Clinton/DLC policies aligning with the corporate elites in the hopes that ordinary Americans will benefit from the trickle-down theory? Is this the year for a candidate like Sanders or Warren to persuade the Democrats to stand up first and foremost for ordinary Americans, the 98%, to run on that message and oppose the Republicans who simply carry water for what Sanders calls “the billionaire class”?
