Discussing what the election results reveal about the changing political landscape of Michigan with former head of the Michigan Democratic Party Mark Brewer, exploring what future holds with State Reps Yousef Rabhi and Jeff Irwin, and talking about the recent rise in racial intimidation with the ACLU’s Mark Fancher… on this weekend’s episode of the Saturday Six Pack

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Like me, I suspect a lot of you are still a bit shellshocked, trying to make sense of Trump’s victory this past Tuesday night, and what it’s going to mean for us as a people going forward. If you’re like me, your somewhat paralyzed by the magnitude of it all, wondering how you’re going to respond in the face of a government now unified in its complete disregard for climate science, hatred of immigrants, and contempt for the free press, among any number of other terrible things.

While I took to Facebook shortly after Trump was announced the winner, and stated that I wouldn’t be escaping to Canada with my family, but, instead, staying here and fighting, I’m still not sure what form my resistance will take. As of right now, I have no plans. I’ve just been spending the last several days thinking about it, trying to figure out where I should engage, and what, given my experience and abilities, I should be doing.

How do you fight a system, I keep asking myself, that threatens to destroy the EPA, roll back civil rights protections, end Social Security as we know it, dismantle public education, and all of the other things that Trump and his people have promised to do over the past year? Where, I wonder, should I be directing my efforts? Where might we, if we organize, have the greatest impact? Are there small successes that are possible that could lead to bigger successes? Are there opportunities to build new alliances? As of right now, though, I don’t have the answers to any of those questions. And, because of that, I was going to cancel tomorrow’s episode of the Saturday Six Pack. My thinking was that, if I couldn’t clearly articulate a path forward, even for myself, I should probably just stay off the air for a while. Yesterday, though, I had a change of heart. It occurred to me that, even if I didn’t have anything to say about how we take on Trump, it would probably be cathartic to just be on the air, talking with another human being, whether our conversation was about opportunities for resistance or not. And, perhaps more importantly, I came to realize that, before any of us can really make plans as to how we’re individually going to move forward, we probably need to better understand where we’re at right now, and what we’re up against. And, with that in mind, I put the word out that I was looking for someone who could come into the studio with Michigan’s election results, and whatever exit poll data might be available, and walk me through what it all means.

screen-shot-2016-11-11-at-9-39-56-amThankfully, Mark Brewer, the former head of the Michigan Democratic Party, answered my call and agreed to come out and talk. So, between 6:00 at 6:40 tomorrow evening, he and I will be in the studio, taking your calls, and talking about what this most recent election revealed about the changing political landscape of Michigan.

For what it’s worth, I don’t intend to spend our time with Brewer looking for scapegoats. While I may mention the DNC during the course of our conversation, I won’t be doing so to make the case that they mishandled the election by neglecting the rustbelt. And, while I’m sure we’ll discuss Jill Stein, I don’t intend to take the opportunity to lay this whole thing at the feet of her supporters, who drew votes away from Clinton. And, while I’m sure we’ll discuss the fact that Clinton didn’t get the Democratic support she was expecting in Detroit and Flint, I don’t want to dwell on the question of whether or not things might have gone differently had x or y happened. I just don’t see anything fruitful coming of such discussions. Yes, I’m sure we’ll mention all of these items in passing, but I’d much rather spend our limited time together discussing how things have changed for Michigan voters over the past four years, and trying to see if there might be opportunities to turn things around… And, for what it’s worth, I anticipate that it’ll be wonky as all hell. But I think we need that. Now that the shock and anger have, for the most part, passed, I just want to know where we are, and how we got here.

Then, after we talk with Brewer, we’ll be joined by Ann Arbor State Rep-elect Yousef Rabhi, outgoing State Rep Jeff Irwin, and ACLU Michigan’s Mark Fancher, with whom we’ll discuss everything from Michigan’s changing political landscape to recent reports of racial intimidation in our schools. [Thanks to all three of these folks for stepping in at the last minute, when my original guest for the second segment, Bruce Conforth, had to cancel due to illness.]

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE NEVER TUNED IN TO THE SIX PACK BEFORE, HERE ARE THE DETAILS ON HOW TO LISTEN:

Unless you live inside the AM 1700 studio, chances are you won’t be able to pick the show up on your radio. As that’s the case, I’d recommend streaming the show online, which you can do either on the AM1700 website or by way of TuneIn.com.

And for those of you who aren’t yet familiar with the show, and need to get caught up, you can listen to the entire archive on iTunes.

One last thing… If you’d like to tell your friends and neighbors about the program, feel free to share the Facebook event listing.

And, here, thanks to AM 1700 senior graphic designer Kate de Fuccio, is this week’s poster, in case any of you want to print copies and leave them at one of your favorite highway rest areas.

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And do call us if you have a chance. We love phone calls. So please copy down this number and slide it into your sock – 734.217.8624 – and call us between 6:00 and 8:00 this Saturday evening. The show is nothing without you.

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27 Comments

  1. Kim
    Posted November 11, 2016 at 10:35 pm | Permalink

    I have given up on Michigan. Please convince me otherwise.

  2. Loser Larson
    Posted November 12, 2016 at 12:11 am | Permalink

    I will send music.

  3. MPT
    Posted November 12, 2016 at 8:03 am | Permalink

    Please try to get the. me Monkey Power Trio in the Hall of Fame.

  4. Jean Henry
    Posted November 12, 2016 at 8:05 am | Permalink

    I request you play this:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU-RuR-qO4Y

  5. alan2102
    Posted November 12, 2016 at 11:02 am | Permalink

    Mark: “While I may mention the DNC during the course of our conversation, I won’t be doing so to make the case that they mishandled the election by neglecting the rustbelt…. And, while I’m sure we’ll discuss the fact that Clinton didn’t get the Democratic support she was expecting in Detroit and Flint, I don’t want to dwell on the question of whether or not things might have gone differently had x or y happened. I just don’t see anything fruitful coming of such discussions.”

    No, nothing fruitful — like a decent analysis of what went wrong and how it might be corrected in the future?

    This country has to endure four loooong fucking years of Drumpf, but we’re not going to discuss the causes or how things might have gone differently because “nothing fruitful can come of it”?!

  6. Andrew Clock
    Posted November 12, 2016 at 12:01 pm | Permalink

    Yeah, I have to go with Allen here. We need to be having serious discussion about the State and National Democratic Party. We’re loosing more and more ground with voters that have backed Democrats for decades. It is time for serious election postmortems, new plans, and new blood.

  7. Posted November 12, 2016 at 12:05 pm | Permalink

    I think you guys are reading too much into what I said. Or maybe I could have been more clear. I don’t know. It was late. What I was trying to say, though, is that we’d talk about all of that stuff, but I didn’t want our focus to be identifying any specific group or groups and saying, “It’s your fault, you suck.” Sure, let’s address all the issues, but let’s not spend our time casting blame. That’s all I was saying.

  8. Posted November 12, 2016 at 12:07 pm | Permalink

    And I’ve always wanted to like that song, Jean, but I just can’t. There’s something about it that I don’t like.

  9. Posted November 12, 2016 at 12:09 pm | Permalink

    As for the MPT, we inducted ourselves in the Hall of Fame last year at about this time, when we were all in Cleveland together. It was a small ceremony…. the first induction ceremony to be held in Cleveland, I think… under the awning from CBGB’s, by the downstairs bathroom.

  10. Posted November 12, 2016 at 12:10 pm | Permalink

    Also, Bruce Conforth cancelled on us. He wrote this morning to tell me that he had the flu. It sucks. I was looking forward to talking with him about stuff. But I’ll figure something else out.

  11. Bob
    Posted November 12, 2016 at 12:48 pm | Permalink

    That’s a shit song. He was great, much of the time. Lotta stinkers too. Like that one.

  12. alan2102
    Posted November 12, 2016 at 3:18 pm | Permalink

    Mark: “I didn’t want our focus to be identifying any specific group or groups and saying, “It’s your fault, you suck.” Sure, let’s address all the issues, but let’s not spend our time casting blame.”

    What’s wrong with blame? What’s wrong with saying “it’s your fault, you suck”, if it is true, and if it can be effectively documented and argued-for?

    And what’s right with blame? Plenty! Seeking blame is how we get to the root of things, how we determine causes, so that we can correct our course in the future, and perhaps cure ourselves in the present. You take your sick child to the doctor, and the doc determines that your child is suffering from an infection and that the microbes responsible should all be killed, you do not say “doc, let’s not spend our time casting blame.” Or you’re black, and your kid is going to a mostly-white school, and one day some racist bullies beat up your kid. You do not say to the school administrators: “hey, folks, let’s not spend our time casting blame.” You say, “god damn it, those fucking bullies are to blame and I want justice! NOW!”

    We witnessed in the recent past a spectacular series of episodes in which major war criminals (essentially the entire Bush administration), financial criminals , and torturers were let off, scot-free, by Obama because… because he just did not want to get into all that messy BLAME stuff. “Let’s not spend our time casting blame” or telling people “your fault, you suck”, because, you know, determining who was responsible for mass murder and bringing them to justice would just “not be fruitful”. He actually said words to the effect of (paraphrased) “we should look forward, not back”. Forward, not back?! What the fuck?! Do we say that to accused murderers, or accused rapists? “We going to look forward, not back. You can go now.”

    “Let’s not spend our time casting blame”, MY ASS. This is the time to be seeking a detailed accounting of the blame, and thence to heap shame and even scorn on whoever is identifiably and materially responsible for this mess. Of course there will be disagreement about all of it, but so what. The investigation, analysis, and (inevitably heated) discussion must take place.

  13. jean henry
    Posted November 12, 2016 at 6:38 pm | Permalink

    I always hated it too. But yesterday it seemed relevant.

  14. Posted November 12, 2016 at 9:38 pm | Permalink

    Alan, I hope you listened. There was lots of talk of blame. I think you would have enjoyed it.

  15. wobblie
    Posted November 13, 2016 at 5:08 am | Permalink

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/nov/2/donald-trump-holds-high-flag-gay-equality/

  16. alan2102
    Posted November 13, 2016 at 10:25 am | Permalink

    Mark: I missed the show. Would have liked to hear a recording of it, but cannot do that without downloading a huge (400MB!) new application. No thanks. I don’t like gumming up my system with huge software packages when they are only needed for ONE particular object. Why not post the show(s) as simple .mp3s? I mean, like the same format that everyone uses, that can be played by software already built-in to operating systems? Just a thought.

  17. Loser Larson
    Posted November 13, 2016 at 10:55 am | Permalink

    The shows have been available on soundcloud from the beginning.

  18. Loser Larson
    Posted November 13, 2016 at 11:23 am | Permalink

    “We’re loosing more and more ground with voters that have backed Democrats for decades.”

    “Lose is only a verb. To lose is to suffer a loss, to be deprived of, to part with, or to fail to keep possession of.

    Loose is mainly an adjective used to describe things that are not tightly fitted. Where it is a verb, it means to release—for example, they loosed the dogs on the intruders—but the word is only rarely used this way. It also has a noun sense mainly confined to the idiom on the loose, which means at large. When you need a verb meaning to partially release or to relax, loosen is usually the best choice.”

  19. jean henry
    Posted November 13, 2016 at 11:54 am | Permalink

    Alan would like the left to be safe for bigots but dismisses the concerns of the marginalized. Since people of color, LGBTQ people, Muslims, and the disable voted overwhelmingly the right way, I believe that is a losing strategy. To assume they would vote that way going forward is to ignore their amply expressed concerns. It’s also offensive in this time of real risk to basic human rights for those populations. If the left had been unified, if the far left had not been convinced they were denied a voice (they weren’t) and been sold lies cribbed from the alt right about HRC, She would have won. She won the popular vote by 1.8 million. The difference between the electoral college loss or win is 180,000 votes in swing states. The electoral college effectively diminishes the value of votes cast in urban areas. The work to bring about equity is the work that would give Dems the majority they need. The will of white people to avert their eyes from issues of racial justice and to participate passively via denial in the re-segregation of our society– including social media spaces–is the problem.
    To adopt Alan’s position is to assure we ‘loose’ more going forward.

  20. jean henry
    Posted November 13, 2016 at 12:07 pm | Permalink

    No one here is willing to talk about protectionism as seated in bias against poor people of color abroad. The real issue with globalization is not outsourcing but the extraction of unreasonable profits from workers here and abroad. That can be addressed via Wall Street reform. When HRC identified the insistence of the market on large quarterly profits, she was onto the real issue. Protectionism might well lead to worse conditions for labor as corporations would struggle to realize profits via growth and so have to extract more from labor to meet margins. We saw that in the last recession. But all chance of reasonable discourse about how to truly help the working class was lost because the electorate was tricked into picking on the marginalized again. It has to stop. its so very dangerous.

  21. Posted November 13, 2016 at 3:01 pm | Permalink

    What Pete said, Alan. All of the shows are on Soundcloud. You can just go to the Soundcloud page and listen to them there. This most recent episode probably won’t go up for about a week or so.

    Also, I heard from two people today that they were listening last night. I’m always surprised to learn that people are actually listening. Anyway, it made me feel quite a bit better. It’s good to know that people care enough to tune in.

  22. alan2102
    Posted November 13, 2016 at 3:10 pm | Permalink

    Jean: “Alan would like the left to be safe for bigots but dismisses the concerns of the marginalized.”

    I do? Seems to me that YOU do. You’re very concerned about PoC &tc here in the U.S., and indeed they have their issues which must be addressed, but when it comes to thousands or millions being bombed, starved, etc., globally — i.e. the REAL marginalized, to put it mildly — you don’t have much to say. Perhaps that is because if you were to lift your voice very far, it would rapidly become evident that it is impossible to give any serious consideration at all to “leaders” like your bosom buddies Obama and HRC.

    Jean: “Since people of color, LGBTQ people, Muslims, and the disable voted overwhelmingly the right way, I believe that is a losing strategy.”

    You believe WHAT is a losing strategy? What are you talking about?

    Jean: “To assume they would vote that way going forward is to ignore their amply expressed concerns.”

    To assume they would vote WHAT way going forward? What are you talking about?

    Jean: “It’s also offensive in this time of real risk to basic human rights for those populations.”

    I find it highly offensive that you defend undefendable warmongers and war criminals in this time of real risk to basic human rights for women, PoC and other populations, globally. And much more than mere “risk”; the actuality of violent death, maiming and so on — all of which seems to be perfectly acceptable to you, given your support of Obama, HRC, etc. You are the real, objective racist and sexist here. I am speaking in defense of minority populations about whom you seem not to give a shit.

    Jean: “If the left had been unified, if the far left had not been convinced they were denied a voice (they weren’t) and been sold lies cribbed from the alt right about HRC, She would have won.”

    On the one hand, this is transparent rubbish. But on the other hand, it is good in that this style of thinking will participate in destroying, perhaps once and for all, the evil Clintonism-dominated neoliberal Democratic Party as we’ve come to know it. People like Jean are unwittingly participating in a highly-useful exercise, here, of dynamiting the DP, which is a good thing, and should be celebrated. So please, Jean and others like you: carry on!

    ……………………………….

    Jean: “The real issue with globalization is not outsourcing but the extraction of unreasonable profits from workers here and abroad.”

    True. “Free trade” is really not the problem. Capitalist exploitation and concentration of wealth (“unreasonable profits”) is the problem. Of course, neither HRC nor any other neoliberal DP-bot will ever lift a finger to challenge or mitigate that exploitation and concentration. In fact, they are working to intensify it.

    Jean: “When HRC identified the insistence of the market on large quarterly profits, she was onto the real issue.”

    Yes, “identified”. BFD.

    Jean: “all chance of reasonable discourse about how to truly help the working class was lost because the electorate was tricked into picking on the marginalized again.”

    All chance of reasonable discourse about how to truly help the working class was lost because the electorate was given no choice at all, and the controlled media is uber-allergic to any discussion of class whatsoever.

  23. alan2102
    Posted November 13, 2016 at 3:12 pm | Permalink

    Mark: thanks, I will give soundcloud a try. Did not know about it.

  24. Loser Larson
    Posted November 13, 2016 at 11:40 pm | Permalink

    I was not listening. It was late.

  25. Loser Larson
    Posted November 13, 2016 at 11:54 pm | Permalink

    I am sure that people interested in a few of the topics that appeared on the show.

    I have no evidence, however.

  26. alan2102
    Posted November 14, 2016 at 3:03 pm | Permalink

    Well, I tried to find the episode on soundcloud, but I gave up after some effort. The search function is flaky. The episodes don’t give dates or any key words (searchable), and is not in any kind of order. One is left to tediously paw-through a long long list. Yikes. Why not just give a link to the episode?

  27. site admin
    Posted November 14, 2016 at 3:14 pm | Permalink

    As Mark said earlier, it’ll likely be a few days before this episode is posted to Soundcloud.

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  1. […] ACLU about the situation. Well, earlier today, Mark Fancher of the ACLU, who was a guest on on the last episode of the Saturday Six Pack with me, went public with a letter that he’d sent with Royal Oak Superintendent Shawn Lewis-Lakin. […]

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