We “rethink the week” with Stephen Pimpare, Professor at the University of New Hampshire and a nationally recognized expert on poverty, homelessness, and U.S. social policy; Dean Spiliotes, Professor and Civic Scholar at Southern NH University; and Glenn Smith, political consultant in Texas who managed Ann Richards’s (successful) 1990 campaign for governor.
WILL CORONAVIRUS SPELL THE END OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE?
We discuss the coronavirus which is now wreaking havoc in the U.S. How badly will it hurt our economy — including both ordinary people and the financial markets? What kind of chaos will it bring to the presidential (and other political) campaigns?
DOUBLE WHAMMY
Glenn pointed out that, in addition to coronavirus, the people of Texas are facing another crisis due to the serious destabilization of the oil markets. In Houston alone, 20,000 people could lose their jobs in the oil industry, and if they do, their families would also lose their health insurance — just at a time when they might be needing a lot of unexpected medical treatment because of COVID-19.
Will this change the debate over Medicare for All?
WILL DEMOCRATS GET IT RIGHT THIS YEAR?
We analyze the totally different appearance that the Democratic race is now displaying. Most people thought Biden was finished after New Hampshire and Nevada. But then along came Jim Clyburn and, all of a suddern, Biden soars in South Carolina, all the other moderate candidates endorse Biden, and now he’s looking like he’s likely to be the nominee.
How did Biden instantaneously turn around his campaign from the verge of falling apart — having given a performance to earn that predicament — to suddenly being the annointed savior of desperate Democrats? More to the point, there are many Democrats who — now that they feel “safe” from their “nightmare scenario” of Bernie — are now worrying that maybe Joe will be too weak a *candidate* to defeat Trump, and these Democrats have *no alternative* to Biden except Bernie.
So why didn’t those folks think about this when there were 12 Democrats in the race, rather than waiting until we have only these two? In particular, why didn’t people take a closer look at Elizabeth Warren as an alternative to both Biden and Bernie? She could have been a standard-bearer who appeals to the younger voters and the liberals (let’s make some “structural change”) while not alienating the centrist Party officials as does Bernie’s anger, revolutionary rhetoric and refusal even to consider compromising.
And we ask the subsequent question: If Biden wins the presidency, will he actually come through for the vast majority of Americans? Or will he once again appoint the Goldman Sachs gang to the Treasury Department & OMB, while appointing Wall Street lawyers to run the Justice Department and other agencies which are tasked with the duty to enforce the laws, including the laws that regulate corporations?
