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We “rethink the week” with Stephen Pimpare, Fellow at the Carsey School of Public Policy and Professor at UNH Manchester; Jeff Feingold, Editor at NH Business Review; and Dean Spiliotes, Professor and Civic Scholar at Southern NH University.
We discuss the extra burdens that confront women in politics, including those running for president. We note that California’s Republican party has named a Latina, an Asian-American and an openly gay man to the party’s leadership, although their effort at identity politics flies in the face of the Republican meme criticizing Democrats for highlighting the rights of people whose identity is different from the traditional white male politicians. It remains to be seen whether Calif. Republicans will follow up their new leadership appointments with policies that serve the real-life interests of members of those (or other) marginalized Americans.
We also discuss climate change and whether older, more “experienced” politicians have standing to criticize the urgent pleas of younger generations that our government take serious action before they inherit a planet that’s uninhabitable. We contrasted the power-brokers’ sense of urgency in 2008 when the banks, Wall Street and big business succeeded (quickly) in obtaining huge government bailout programs to rescue them from the economic crisis.
Finally, we anticipate Trumpists falsely identifying as “socialist” any Democratic policy proposal that addresses the needs of anyone but the top 1% of Americans. Some of us hoped that we’ve reached a political moment when the average voter will realize that, whatever label one attaches to our political economy, our system is ill-serving 99% of the people. The government provides tax loopholes to mega-businesses and grants them special exceptions from the rules that apply to the rest of us. Just as government regulations are needed to protect downwind homes from toxic pollution produced by upwind smokestacks, so, too, strong government actions are needed to save our entire planet from the environmental disasters caused by climate change.
