On today’s BradCast, the Bernie Sanders campaign files for a ‘recanvass’ of Kentucky’s exceedingly close May 17th Democratic Primary; Some very good news for voters out of a federal court in Ohio; And an explanation for why Democrats in California should be thanking the Vermont Senator for staying in the race through the Golden State’s Presidential Primary on June 7th. [Audio link to show is posted below.]
First up, as Washington state Republicans hold their Primary today (with no surprises expected, even as we explain how one could occur), we report on the breaking news of Sanders’ request for a “recanvass” in Kentucky, where Hillary Clinton reportedly defeated him by just 1,924 votes — less than one-half of 1% out of nearly half a million votes cast — last week, according to the computer-tallied results. We explain how a “recanvass” is decidedly different from a “recount”, and how it remains the case that, thanks to the number of votes cast in the Bluegrass State on 100% unverifiable touch-screen voting systems, we can never actually know who the voters really preferred there. The “recanvass”, scheduled for this Thursday, is unlikely to change that or the reported results, as it will largely be little more than a review of the already-existing electronic tally.
Then, a federal court in Ohio finds the shortening of the Early Voting period and “Golden Week” (a period of time when Buckeye State voters used to be able to both register to vote and cast a ballot on the same day) by state Republicans, is in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act as well as the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. District Court has ordered those days to be restored for the General Election, even as this case and a number of others filed by Democrats and voting rights advocates around the country may be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the vacancy that Republicans refuse to fill is likely to result in continuing chaos and confusion over U.S. voting rights.
Next, I’m joined by David Atkins of Washington Monthly, to discuss at least two reasons why, despite so much whining from Democratic Party establishment apparatchiks, it remains very important for Democrats, both in California and nationally, that Sanders remains in the Presidential race at least through the party’s Primary on June 7. Atkins explains how the contest has helped lead to skyrocketing voter registrations for Democrats out here and, as importantly, how the state’s “Top Two” primary system could results in disaster for a number of U.S. House races if Dem turnout is depressed. Sanders, Atkins argues, is doing the party a tremendous favor by staying in and continuing to fight the good fight.
He also goes on to ring in on the internecine battle between Sanders and Clinton supporters and on whether he believes the party will ever be able to survive its latest outbreak of (sometimes “messy”) democracy.
Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report, which includes, among much more, evidence that, while Donald Trump claims to believe climate change is a “hoax”, his very own companies believe otherwise…
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[audio:http://bradblog.com/audio/BradCast_BradFriedman_DavidAtkinsSandersCA_KYRe-Canvass_052416.mp3]
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Atkins says ‘if Clinton campaigns as a true progressive’. What he and many other politicians and pundits don’t get is people know there is no reason to believe her no matter what she says. Establish politics now is all about doing polls, finding out what people want to hear, telling them that, and doing whatever they want after elected — which usually is just doing what they have done in the past.
What Sanders (and other third party candidates) says more closely matches his record, and that’s a very important factor why people are so set against Clinton, or even favoring Trump because he has no record and is less of a known evil.
True Blue dat!!
I’ve previously posited that Hillary was indeed banking on the “lesser of two evils” campaign signage, but may have already ceded those bragging rights to the bigger braggart….she will lose, if not in June then in November…
BTW, Hillary said she would have Bill running the economy. That would be a disaster. He not only helped deregulate banking and killed needed welfare programs, but pushed to run a federal surplus, which when you understand sector analysis (MMT people explain this well) means less money in the private sector, and so fewer jobs, less liquidity and velocity, lower utilization (now down to 80%), and more lending of private sector endogenus money, from banks, at high interest, leading to greater wealth disparity.
Every time the government had a surplus in the past recession followed, because the fed is the source of money not the user of it. If the federal government has a surplus then the private sector, by definition, has a deficit (unless there is a foreign trade surplus). Clinton killed the economy at least as much as anyone else.