Have You No Sense Of Decency? That has to be the question asked of the majority of America’s voters. It will be difficult for future generations to understand how a serial liar and sexual predator who was twice impeached, indicted four times and convicted on 34 counts of felony – a candidate who has expressed admiration for Hitler and shows all the signs of being a sociopathic fascist – could possibly be elected to the office of President of the United States.
The primary contributors to Democratic Perspective try to explain the causes and look ahead to what promises to be a dismal four years.
A Primer For Arizona’s Ballot Propositions. Steve Williamson and Karen McClelland welcome Jim Bruce from Democrats of Rim Country to discuss the propositions on the ballot.
Bruce explains, “All the ones that start with a 1 are amending the Constitution. All the ones that start with a 3, you’re passing a law.” McClelland adds, “Anything that begins with a 4, that’s local.”
While there is some disagreement among Democrats regarding Proposition 140, which calls for open primaries, there is unanimous agreement on the other propositions. For example, Bruce states, “There are a total of, I believe, 14 propositions and all the ones that start with 3 are just a quick ‘no’ and an easy ‘no’ and I don’t think there’s any discussion about that.” There’s also agreement that 133 is a giant ‘NO’.
And, of course, there is unanimous agreement to vote ‘YES’ on 139, the citizens initiative that will enshrine abortion access into the Constitution.
As for the rest, 138, is intentionally written to be confusing. It’s labeled “Tipped Workers Protection Act.” But if it passes, it will cause substantial harm to tipped workers.
Other propositions are transparent attempts by MAGA legislators to end-run the legislative process. Some were bills that failed to carry in the legislature. Others were bills that passed but were vetoed by the Governor. The legislature failed to have enough votes to override the vetoes, so it added them to the ballot.
When Will It End? Steve Williamson welcomes Paul Lenze, Senior Lecturer for the Department of Politics and International Affairs at Northern Arizona University, back to the show to discuss Israel’s expanding military conflict in the Middle East.
More than a year after the horrific attack by Hamas in which nearly 1,200 people were killed and roughly 250 were taken hostage, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has killed at least 42,000 Palestinians, nearly obliterated Gaza, and has more recently attacked Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran.
“It’s effectively a low-grade regional war at this point with the United States supporting Israel in its efforts to defend itself against terrorist attacks from Hamas and Hezbollah,” says Lenze. But he notes that Israel, as well as the United States, is concerned about Iran. The U.S. does not want to see Iran gain further influence in the Middle East.
Reclaiming Control Of Arizona Utilities And Corporations. Steve Williamson and Karen McClelland welcome Joshua Polacheck to the show. He is one of three Democratic candidates running for the Arizona Corporation Commission.
Polacheck served nearly 20 years as a commissioned Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State. He’s running for office to end corruption and free Arizona utilities from control of out-of-state oil and coal companies dead set on locking us into dirty, climate-warming, water-consuming and expensive fossil fuels for another generation.
Analyzing The 2024 Elections. Steve and Jessica Williamson welcome our favorite political prognosticator, Dan Singal, back to the show. Singal is Emeritus Professor of History and Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York.
Singal has a history of accurately predicting the outcome of elections. And he has some surprising views, not only about the presidential race, but about Senate and gubernatorial races around the country. For instance, he believes there are nine battleground states this year instead of the usual seven.
Small Steps Can Have A Big Impact On Climate Change. Steve Williamson welcomes Frances “Frankie” Reimer, PhD and Peggy Chaikin to discuss the climate crisis. They begin by offering details about a new tool-sharing program through the library in Sedona intended to help residents and conserve resources. It’s one of many small and simple ways that communities like Sedona can build sustainability by reducing waste and our carbon footprint.
The Ongoing Destruction Of Palestine. Steve Williamson and Karen McClelland welcome Daniel Nerenberg, Education and Communication Specialist for Just Vision, back to the show to discuss the current situation in Gaza and the West Bank. During the lengthy conflict more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed. Do the Israeli actions qualify as genocide? Many believe they do.
A Two-Person School Board Youth Movement. Steve Williamson and Karen McClelland welcome Markus Ceniceros and Mikah Dyer, both of whom decided to run for school boards just after turning 18. Markus is running for a second term on the Littleton Governing Board in Avondale, AZ. And Mikah is running for the Peoria Unified District school board. Both are also going to college full-time.
Asked why he chose to run Ceniceros says, “The big reason why I decided to run for office is because I felt a void in my community, particularly we were going through the pandemic and I was personally struggling with my mental health and my sexuality and I really figured that, you know, leaders in education were not talking about these issues that young people really cared about, and I wanted to run to provide a new generation of leadership – not just for my school district, but for my area as a whole.”
Asked the same question, Dyer responds that, when he attended a school board meeting in support of a teacher who was facing some backlash and verbal attacks from board members because she was teaching about the Black Lives Matter movement in context of other social movements. As he continued to attend board meetings, he observed, “A lot of the time, the adults in the room were not acting like it.”
Commenting on the ideology that recently led his school board to reject federal funding for social workers in schools, Dyer notes, “For a number of years, and I think since Covid, we’ve seen this kind of targeted attack on public education.” As for parents’ fears of indoctrinating students, he says, “Teachers don’t have the time in the day to indoctrinate your students.”
Ceniceros adds, “Especially here in Arizona, we’ve been ground zero for this big movement to dismantle and destroy public education.” Citing a quote from a workshop he attended, Ceniceros continues, “The way I see it, public education is the last line for a community’s democracy.”
Slate Of Sanity. Steve Williamson and Karen McClelland welcome three highly qualified candidates for the Mingus Union High School Board in Arizona’s Verde Valley: Joe Wegwert, James Ariola, and incumbent Carol Anne Teague.
Wegwert is a professor in the department of education at Northern Arizona University who also has more than 20 years of experience teaching Middle School and High School social studies. Ariola is a restaurant owner and former civil engineer who directed an office of 300 people. Teague has been on the school board for six years. In addition to her duties as a current member, Teague is a real estate agent in Sedona and the Verde Valley.
The three candidates have chosen to call themselves the “Slate of Sanity” because of the agenda of some board members and candidates who seem more concerned about bathrooms and book bans than about the students’ education.
“I sit there at this moment behind the table…We have a five-person school board, and I am completely outvoted and outnumbered. We have political activists on our school board. We have religious activists on our school board. And they seem determined to not promote, or nurture, or encourage anyone who is not white, Christian, and straight,” says Teague.”
While Ariola, Teague and Wegwert are focused on improving education, their opponents represent more of the hateful political and religious agenda that has spread nationwide.
“It’s a clear choice,” says Teague. “We have the three of us who want to nurture all of the kids no matter what color, what religion, what gender, or what sexual orientation they are. Or we have people who want to turn Mingus into a church school.”
Bringing Hope And Moderation To The Arizona Legislature. Steve Williamson and Gary LaMaster welcome Arizona State Senate candidate, Mike Fogel, to the show. Fogel is a former public-school teacher, coach, and administrator who is running against election-denier Mark Finchem, one of the most extreme, anti-government politicians in the nation.
Fogel says, “My campaign in 2022 and now is essentially to create opportunity for everyday working folk. And that begins with strong public schools.” Among the other issues his campaign is focusing on are water and affordable housing.
