Part One:
AFTER SUPER TUESDAY – WHAT HAPPENS NOW?
We discuss Super Tuesday with Harold Meyerson, editor of The American Prospect; and Rick Newman, lobbyist and former NH state legislator. Except for the Bernie Sanders wing, most of the Democratic Party pulled out all the stops in a well-orchestrated series of endorsements and speeches, resulting in Joe Biden receiving millions of dollars worth of free publicity. When the dust settled, Biden had won what commentators called an unprecedented comeback, winning state after state across the country. Bernie was held to a mere four states. He won the biggest prize, California, but the winner no longer takes all, so Biden went home with large numbers of delegates even from California.
Biden is now clearly the frontrunner in the race for the Democratic nomination, with “huuuuge” backing from the Party going forward. We discuss whether Biden will be able to control his tendency to stray from his script (some have been less kind in their description of Biden’s communication problems) and to defeat Trump and his well-funded campaign.
And what about all those Sanders supporters? Will they come out and vote for Biden in order to end the Trump nightmare? Or will they once again resent the Democratic Party’s refusal to address their progressive issues — i.e., concern for the well-being of regular Americans and not just the Wall Street elite — and stay home on election day (or vote third party)?
Biden and the Party must find a way to reach out to the Sanders voters. This will require more than simply reminding them that Trump is a disaster. The Party and its nominee will have to offer a vision going forward that meets some (though obviously not all) of the needs of the 99%. They could, for example, do what the Governor of NYS did: assure people that the government will pick up the cost of the medical care they might need if they get Covid 19 (i.e., social insurance just like Medicare). Will Joe and the Party unite Democrats through actions like this?
Part Two:
THE WORST HUMANITARIAN CRISIS OF THE 21st CENTURY: SYRIA.
We speak with Shelley Ingles, Executive Director of the Human Rights Center at the University of Dayton. The humanitarian crisis is grave and in flux. The war in Syria has resulted in more than 11 million people displaced. More than half of these are refugees, with the vast majority currently hosted in the regional states of Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.
The fighting began 9 years ago with a peaceful uprising against the brutal dictatorship of the Assad regime. The media reported this as similar to the Arab Spring in other countries, but Syria was more complex than that. Another factor was climate change, which drove many Syrians from the countryside into the main cities. Sectarian conflicts and some historic connections with Iran and Russia further complicated matters in Syria.
When ISIS moved against the Syrian regime, U.S. and U.N. involvement increased. Things got confusing, as Al Qaeda and similar factions were among the groups fighting against ISIS (and therefore *with* the U.S.).
Since December 2019, after Pres Trump pulled back the remaining American troops from northern Syria, Turkey and Russia moved in, with scores of their own to settle. The Russian-backed Assad regime has significantly increased air and ground assaults on civilian sites in Idlib province. Those assaults have caused even more destruction and mass displacement.
Meanwhile, Assad is justifying his military actions in northern Syria by claiming that he is simply “fighting terrorists” like Al Qaeda — even though he is wiping out the civilian Kurdish population and attacking schools and hospitals. Today, the big question is where and how the newest refugees will be taken care of. Nearly 950,000 people — an estimated 80% of whom are women and children — have fled their homes, during the last 3 months alone. The response would normally have been addressed by the U.S., the European Union, and the United Nations. But now, US relations with the EU are frosty, Britain has left the EU, and the UN is in a weak position. Can a new president create a safe zone where the refugees can survive? Can the parties be convinced to adopt and maintain a ceasefire?
