Ralph Nader: Failing (Red)States

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Dandelion Salad
March 5, 2023

with Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader Radio Hour on Mar 4, 2023

Ralph welcomes William Kleinknecht, author of States of Neglect: How Red-State Leaders Have Failed Their Citizens and Undermined America about how red state governors and legislatures fight culture wars while starving education and health care, empowering polluters, engaging in voter suppression, and neglecting their citizens’ well-being in the interest of cutting taxes for their wealthy donors.

Plus, Oliver Hall, founder of the Center for Competitive Democracy tells us all about how ordinary people can use an extremely underused legal forum, Small Claims Court.

William Kleinknecht is a longtime newspaper reporter who covered politics, government, criminal justice, and the environment for the Detroit Free Press, New York Daily News, and Newark Star-Ledger. He is the author of The Man Who Sold the World: Ronald Reagan and the Betrayal of Main Street America and States of Neglect: How Red-State Leaders Have Failed Their Citizens and Undermined America.

“I wrote the book because when national news organizations talk about the red states, the focus is always on hot-button issues like abortion, immigration, election subversion, and even Critical Race Theory. And that’s by the design of the Republicans who run those states— that’s what they want people to be talking about because that fires up their base. What has gotten very little attention is just how damaging Republican leadership in those states has been for a longer period of time and across a much broader range of issues.” — William Kleinknecht

“I found that when I went to where the poorest people were— and the people who were suffering from environmental degradation or poor healthcare— I think they got it. I think it’s a different segment of their population that is the MAGA Republicans. And I didn’t spend as much time around them because I was looking for where the damage was.” — William Kleinknecht

Oliver Hall is a public interest attorney in Washington, DC. He is founder of and legal counsel to the Center for Competitive Democracy, which aims to strengthen American democracy by increasing electoral competition.

“The fact is, in our increasingly corporatized world where transactions are automated, contracts are one-sided (contracts that corporations create with so much fine print you couldn’t possibly read it all, and ostensibly require you to sign away your rights), I think people get intimidated. Or they assume that they don’t have the right to pursue a claim in small claims court. And the fact is they do have that right. It can be done. And there’s no reason more people shouldn’t do it, especially given the level and pervasiveness of corporate abuses, just in terms of everyday normal transactions that we all engage in..” — Oliver Hall

“I’ve been listening to Elon Musk speak out against government subsidies of corporations over the months— and talking about himself as a great capitalist entrepreneur— when, in reality, he takes all kinds of corporate welfare… Anytime he opens up a plant or starts a company like Starlink, he demands all kinds of subsidies, handouts, giveaways, grants, and especially a tax referral or tax holidays or tax breaks.” — Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader Radio Hour on Substack

From the archives:

Chris Hedges: The Dangerous Bifurcation of the United States

Right-wing Attempts To Eliminate Constitutional Protections Are No Joke, by Pete Dolack

Daniel Lazare: America’s Fate: Revolution or Fascism? interviewed by Finian Cunningham

The Racists Return to Kindergarten, by Robert C. Koehler

Chris Hedges and Ralph Nader: A Postmortem on the 2022 Midterm Elections

The Dis-United States, by David Swanson

Chris Hedges and Paul Street: Neo-fascist Seizure of America’s State Governments

From Iowa Nice to Iowa Nazi: A Report from the Friendly Fascist Heartland, by Paul Street