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Part One:
We speak with Brian Clites, professor at Case Western Reserve, who has spent eight years interviewing Catholic survivors of clergy sex abuse. We discuss his book, “Surviving Soul Murder,” which explains how survivors have transformed their pain into legal and political reforms, and how the Catholic church scandal has changed the way that other Americans think about sexual assault.
Part Two:
We check in with “Dr. Politics,” Steffen Schmidt, professor of political science at Iowa State University. We discussed whether more Democratic candidates should drop out of the presidential race, even though there are still five (5) months before the first votes are cast in the Iowa caucuses. For how long do candidates and voters deserve to hear a broad spectrum of views before they decide for whom to vote? When might it become unrealistic and/or confusing to permit 20 candidates to continue reaching out to voters?
Does our answer to these questions change when we consider that, just days after CNN interviewed several Democratic candidates about climate change, the so-called “leading” candidate, Joe Biden, met with a group of donors from fossil fuel companies? Will his deaf ear and his verbal gaffes render him unappealing — at some point — to a majority of democratic voters? Relatedly, when pundits refer to Biden as “maintaining” his “large lead” in the polls, should we recognize that there’s a very wide difference between Biden’s lead in the *overall* national polls, on the one hand, and his lead among voters in the two states (Iowa and New Hampshire) who have spent the most time *getting to know* Biden, up close and personal? Does Biden’s absence (so far) from the rest of the country make voters in those states “fonder” of him than the voters to whom he has been all too present?
We move on to discuss Beto O’Rourke’s rise in support as he seems to have found his voice. Then our Iowa guest describes the issues surrounding the DNC’s decision not to allow “virtual participation” in the Iowa caucuses. And we examine how Pres. Trump’s supporters will react to his decision to transfer huge amounts of federal dollars *away from* local projects (including military bases) and using that money instead to build his barrier wall.
