Monday, February 19, 1996

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  • New Hampshire’s Political Landscape

    A conversation with New Hampshire veteran political activists Arnie Arneson and Renny Cushing about the current political landscape after the so-called U.S. congressional Republican Revolution when power shifted to the Republicans after the 1994 mid-term elections. In the state of New Hampshire, Republicans have enjoyed majority power for 142 years – since the U.S. Civil War — essentially creating a "one-party" state (as well as a "one-TV station" and "one-newspaper" state). Long-term Republican corporate-government power effectively perpetuates entrenched spheres of influence and a tightly controlled, closed system, disallowing real conversation between the majority and minority peoples/parties. A PSA featuring Gov. Steve Merrill promotes economic development and tourism by proclaiming: "It’s right in New Hampshire!".

  • The Politics of Race in the Granite State

    A conversation with co-host Salim Muwakkil from Chicago and NH community activists Nury Marquez and Rev. Bertha Perkins about the experience of People of Color in New Hampshire — a state that’s 97% white — and the alliances that are built among Communities of Color amidst the troubling influence of U.S. politics by political events like the Iowa Caucuses and the NH primary – events held in overwhelming white states. Race issues in the this year’s presidential election are pre-empted by a misleading focus on immigration using so-called drug war programs like Operation Street Sweep that allows local police to question (mostly Latino) residents about alleged suspicious behavior after which INS agents arrive and use their prevue to question immigration status. This and similar incidents as when African American motorists are stopped for "Driving While Black" feed a kind of xenophobia as those who are different or act different from the majority are rejected for that difference. And, in the only state in the U.S. that doesn’t honor Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday as a holiday, Arnie Alpert discusses the more subtle degrees of racism in political rhetoric as some Republican and conservative leaders in NH characterize Dr. King as important to the civil rights movement, "a folk hero for underprivileged minorities," a person opposed to the Vietnam War and thus not worthy of honor, but in any case a person who may be important to "other people" but not to "the people of NH."

  • Money Talks: Who are the millionaires having their way in Washington?

    The regular Monday feature about money: PACs, Campaign Financing, and Campaign Finance Reform. Pacifica National Affairs Correspondent Larry Bensky talks with Mother Jones magazine editor Jeffrey Klein about the April 1996 cover story "Deep Pockets: The Millionaires Who Set Washington’s Agenda." Modeled after Forbes magazine’s top 400 wealthiest people in the U.S., Mother Jones compiles a list of the top 400 people who donate to political campaigns. While top donors include Republicans and Democrats, and Liberals and Conservatives from all over the political spectrum, they also constitute a kind of plutocracy of interests and have a lot in common, contributing to very different campaigns but in many cases for the same reasons. Namely, a fierce desire to pay less on their taxes and to be independent of government intrusion and federal regulation of industry and business.

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