Emma hosts Dan Bouk, associate professor of history at Colgate University, to discuss his recent book Democracy’s Data: The Hidden Stories in the U.S. Census and How to Read Them.Then, Emma’s joined by Akela Lacy, politics reporter for The Intercept, to discuss her recent reporting on the Pennsylvania State Legislature’s attempts to impeach Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner. Emma begins by running through updates on the Fed’s continued interest rate hikes, Democratic pessimism as we approach the midterms, and the upholding of Brittney Griner’s sentence in Russia, before diving deeper into the second pressured-abortion allegation against Herschel Walker as well as his recent appearance alongside Lindsey Graham. Professor Dan Bouk then joins, getting right into the central importance of the US Census in the delegation of power across the various branches and levels of federalism, with its inception in the first article of the US Constitution. Bouk then walks through the state of the Census bureau over the first century of the American experiment, with this mass mobilization driven by US Marshals organizing law enforcement to get people out for the count, with the infrastructure of the bureau slowly growing through the early 1900s – becoming an institution made up of hundreds of thousands of workers. Emma and Dan then explore how this massive bloat of the bureau brought forwards greater scholarly work (even within the bureau) on the failures of the census methodology, with a segregated office of Black census workers first revealing the mass undercount of various marginalized communities – including Black and brown folks, immigrants, those in poverty and without housing, and more. Next, Professor Bouk walks through the various factors that push this miscount in the census, and how these factors developed over the 20th Century, with certain aspects (like having representatives that actually want to count you, living in a house, etc) continuing to present an issue, while new ones (being part of a racial group being put in internment camps, having an atypical family structure) arose alongside developing social issues. Emma is then joined by Akela Lacy as they dive right into the 5-year campaign by the Pennsylvania GOP against DA Larry Krasner, taking up the mantle of other state-level GOP impeachment attempts by pushing rhetoric on Krasner’s failure to address violent crime while simultaneously undermining his actual ability to act as state DA. They wrap up the interview by tackling the specific relationship between DA Krasner and PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro, and the short-term benefits and long-term costs of meeting the GOP in the middle on tough-on-crime policy. Emma also touches on the LA mayoral election between Rick Caruso and Karen Bass, and why a progressive movement behind billionaire real estate tycoon Caruso would be a mistake.
And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Matt Binder and Brandon Sutton as they chat with Ben from Virginia on relating to conservative family members, be they 9-month-old AnCaps or 90-year-old theocratic fascists, before diving into the recent coverage of the Dr. Oz v. Fetterman race in PA. Candace Owens continues her bit about Hitler’s trans-inclusive regime (he included them in his extermination plans, and that’s about it), and Owen from LA talks about Kanye and anti-semitism. Binder parses through his recent investigation into a poorly-hidden Jimmy Dore sockpuppet account, and Ryan from NC discusses voting for school boards, plus, your calls and IMs!
Check out Dan’s book here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/democracy-s-data-the-hidden-stories-in-the-u-s-census-and-how-to-read-them-dan-bouk/18721705?ean=9780374602543
Check out Akela’s reporting here: https://theintercept.com/staff/akelalacy/
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