Author Archives: Gary LaMaster

The End Of Extreme Politics In Arizona?

Democratic Perspective had an opportunity to visit with Andrei Cherny, former Arizona assistant attorney general, White House aide, business consultant and current Chair of the Arizona Democratic Party. We began by asking him about the political environment in Arizona. He … Continue reading

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Noam Chomsky Cont’d – Immigration And Arab Spring

On July 18, Democratic Perspective continued its interview with Professor Emeritus Noam Chomsky by asking how we should deal with the fear of immigration.  He responded by saying, “We deal with it by a sympathetic understanding and education.  We can … Continue reading

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Immigration – A Conflict Of Values

Recently, Democratic Perspective had the great privilege of discussing the immigration debate with Noam Chomsky, Professor Emeritas at Massachussetts Institute of Technology’s Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy. He has authored more than 150 books and, according to Wikipedia, is the … Continue reading

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A Bitter Pill To Swallow.

If you’re a Democrat, indeed if you’re an informed American, it’s hard to get very excited about the new plan which has been proposed to expand the debt ceiling. Certainly the debt ceiling needs to be raised to prevent the … Continue reading

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A Manufactured Crisis

For months now, the Republicans (especially the Tea Party representatives) have used the debt ceiling as a means to leverage power against President Obama and the Democratic Senate. As we recently pointed out on Democratic Perspective, this is an entirely … Continue reading

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“A Very Broken System”

Democratic Perspective continued our conversation with AZ House Minority Leader, Chad Campbell. This week, the subject was privatization. According to Campbell, privatization sometimes makes sense, but you need to look at each situation carefully. For example, he talked about the … Continue reading

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A Rare, Sane Voice In The Arizona Legislature

Democratic Perspective spoke with Chad Campbell, House Minority Leader in the vast wasteland otherwise known as the Arizona State Legislature. We began by asking about the Republicans’ refusal to extend unemployment benefits to as many as 45,000 Arizonans who have … Continue reading

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Republican Myths about Privatization and De-Regulation

Leading conservative, Grover Norquist, once said, “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” And it seems the Republican … Continue reading

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Republicans Double Down On Vouchercare

Despite polls showing voter displeasure with Congressman Paul Ryan’s plan to replace Medicare with vouchers seniors could use to purchase private insurance on the free market, Republicans continue to support the program. Following passage in the House, many Senate Republicans … Continue reading

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Arab Spring – What Next?

In recent months, we have seen several nations in the Middle East overthrow long-time dictators. The uprising in Tunisia was followed by the overthrow of Mubarak in Egypt and large protests in Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Syria and … Continue reading

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