EP 820 Where Does America’s Role in the World Stand as We Change Administrations?
We have been the powerhouse on the world’s stage since WWII and we virtually stood alone as a dominant force since 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down. While there have clearly been wobbles since, like the Iraq debacle, we now must envision a new era in foreign policy, both because of the rise of our major adversary, in China, as well as the new Trump Administration’s uneven support for NATO and the alliance that has secured the peace throughout this modern era. Edward Goldberg, an NYU professor, and the author of “The United States as Global Liberal Hegemon: How the US Came to Lead the World”, leads us through this changing political landscape. While we use our military, economy and geography to straddle the globe as the major force still, are those days coming to an end? And, if so, what are the implications of this changing dynamic? We discuss today in detail on this podcast.
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Our guest on today’s podcast, Rafael Martinez, is an assistant professor of Southwest Borderlands at Arizona State University. There he focuses on immigration, migration, the US-Mexico Borderlands, and the American Southwest. Through that work he demonstrates how communities along the US-Mexico border contribute to the social, political, and economic fabric of the US. He calls himself am ‘undocu-scholar’, a DREAMer, as part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which offered certain protections to young people like himself. He discusses the many issues surrounding immigration and particularly the rise of undocumented youth social movements in 21st century America. He documents their efforts in his book, “Illegalized: Undocumented Youth Movements in the United States.”
For some years, we’ve been told that the ice melt in Antarctica, Greenland and other places in the cryosphere represent the harbinger of things to come announcing the profound effects of global warming on the planet. Little did I know that a new discipline has developed around ‘ice patch archeology,’ which ties us to the environment and culture of the past. Science journalist, Lisa Baril, in her new book “The Age of Melt: What Glaciers, Ice Mummies, and Ancient Artifacts Teach Us About Climate, Culture, and the Future Without Ice,” excavates a tour of ice for us, exploring the conflicting belief systems around ice and its integral relationship to people. Interestingly, the more the ice melts the more we learn about the past and yet, at the same time, it compromises our future. The meltwater is critical to the fresh water we drink and utilize in many parts of the world, but this sustainer of life can only do its job when it releases seasonally not in the overwhelming torrent that continued warming will eventually lead to. We are in a race against time. Can human ingenuity get us past this man- made crisis? We’ll discuss today.
The U.S Senate has many important responsibilities. Among them are making laws, ratifying justices to the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts and approving presidential nominees for key Cabinet positions. For the newly re-elected Donald Trump Administration the latter responsibility is key to determining whether the chamber is ready to step up to its constitutional responsibility as a separate branch of government or whether its GOP majority will simply go along with questionable nominees in order to accede to President-elect Trump’s desires. It will be a bellwether of what is to come from the branch of government that can put a check on a new President who seems to want to put the Imperial Presidency on skates. Will they? Early signs that they may be taking seriously their independent role was the selection of Sen. John Thune as the Republican Majority Leader and the pressure they exerted to force Matt Gaetz to withdraw his nomination for Attorney General. Joining us to discuss what to expect from the Senate is a man who has worked there and written a trilogy of books about the last sixty years of the Senate. Ira Shapiro’s latest book is “The Betrayal: How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans Abandoned America.”
The real question is whether that is even the goal and purpose of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Or is it retaliation for Donald Trump’s inability to bring bureaucrats to heel in his first administration? We will find out in short order because it’s a race against several clocks–the ‘mandate’ claim which gets smaller as all votes are counted, the Democrats to find their voice after a loss that stunned many, Congressional Republicans to realize they have mid- term elections to survive and union lobbyists and lawyers to push back against any serious tinkering with the federal workforce and programs, to blunt the force of what’s proposed. We’ve had Commissions and several efforts like this in the past under Democrats and Republicans, and it’s had little effect on the growth of government. Philip K. Howard, who founded commongood.org, has been seeking simpler governing frameworks that honor the role of human judgment and responsibility for years now. His work is serious and intentional. In this podcast, he describes what he believes should be done and casts a doubtful eye on the approach being taken by DOGE.
Zoning has been used by local communities to open up possibilities for some and shut them down for others; to beautify some spaces or change their character not for the better and to recognize current realities or live in the past. Once we recognize the power of zoning, we can harness it to create walkable and vibrant communities, resist the monotonous effects of suburban sprawl, integrate exciting design elements and work toward important goals like more affordable housing units, public transportation and creative housing options surrounding it. Zoning may seem like an invisible force shaping our communities but, in most communities, much ink has been spilled defining the most common districts: commercial, residential, industrial, open space and mixed districts, even creating ‘special districts’ to encourage, say, entertainment venues in an area. In her new book “Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes Our World”, legal scholar and architect Sara Bronin reveals the impacts of zoning for good and ill. Many cities have not revisited their zoning codes for years, leaving in place ordinances that maintain racial segregation, prioritize cars over people, and enable great ecological harm.
But isn’t that unconstitutional? That was the basis of my line of inquiry on this podcast with esteemed professor, Ira Lupu, George Washington Law Professor Emeritus and a nationally recognized scholar in constitutional law with an emphasis on the religion clauses of the 1st Amendment. Legal or not, Oklahoma’s superintendent of schools, Ryan Walters, has ordered public schools in the state to teach the Bible and wants funding for a controversial religious charter school, though the state’s Supreme Court has struck that down. Louisiana leaders directed schools to display The Ten Commandments and Texas leaders proposed a curriculum that incorporates biblical lessons. In these red states, where there are large evangelical Christian residents, infusing Bible teachings into the curriculum is gaining traction. There is a growing belief that the U.S. Supreme Court is now more predisposed than in any other era to uphold such mandates requiring religious education if a suit comes before it. Professor Lupu is a pre-eminent thinker in this aspect of law and is wonderful to listen to. He discusses this topic in nuanced ways that you’ve likely never heard before.
Since Hamas’s attack on Israel last October 7,2023 the term “settler colonialism” has become central to public debate about Israel and the Palestinians, particularly in academic circles and among young people. And while the concept may be new to most Americans, settler colonialism is shaping the way many people think about the history of the United States, Israel and Palestine. It is a history we share along with countries like Canada and Australia, whose modern identity is based on having subjugated Indigenous Peoples in order to establish what we recognize today. So, the question then becomes, centuries later, is our founding, its core documents and political legitimacy illegitimate? If you believe that it is, then what is the remedy? Decolonize? Make reparations? Or look away because the claims and remedies may be too difficult to even imagine. Adam Kirsch, author of “On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice”, joins us to try to make sense out of a fascinating, but difficult, subject.
Benjamin’s Franklin’s contributions to his times, and our country, are too numerous to restate. His greatest gift, however, may have been his philosophical approach to living a ‘useful’ life right until the very end. And while the self-help movement of our day has its own exemplars, going back and revisiting his 13 virtues and his willingness to evolve and change, and admit to errata(mistakes), may be as important as his many experiments with electricity or his role in our nation’s beginnings. In fact, even if Benjamin hadn’t been the only one of the Founding Fathers to have signed all four of our nation’s foundational documents, he would have been the most famous Founder because of his extensive travel abroad, according to Eric Weiner, author of “Ben & Me: In Search of a Founder’s Formula for a Long and Useful Life.” As the author has gotten older and begun thinking about his role and purpose at this stage of life, he found guideposts in living a life in full by reading what Franklin said and seeing what he did. He shares some of the lessons here and more in this insightful book.