Race, Class & Gerrymandering
Race, Class & Gerrymandering
Ralph welcomes back Adolph Reed, Professor Emeritus of political science at the University of Pennsylvania and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Mount Holyoke College to discuss the latest Supreme Court decision gutting the Voting Rights Act. Then, Ralph and our resident constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, talk about what ordinary citizens can do to pressure their reps to impeach Donald Trump.
Adolph Reed is Professor Emeritus of political science at the University of Pennsylvania and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Mount Holyoke College. His most recent books are The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives, No Politics but Class Politics (co-authored with Walter Benn Michaels), and Black Studies, Cultural Politics, and the Evasion of Inequality: The Farce this Time (co-authored with Kenneth W. Warren).
I think the issues are a lot more complex than they seem to be or than seems to be the way that they are represented in the debate [over the Voting Rights Act]…To cut straight to the political case, I think there’s a distinction between the Act’s guarantee that black citizens and others (where pertinent) who live in areas where there’s been a history of suppression of the right to vote have the support of the federal government to make certain that Black voters have the ability to vote for and to elect candidates of their choosing. Which is not the same thing as a right of Black individuals to be elected to office. And I think that’s one of the confusions that characterizes, frankly, both sides of the debate at this point. And I think that’s definitely something that needs to be clarified.
Adolph Reed
Some of my friends and I have been talking about this, and have been bouncing this idea back and forth since, frankly, even before the court handed down the [Louisiana v Callais] decision. In thinking about developments in black politics across the board, the idea that all that Black voters are supposed to get out of politics is the representation of people who look like them and share in the same racial identification has also fueled backward turns. Like how all of a sudden the biggest issue in Black American politics supposedly had become the racial wealth gap, which boils down to a complaint that rich Black people aren’t as rich as rich white people are. So, yeah, shaking up or reshuffling the deck for how we might begin to try to determine the stakes of Black Americans’ engagement in national politics is something that needs to happen. No matter what brings it about.
Adolph Reed
Bruce Fein is a Constitutional scholar and an expert on international law. Mr. Fein was Associate Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan and he is the author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy, and American Empire: Before the Fall.
My website is www.lawofficesofbrucefein.com and my email address is Bruce@feinpoints.com. And I’ll respond and give you guidance as to how you can help be part of this effort to impeach and remove by far the most dangerous President in the history of the United States. And he’s most dangerous to the world as well.
Bruce Fein
News 5/8/26
Our top story this week comes to us from the Bulwark, which reports that dissatisfaction with Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin is reaching a fever pitch. Martin has faced criticism over the course of his tenure for reneging on his promise to release an autopsy on the 2024 presidential campaign and for his decidedly lackluster fundraising efforts. The DNC has reportedly “spent more money than it has raised” and “has more debt than cash on hand,” while the Republican National Committee enjoys a “roughly seven-to-one money advantage.” According to this report, high-level DNC members are now privately discussing ousting Martin, only tabling these discussions “after members failed to identify an alternative candidate willing to step into the role.” Martin’s failures have even led Democrats to openly wonder “whether the 178-year-old committee should even exist anymore.” Martin was elected DNC Chair last year, beating out Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler, who helped rebuild the party and raise tremendous amounts of money in that critical swing state.
Speaking of money in politics, this week POLITICO released a damning report on End Citizens United, the good-government focused 501(c)(4) that has in past years been a “fundraising behemoth” but has now faded nearly into complete irrelevancy. The issues highlighted in this piece will be familiar to many who have worked in this world. Despite raising $14.8 million, the group’s PAC arm is burning through the money more quickly than it can raise it, having just $324,000 on hand at the end of March. What are they spending the money on? According to POLITICO, about $650,000 has gone to candidates and party groups and about the same amount has been bundled. Meanwhile, payments to fundraising firms have eaten up an astonishing $5.3 million. This is just another case of Democratic Party aligned consulting firms run amok and growing fat off of small dollar donations.
Another disappointing story comes to us from the Teamsters. According to Bloomberg, the union has forfeited a hard-won union foothold – the first ever unionized Chipotle – following three years of battling the company and failing to secure a contract. A Teamsters local president said in an email to the National Labor Relations Board that the union “officially withdraws and disclaims interest” at the Lansing, Michigan location. Legally speaking, this means the company will no longer be “required to recognize or negotiate with the union.” The employees of this location voted to unionize in 2022 by a margin of 11-to-3. Chipotle corporate has been decried for seeking to bust this union, with Biden NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo accusing them of employing illegal anti-union tactics like “withholding raises from the store’s staff and telling workers that the union was keeping their pay frozen…[and punishing] a pro-union employee to discourage activism.” However, it was the Teamsters themselves who ultimately gave up, paving the way for the demise of the workers’ heroic stand against corporate power. As the saying goes, with friends like these.
In more positive political news, during the Washington DC mayoral debate last week, the Washington Post reports democratic socialist mayoral hopeful Janeese Lewis George seemed to endorse the idea of opening municipal grocery stores in DC food deserts, including the impoverished and majority Black Wards 7 and 8. Asked about this topic, Councilmember Lewis George committed to bringing at least one more grocery store to Ward 7 and at least two more to Ward 8, noting that she would seek to shore up investor confidence with public dollars. If private options do not materialize however, she vowed that “we will work towards” a publicly-owned store. Municipally-owned grocery stores were a much publicized part of the Zohran Mamdani campaign platform and, if Lewis George is elected, his success or failure in carrying out that pledge is sure to impact her decision making on this issue.
Meanwhile, in media news, the New York Times reports Lupa Systems – the private holding company representing the interests of James Murdoch, son of conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch – is “in talks to acquire major parts of Vox Media.” Vox, founded in the 2010s by journalists Ezra Klein, Matt Yglesias, and Melissa Bell, now owns major media properties including New York magazine, the Verge, Eater and a podcast network featuring Kara Swisher and others. Murdoch, through Lupa, owns a “majority stake in Tribeca Enterprises, the parent company of the Tribeca Film Festival.” Additionally, the Times notes that Quadrivium, the foundation founded by Mr. Murdoch and his wife, Kathryn, has financial interests in “The 19th, a nonprofit newsroom focused on gender and politics, and The Bulwark, a so-called ‘Never Trump’ digital media company.” James Murdoch, along with his sister Elisabeth, are seen as far more liberal than the Murdoch patriarch and his other son, Lachlan, who together successfully ousted the other family members from control of the family trust in a recent legal battle.
Turning to international news, yet another deadlocked presidential election in Peru is looming. A new Ipsos poll, taken near the end of April, shows an exact 50-50 split between the two candidates in the runoff: the left-wing member of Congress Roberto Sánchez and Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori. This election was always going to be close – Peruvian politics have been deadlocked for years, resulting in ultra-narrow presidential victories frequently followed by impeachments. Fujimori has been a runoff candidate in every presidential election going back to 2011, losing each by extremely narrow margins. Most recently, she lost to Pedro Castillo by a margin of 50.13% to 49.87% in 2021. Castillo however was thwarted by, and ultimately ousted by, the Congress. The runoff will be held on June 7th.
In India, the Left suffered catastrophic defeats in this week’s state elections, Al Jazeera reports. The state of Kerala – “the first in the world to have a democratically elected communist government” and “the last state in India where communists were in power” – will now be led by the United Democratic Front, a coalition headed by the Congress party, which won over 100 out of 140 seats. The Left bloc will likely capture around 35 seats. Beyond Kerala however, the Left has seen setbacks throughout the country, with no state now being ruled by the Left for the first time since 1977 and the national parliamentary Left bloc declining from 62 in the 2004 election to just eight seats today. Different factors are cited for the general decline of the Left in India, including an inability to adapt Marxist analysis to non class-related issues in the country, such as caste and gender, as well as the decline of industrial trade unions and a general trend towards Right-wing Hindu nationalism. Hopefully, the Left will take this electoral rout as an opportunity to rebuild itself into a viable force for 21st century Indian politics.
Turning to East Asia, the Financial Times reports North Korea has subtly revised its constitution to drop references to reunification of the two Koreas. Specifically, the new text reads “the territory of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea includes the territory bordering the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation to the north and the Republic of Korea to the south, and the territorial sea and airspace established on it”. In acknowledging the existence of the Republic of Korea, more commonly known as South Korea, experts see a move away from the long-held North Korean contention that the peninsula is a single country illegally partitioned. The revision was “disclosed by an academic at a press conference hosted by the South Korean Ministry of Unification on Wednesday.” Though this article notes that “North Korea has not made any comment on the revised constitution and the source of the text revealed by the unification ministry was not disclosed,” it highlights that Kim Jong-un has increasingly moved in this direction in recent years, renaming Tongil (“reunification”) metro station in Pyongyang and dismantling an Arch of Reunification monument.
Our last two stories have to do with the People’s Republic of China. First, Reuters reports China’s Commerce Ministry has issued an injunction to “block U.S. sanctions imposed on five Chinese refiners accused of buying Iranian oil.” Hengli Petrochemical, one of the five small “teapot” refineries primarily located in China’s Shandong province, was slapped with sanctions last month, when the Trump administration accused the company of purchasing billions of dollars in Iranian oil. The other four have been sanctioned since last year. However, the Ministry now argues that the sanctions violate “international law and the basic norms of international relations,” and with the injunction in place, “the United States cannot recognize, implement, or comply with the sanctions imposed on the aforementioned five Chinese companies.” This is perhaps the most significant challenge to the American-led international sanctions regime in decades and whatever reaction issues from the U.S. will surely inform other states on just how far they can go in flouting such sanctions.
Finally, in a stunning legal decision, Fortune reports Chinese courts have ruled that “companies cannot terminate employees just to replace them with artificial intelligence systems.” The case in question hinged on whether a tech firm in eastern China had acted illegally when firing one of its workers, a “quality assurance professional…identified only as Zhou” after he “refused to take a demotion” and a 40% pay cut, when his job was automated by AI. The court found that the termination did not meet established standards, such as business downsizing or operational difficulties, and the court separately stated that “Companies cannot unilaterally lay off employees or cut salaries due to technological progress.” This stunning legal victory for workers in the face of challenges by technology is bittersweet – heartening in that it’s happening at all, yet at the same time depressing because it is almost impossible to imagine an equivalent worker protection regime being implemented in the United States.
This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.
Discussion about this episode
Good luck America have a great day my friends
https://www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/p/race-class-and-gerrymandering
The MIDTERMS are just around the corner. Here are some VOTING tips.
If you are worried about VOTING alone, take a friend or two with you or go with a local group.
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If your state has Ballot Tracking sign up for it online. Ballot Tracking follows your Ballot from the time you dropped it off at your Post Office to the Election Center and tells you when your Ballot has actually been counted!
You receive information via email or text or both!
WE NEED to OVERWHELMINGLY VOTE!!
WE ARE NOT INTIMIDATED!!
WE ARE STRONGER TOGETHER!!
WE SHALL and MUST OVERCOME!!
Heather Cox Richardson was saying that it’s possible to impeach justices in the Supreme Court. It hasn’t been used enough or often. What do you say to that Ralph?
They want us dead there building mansion caves under the ground all them billionaires so they can hide they’re killing all the food off. They’re gonna cause all the famine the inflation everything God created they want dead. There killed most all the bees off nothing could pollinate the air the water. The food is all poison now massive scale. The famines if the Bible biblical scale inflation our country is sold out on all levels industry , education , abortion , medical, no ethics morals , they can control weather ( operation pop-up ) Vietnam and now lasers set fires 🔥, radiation from cell towers , lakes poisoned everywhere now Michigan since the 80s , weed kill glyphosate immunity , as well as lot other poisons in products & food we use everyday . The evils of our government unconscious - able is strate from Hell it’s on both party lines in all aspects . There place will be in Hell .
Thanks for being so resolute.
This week I got these responses to my frequent emails to them:
From Rep. Himes:
Thank you for contacting me about President Trump. I appreciate your comments and am grateful that you took the time to reach out to me.
Like you, I am deeply alarmed by the President’s conduct in his second term. He has fired thousands of dedicated public servants, pushed reckless cuts to our healthcare system, unlawfully detained immigrants without due process, and spread rhetoric that endangers millions. His abuse of war powers, his disregard for democratic norms, and the consistent pattern of lawlessness raise serious concerns about his ability to effectively serve.
During the first Trump Administration, I voted in favor of both articles of impeachment against the President based on clear evidence of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. From 2016 to 2021, I witnessed the damage caused by President Trump’s actions and words. On January 6, 2021, I was among the last evacuated from the House chamber as violent insurrectionists stormed the Capitol at the orders of the President. In the aftermath, I fought hard to strip him of access to the nuclear codes, bar him from ever holding public office again, and hold him accountable for inciting an attack on a coequal branch of government.
Even though Republicans hold the majority in both chambers, advancing impeachment would require their cooperation. Yet, despite overwhelming evidence, most Republican Members of Congress continue to shield the President from accountability. It is my political judgment that, at a time when an impeachment vote will not be brought to the floor by the majority, I do not believe that now is the appropriate time to initiate impeachment proceedings.
I am committed to working with my Democratic colleagues to protect our most vulnerable communities, defend critical funding, and uphold the integrity of our democracy. I have demanded answers from this administration, joined lawsuits to hold them accountable, and worked tirelessly to stop their dangerous agenda. The stakes have never been higher, and I will do everything in my power to defend the rule of law and our democratic institutions.
Sincerely,
James A. Himes
Member of Congress
And from Blumenthal:
Thank you for your message regarding funding levels for the Department of Defense (DOD). I appreciate hearing from you.
As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I am responsible for shaping and reviewing the annual defense budget, also known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Each year, the NDAA secures significant investments in high priority programs critical to our national defense and Connecticut’s economy. Connecticut's industrial base continues to produce advanced, capable weapons systems to protect our troops and defend our country. However, I believe military spending alone does not guarantee our national security. Our national defense relies upon the quality of our people, including those in the supply chain, the defense establishment, and the military services. Our security requires a strong non-military infrastructure, which is built upon education, health care, and housing.
For these reasons, I have supported several provisions to increase oversight of the DOD and ensure greater transparency and accountability for the department’s policies and actions. Please know that if I have the opportunity to review or vote on DOD funding levels in the future, I will be sure to keep your views in mind.
Thank you again for your message. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future with any additional questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Richard Blumenthal
United States Senate
I sent this email to the three this week:
Dear Senator Blumenthal;
I'm very concerned by your Israel first positions and policies where the US will back Israel no matter how lawless, abusive of human rights and predatory they become against neighboring sovereign countries such as Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Turkey.
You no doubt have your AIPAC handlers and your aides who listen to Israeli propaganda outlets in DC such as "The foundation for the defense of democracies": https://www.fdd.org/
Discussions I watch frequently that are unbiased, such as Danny Davis, Glenn Diesen, Andrew Napolitano on "Youtube" reiterate the central issues, that Israel is the leading threat to the Mid-east and any hope of peace there. As a Democrat I wonder how you could show favoratism to any ethic or religious group as your voting tends to amplify. Here is one recent discussion with former US ambassador Chas. Freeman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1FnZp1N5po
My uncle was a US ambassador, Edward S. Little, who was posted in Chad until his wife's health failed due to an African infectious disease.
I would hope you would open your mind to every and all discussions regarding diplomacy and reasonable peaceful resolutions to these conflicts as the US military has rarely engaged in conflicts with positive effects.
We need rally’s or somehow petitions I don’t know how you supposed to do this really what congressman or Senator listens to anything we say I went to the third house meeting 30 years ago and it was a concern citizens for taxes where we fought because our property taxes was too high and there was a board of people up there. One of them was from the Ways and Means committee and he said we don’t know what China is gonna do yet now what does that have to do with your property taxes and I have called him. I was younger than I hated way they treated these older people in the group & said I never heard no prayer start this meeting very sad . Neather part follows the constitution an all our officials have immunity to prosecution they don’t care they paid corporations to leave this country we had several over 100 year old companies leave or shut down nothing here left now stated in the 70s . We see now they will kill people if have rallies we can’t get a senator or congressman Dave even care if you call him on the phone anymore, not even a representative nobody answers the phone at the governor’s office and if someone does they just send you to somebody anybody because nobody has a title anymore just to get rid of you and this started during Covid and still none of our representatives actually come to the office in town and stay there or even visit and do the job that’s supposed to do. There has to be groups formed an meetings politicians. Do not have to talk to you. They don’t if there is a meeting. They put a chalkboard up and you pick one out of three things that you can talk about and they’re only gonna be there for one hour at City Hall regardless of how deep and how much people wanna say they do not donate their time to the people at all and they don’t care what you say . They know they don’t have care & protected environment you are the problem if you enforce your rights & voice of problems . This is a great evil . There are no civil Lawyers or Judges of the people it’s a criminal cartel just make you shut up under threat of your voice or just ignored on all counts, regardless whether it’s legal or righteous or not who cares that’s problem with politics what kills everyone sooner or later .
Key word “spine”
This has been a brilliant discussion, but concrete actions is necessary
A lot of important discussions. First, I am a long-time admirer of Professor Reed and was looking forward to hearing him talk about the limitations of race reductionism and the importance of centering class in our efforts to save our democracy. Yet, before he even got to that topic, Ralph interrupted him with a long monologue. I’ve
noticed since the Louisiana Voting Rights decision that msm pundits focus almost exclusively on the right of Black voters to be represented by Black politicians. But, as Teed pointed out, electing politicians based on race will not necessarily result in improved circumstances for voters. Reed mentioned the concerted effort of some Black politicians to prevent Bernie Sanders from winning the 2020 primary when his economic proposals would have benefited struggling Americans across the board, regardless of race. James Clyburn comes to mind. Not only did he throw his support behind Biden to help defeat Sanders, he also joined billionaires in supporting Andrew Cuomo over Mamdani in the NYC mayoral race. I hope we can unite behind candidates who think like us, but may not necessarily look like us. I agree with Reed that both of the major parties work to divide us by race.
I completely agree with Bruce Fein about impeachment — not only of Trump, but of the six corrupt Supreme Court Justices who orchestrated a silent coup in Trump v. U.S. I think, however, that a very few Democrats, not including Jamie Raskin, would be willing to undertake such efforts and would gain little support from other Democrats in doing so. Many of us are still not facing what the Democratic Party has become.
I was happy that Francesco DeSantis mentioned the status of the “public interest” group, End Citizens United. I have long thought that the Citizens United decision has been cynically used by political action groups only as a fund raising tool. Why? Because overturning CU would not prevent billionaires from buying elections, the biggest problem we now face in campaign financing and in preventing a further slide from democracy into plutocracy. In 1976, the Supreme Court equated money with speech in Buckley v. Valeo, which allowed wealthy individuals, then mostly millionaires, to spend unlimited amounts of money to support particular candidates, provided those expenditures did not go directly to the candidates themselves (the decision allowed unlimited “independent” expenditures). Billionaires are now buying elections under Buckley. . (Think of the hundreds of millions Musk and Miriam Edelson spent getting Trump elected in 2024). Citizens United simply extended Buckley’s reasoning to corporations. Thus, even if CU were overturned, billionaires could still buy elections under Buckley. But if Buckley were overturned, Citizens United would go down with it. I was really pleased that on May 6, the NYT published a front page article by journalist Danny Hakim about Buckley entitled, “A Look Inside the Case that Enshrined Political Power for Billionaires.” After all this time, someone finally got it right. Yet, in reading through the first 50 or so posts on the article, Buckley was barely mentioned, if at all, and the section was instead flooded with comments about Citizens United bringing about the demise of our democracy. That’s how effective these political action groups have been in circulating propaganda about Citizens United for fundraising purposes. It should serve as a warning about how easily we can be propagandized on other subjects.
One of the many groups using CU for fundraising purposes without mentioning Buckley is Public Citizen. In addition, PC is featuring and honoring Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse at its annual fundraising event. Senator Sheldon is one of now only 11 Democratic Senators to vote against ending the U.S.’s provision of certain weapons to Israel, as proposed in the recent Ban the Bombs Act. Why is a “public interest” organization honoring a politician who continues to support a genocide? I informed PC that I was boycotting the fundraising event for that reason. If Ralph has any influence with the organization, I hope he will tell them what a bad idea it is to honor a politician who votes to fund a genocide with our tax dollars.
Finally, I hope the Radio Hour will ask Bruce Fein about the possibilities of overturning both Trump v. U.S. and Buckley v. Valeo. Doing so would go a long way toward saving our democracy.
the speeded up dialogue is ageist, unfair to the hearing impaired and not even fair to the 78 rpm speakers because so much of their brilliance sounds like the chipmunks and is inaudible
Wouldn't it be great if all the people had so much class that they didn't need to Gerrymander themselves to success or power or to the bottom rungs of life because they had so much respect for each others ideas and places of origin.
Have you ever played a game when the winner said, let's have a,"do over" . My foot stepped over the line, my last shot down the line went out, or I think my last inside curve ball hit your sleeve.
At the bat of life do we always need an umpire to tell us what is right or wrong? Is always wining all the time all that important?
Where are the historic teachers of " ethics " the parents, the teachers, the religious leaders , those that govern?
Need I say more ?