democracynow.org
Stories:
Indiana Scrambles to Contain Growing Corporate, Public Outcry over Anti-LGBT "Religious Freedom" Law
As the state of Indiana faces increasing pressure to repeal a new religious freedom law, Arkansas lawmakers have passed a similar bill that critics say could allow business owners to refuse service to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender customers in the name of religious freedom. Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has said he plans to sign the bill into law. On Tuesday, the CEO of Wal-Mart, Arkansas’s largest corporation, called for Hutchinson to veto the bill. Wal-Mart joins a growing number of corporations opposing the religious freedom bills. Nine chief executive officers, including the heads of Apple, Angie’s List and Eli Lilly, have spoken out in protest. A number of states and cities have also taken action, banning officials from traveling to Indiana. On Tuesday, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said he stood by the law but urged lawmakers to work on reforming its language. We go to Indianapolis to speak with Indiana State Senate Democratic leader Tim Lanane, who led his party’s opposition to the "Religious Freedom Restoration Act" before its passage.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: As the state of Indiana faces increasing pressure to repeal a new religious freedom law, Arkansas lawmakers have passed a similar bill that critics say could allow business owners to refuse service to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender customers in the name of religious freedom. Republican Arkansas Governor, Asa Hutchinson, has said he plans to sign the bill into law. On Tuesday, the CEO of Wal-Mart, Arkansas’s largest corporation, called for the governor to veto the bill. Wal-Mart joins a growing number of corporations opposing the religious freedom bills. Apple, Angie’s List, Eli Lilly, Gap, Marriot, NASCAR and th e NCAA have asked Indiana state officials to take immediate action to ensure the act will not sanction or encourage discrimination. Unlike other states with similar laws, Indiana and Arkansas grant corporations the right to religious freedom.
AMY GOODMAN: A number of states and cities have also taken action. On Tuesday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo banned non-essential state travel to Indiana in support of LGBT members. New York City has done the same. The states of Connecticut and Washington had already banned official travel to Indiana as have San Francisco, Seattle and Denver. At a news conference, Tuesday, Indiana’s Republican Governor Mike Pence said he stood by the law but urged lawmakers to work on reforming the language.
GOV. MIKE PENCE: This legislation was designed to ensure the vitality of religious liberty in the Hoosier state. I believe Hoosiers are entitled to the same protections that have been in place in our federal courts for the last 20-plus years, and in the law in 30 other states, but clearly, clearly there has been misunderstanding and confusion, and mischaracterization of this law. And I come before you today to say how we are going to address that. I believe in my heart of hearts that no one should be harassed or mistreated because of who they are, who they love, or what they believe. I believe every Hoosier shares that conviction. But, as I said, we’ve got a perception problem here, because some people have a different view, and we intend to correct that.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: On the campaign trail, potential Republican candidates including Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, and Florida Senator Marco Rubio have defended Governor Pence and Indiana’s law. In a statement, Cruz said, "Indiana is giving voice to millions of courageous conservatives across this country who are deeply concerned about the ongoing attacks upon our personal liberties."
AMY GOODMAN: To talk more about the Indiana legislation, we go to Indianapolis to talk to Tim Lanane, Indiana Senate Democratic Leader. He has led the Democratic opposition to Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act. We welcome you to Democracy Now! Can you start out by giving us the legislative history? How did this bill get introduced? What was in reaction to?
SEN. TIM LANANE: Well, that is a very good question. And thank you very much for having me on the program today. The timing of this, one has to look at that, because, you know, last year, the state of Indiana basically rejected an amendment which had been proposed, really, for a long time, for a number of years, to amend its constitution to ban a gay marriage, to ban same-sex couples from marrying. Then, the opposition, of course, to that, the opposition — I should say the proponents of such an amendment, are now the same people that are the proponents for the RFRA law.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I fully support, and my caucus, the Democratic Senate Caucus, fully supports the idea of religious freedom, and the right to practice your religion free from interference from the government, but unfortunately, in response to, I feel, the rejection of the marriage amendment last year, comes this bill, which is written much broader than any of the other RFRA laws, including the federal law, that was signed decades ago, and causes one to look at the language involved to see what could be the implications or the ramifications of this, and this is what has caused the concern, because there is a belief that the law is written in such a fashion that it could, unfortunately, allow for discrimination against the LGBT community.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Senator Lanane, what are some of the differences between — the supporters of this bill say it’s not much different from the federal law that was passed decades ago. What are some of those specific differences?
SEN. TIM LANANE: Several very important differences. One, of course is just the definition of who can apply the law, and the definition of a person who is to be protected, as you might say, underneath the law, is so broad, that it includes, basically, not only a real person, but any business entity under the sun — partnerships, limited liability corporations, all corporations, basically, would have the right to bring suit if they desired underneath the act, and there — that is another substantial difference between the federal law because the federal law is written in such a way that it is not allowable for a private individual to bring a suit. The government could intervene and do such, but this law is written in such a fashion that we feel it would allow for lawsuits between private individuals, even. The definition of what is a religious practice is very broad. So, there are some very substantial differences between the Indiana RFRA law and all other laws.
Another major substantial difference is that many of these states that have enacted their own less broad, if you will, more narrow RFRA laws, also to make sure that no one is discriminated against, at the same time include within their civil rights acts protection specifically for sexual orientation or the LGBT community. We do not have that in the state of Indiana, and that is a major gap that exists in the state of Indiana when it comes to protecting members of the LGBT community.
AMY GOODMAN: Speaking to ABC News , Sunday, Indiana Governor Pence defended the law. He said both Presidents Clinton, Obama have supported versions of the law, as have 19 other states besides Indiana.
GOV. MICHAEL PENCE: The Religious Freedom Restoration Act was signed into federal law by President Clinton more than 20 years ago and it lays out a framework for ensuring that a very high level of scrutiny is given anytime government action impinges on the religious liberty of any American. After that, some 19 states followed that, adopted that statute, and after last year’s Hobby Lobby case, Indiana, properly, brought the same version that, then state Senator Barack Obama, voted for in Illinois before our legislature, and I was proud to sign it into law last week.
AMY GOODMAN: Tim Lanane, I was wondering if you can respond to, well, why the signing was private, but, the photograph of that signing, and the people who were there — GLAAD, particularly, focused on this, the group against defamation of gays and lesbians, talking about including Micah Clark who refers to a license plate benefitting and LGBT youth center to a plate promoting smoking, Curt Smith, standing with the governor, who equates homosexuality with bestiality and adultery, Ali. Eric Miller, while attempting to defeat to defeat federal hate crimes laws protecting LGBT people, falsely claimed pedophilia is a sexual orientation on par with homosexuality.
SEN. TIM LANANE: Well, yes, and of course that raises concern because those are the three exact individuals who led groups that opposed, or I should say who were the proponents for amending our Constitution last year to ban same-sex marriage, and they have had a long-standing history of anti-gay legislation that they want to see adopted in the state of Indiana, and there they stand, immediately behind the governor in this picture.
Further, they have said, publicly, that they believe this RFRA bill will allow for businesses to discriminate, if you will, against gays, to refuse services to gays. They put right on their websites that this will now allow a florist or a baker to refuse to participate in a gay marriage, a reception, if you will, following the marriage, even. So, this is a very dangerous type of discussion, and of course it leads to people questioning the motives or the reason for a RFRA bill that is written so broadly. This is, again, why we have said you need to do several things. We have said repeal and protect. That would be the best thing, send the boldest message. If they don’t want to do that, well then you’ve got to at least repair that — the RFRA bill, but you must immediately moved to put protection for the LGBT community in our civil rights act.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Senator Lanane, the firestorm that has erupted in the past few days around this issue, especially with the eyes of the sports world being focused on Indiana this weekend with the final four college basketball championship in Indianapolis, what’s — could you comment on the national pressure now on Governor pence to make a change here.
SEN. TIM LANANE: Well, there is national pressure, and so, people are watching throughout the nation, throughout the world. What is Indiana going to do in response to this? Perhaps we didn’t see the extent of this reaction. We warned — the Senate Democrats warned on the floor of the Senate when we considered this bill that we thought there would be an outrage that would occur. We did not see the depth of it.
But, nonetheless, it is here now, it’s real, and we have to react to it, it’s costing us money.
We have conventions that are being canceled. We have all of these companies threatening to withhold their business in the state, or to drawback on their connections with our state, and this, we do not need, because, Indiana is a good state, and we have people. And what I have heard since then is a grassroots from the people of Indiana saying this is not what Indiana is about.
Please, let’s make it clear that in Indiana we don’t want discrimination, and whatever we need to discrimination. Whatever we need to do, — dissemination. Whatever we need to do, let’s do that to make that the official policy of the state of Indiana. I am confident we can do that. I am going to be asking the governor and the Republican leaders, let’s take this bold action we need to to put it officially in our policy in the state of Indiana, we shall not discriminate against any person.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to an Indiana protester who is advocating for recalling the legislators who supported the law.
PROTESTOR: We can recall this governor, we can recall the 63 legislators that voted yes, we can recall the 40 senators and we can take back our state from those people trying to take us back 70 years.
AMY GOODMAN: So, the protests have been massive over the weekend and continue through the week and continue through the week. That’s people on the ground protesting, but it’s not just a progressive/conservative divide. As you’re pointing out, these large corporations — Angie’s List has said it will not continue a $40 million expansion. Everyone from Marriott to the Gap. This is a kind of response — have you ever seen before? And I’m wondering how it’s playing out in the state Senate, in the General assembly. What are the Republicans doing there? Have they ever seen their traditional supporters attack them like this?
SEN. TIM LANANE: I don’t think so. I don’t think they have ever seen the depth of this type of a reaction. So, they are, I think, in a little bit of a crisis mode, or maybe a lot of a crisis mode. They are not exactly sure what to do. We have tried to, as the Democrats, to propose to them ways that we think we can send the message that will try to calm the storms, as one of the Republican leaders put it, that we need to do, but I think, right now, I am afraid that they believe a Band-Aid approach to this is going to be enough, and I am almost certain that is not what those corporations are looking for. They are looking for major steps to be taken to affirm the fact that in the state of Indiana, overwhelmingly, people are against discrimination, and we can do that. We just have to do it now, and it has to take bold action, which I am hoping Republican leaders will come, and legislators will come to a realization.
AMY GOODMAN: Have you introduced repeal?
SEN. TIM LANANE: We have already had the language drafted to do that, we’ve also had the language drafted to add to our Indiana civil rights act, as a protected class, sexual orientation. So, we’ve provided, I think, a pathway forward on this. And it’s not only just a pathway to alleviate the crisis here immediately, but, it’s a pathway for the future of the state of Indiana. This is where Indiana needs to go. It’s with the people of Indiana want to go, I think, by and large. So, now is the time. This is an historic moment for the state of Indiana. It is time for us to move forward.
AMY GOODMAN: Senator Tim Lanane, thanks so much for being with us. Tim Lanane is Indiana Senate Democratic Leader. He led Democratic opposition to Indiana’s so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act or RFRA before its passage. He has continued to decry the controversial initiative as Indiana business leaders, universities, civil rights groups, faith leaders, states and cities across the country have joined the protest. This is Democracy Now!. We’ll be back in a minute with 150 years of The Nation magazine. Stay with us.
Started by Abolitionists in 1865, The Nation Magazine Marks 150 Years of Publishing Rebel Voices
The Nation magazine, the oldest news magazine in the United States, is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. The first issue was published on July 6, 1865 — just weeks after the end of the Civil War and three months after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Over the years, The Nation has published many of the nation’s leading dissidents, academics and activists. We broadcast an excerpt from the new documentary, "Hot Type: 150 Years of The Nation," and speak with the magazine’s editor and publisher, Katrina vanden Heuvel. The Nation is celebrating its anniversary with a quintuple-length, blockbuster edition.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: "Show You the Way to Go," The Jackson Five, who were born and raised in Gary, Indiana. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman with Juan González.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, The Nation magazine is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. It is the country’s oldest news magazine. The first issue was published on July 6, 1865, just weeks after the end of the Civil War and three months after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Over the years, it has published many of the nations leading dissidents, academics, and that activists. This is an excerpt from the new documentary "Hot Type: 150 Years of the Nation."
INTERVIEWEE: Everybody’s kind of written for the The Nation. Pat Buchanan wrote for The Nation, Hunter Thompson wrote for The Nation .
NARRATOR: Theodore Dreiser, H.L. Mencken, John Dos Passos, James Agee, Sinclaire Lewis.
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: Tony Kushner, Toni Morrison, Emma Goldman, Henry James, W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, Willa Cather, Kurt Vonnegut, E.L. Doctorow, Gore Vidal.
INTERVIEWEE: — was the first to publish James Baldwin.
AMY GOODMAN: "[Hot] Type" was produced by Barbara Kopple. In a minute, we will be joined by The Nation's editor and publisher, Katrina vanden Heuvel, but first, this is another clip from "Hot Type: 150 Years of the Nation" in which Katrina talks about the magazine's early history with contributing writer D.D. Guttenplan. The piece ends with the reading of a story that appeared in The Nation in 1932.
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: This is the essay I was telling you about, it’s about The Nation future. It’s 1955, but, it says The Nation must change, as it has changed in the past. Within the last 40 years, and think about how this could be written today, within the last 40 years one-third of our daily newspapers and more than 3,000 weeklies have ceased publication.
D.D. GUTTENPLAN: Wow, now it’s like —
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: And This is 1955, because we do sit here and think, you know, what is The Nation 's role in this media landscape. And that's
D.D. GUTTENPLAN: Where do we fit —
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: And then speaks —- he goes on to speak -—
D.D. GUTTENPLAN: And also, how does it survive? I mean, in 1955, they were worried about being strangled by the Red Scare, and by McCarthyism. People were afraid to get The Nation, and if you got The Nation, the FBI probably —
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: Knew about you.
D.D. GUTTENPLAN: Yeah, they probably put you on a list.
D.D. GUTTENPLAN: The Nation grew out of the Civil War. It was started by Republican abolitionists who were concerned about the state of the freed men. We like to gloss over the first 50 years in a way, because The Nation was in mesh with the Republican Party, it was against workers right, it was worried about inundation by foreigners and immigrants. It didn’t really break free of the Republican Party until World War I. We think of it now as kind of version of the left of the Democratic Party. I mean, I hope it’s much more than that, but you could caricature it that way and some circles.
But, The Nation that we know now really took off in the 1930’s. That is because of the New Deal, which really was one of the, I think, the apogees of The Nation ’s, not just its influence, but also its flowering, its flourishing and its power.
SAM WATERSTON: We give thanks that the economic disaster which confronts us has made men and women think, has made multitudes realize that our institutions are not perfect, that there is something radically wrong with the situation under which even at the height of prosperity, many are on the ragged edge of starvation, while others literally roll in wealth. We believe the Republic to be in jeopardy, but we have not lost faith that it can be rescued and set upon the right path to meet the needs of the situation.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Sam Waterston reading a Nation editorial from 1932. And before that, Katrina vanden Heuvel speaking with D.D. Guttenplan who co-edited, together with Katrina, The Nation 's 150th anniversary edition, which is more than 260 pages. That excerpt from "[Hot] Type: 150 Years of the Nation." We are joined now by Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor and Publisher of The Nation, America's oldest weekly magazine. Again, The Nation is celebrating its 150th anniversary with a quintuple-length, blockbuster edition of the magazine. Welcome to Democracy Now!.
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: Thank you Amy. Thank you Juan.
AMY GOODMAN: And happy birthday.
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: This is daunting, it is something to survive, if you think, three centuries. We were founded in this great city, as Don and others said there, by abolitionists committed to ending slavery, but also resonant in terms of your previous segment. Eric Foner, in one of the introductory essays in the issue writes about the contested meaning of freedom, and the founders believed in freedom as a universal birthright, but boy, has freedom been contested in these last 150 years, and we can see it’s still a battle.
And those words you read from editorial from the New Deal era, think about how resonant those are, "may we save our Republic from financial crisis and despair." So, it’s those echoes, it’s the fact that history remains present, remains alive. So, this is about the past, present, and future, and another 150 years is what we are committed to.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: But, I’m curious, in an age where a magazine is lucky to survive 10 years, or even count itself among the big ones if it survives 20 to 30, how has The Nation managed to survive for 150 years to continue publishing?
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: I think there are a number of reasons. I think at various times — you know, this is a writers’ magazine and it’s also, at this moment, as at other times in our history — there was reference to the McCarthy period — it’s a magazine for voices that might otherwise be marginalized. It’s for rebellious voices, for dissident voices, for writer’s voices, for... It’s also, because it’s supporters over the years have have cared for more for what it stood for than what it made. It’s become — it’s about it being a cause, a community as much a publication. And I think it’s that ongoing dialogue in the pages between radicals, liberals, progressives, even conservatives with a conscience that gives it a value that transcends. And we have resisted. You know, in 1996, The Nation did a series called "The National Entertainment State," and it was about the threat conglomeratization, consolidation of the media, Murdochization posed to freedom of the press. That continues today. We’ve been at the forefront of the fight for internet democracy. So, I think fighting for independence and never giving up and never giving up on a fight is part of why The Nation has survived.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you go to John Steinbeck? One of the writers in The Nation. There are so many pieces we would like to highlight. I mean from James Baldwin to W.E.B Du Bois, from Molly Ivins to Edward Said, to I.F. Stone. Dr. Martin Luther King wrote for The Nation.
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote an annual essay from 1961 to 1966. And his last essay in The Nation was really about moving to the civil rights movement to a fight for economic justice. But, in 1967, February, just two months before his Riverside speech, he came out against the Vietnam War at a Nation event in Los Angeles. So, there was a history and a relationship there. And James Baldwin, as you said, wrote his first piece for the nation. And what is so stunning is to read in his from his "A Report from Occupied Territory," Harlem, not the Middle East, his use of stop and frisk in 1966. Again, the echoes and the correspondence between past and present. Just a year ago, two years ago, The Nation — and again a different motive storytelling — did a multimedia video, exposing stop and frisk abuses in Harlem, and it was cited by the Judge Sheindlin in her court decision ruling stop and frisk discriminatory and unconstitutional. So, that echo, that correspondence between past and present.
AMY GOODMAN: So then, read James Baldwin.
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: James Baldwin, I will read the words. This is a report from occupied territory, from July, 1966. "The citizens of Harlem who, as we have seen, can come to grief at any hour in the streets, and who are not safe at their windows, are forbidden the very air. They are safe only in their houses or were, until the city passed the No Knock, Stop and Frisk laws, which permit a policeman to enter one’s home without knocking and to stop anyone in the streets, at will, at any hour, and search him. Harlem believes, and I certainly agree, that these laws are directed against Negroes. They are certainly not directed against anybody else." And then Baldwin goes on to write, "I have witnessed and endured the brutality of the police many more times than once. But, of course, I cannot prove it. I cannot prove it because the police department investigates itself, quite as though it were answerable only to itself. But, it cannot be allowed to be answerable only to itself. It must be made to answer to the community which pays it, and which it is legally sworn to protect, and if American Negroes are not a part of the American community, then all of the American professions are a fraud."
AMY GOODMAN: That is 1966.
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: 1966.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: It’s 50 years ago.
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: So, it does — I think it raises the question which I know you grapple with here at Democracy Now!; that is 50 years ago, how does change come? Change has come in very difficult, hard ways in this country, and I think we’ve come ways, but, you can see in that the echoes, obviously of today. I think it’s a movement moment, again, as it was in 1966. It’s a different movement for racial justice, but these same concerns.
AMY: Can you go back to King?
KATRINA: Absolutely. This was, as I said, he wrote from 1961 to 66’.
AMY GOODMAN: This was the same year that James Baldwin wrote in The Nation.
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: This was the same year. This was a few months before that. This was "The Last Steep Ascent," it’s called. "At the end of 1965 the civil rights movement was widely depicted as bewildered and uncertain, groping desperately for new directions. The substantial legislative accomplishments of the past several years, it was argued, dealt so extensively with civil rights problems that the movement had become stagnated in an embarrassment of riches. Negro leaders, we were told, did not know how to maintain their assembled armies nor what goals they should seek.
The dominant white leadership of the nation, in perceiving the civil rights movement as uncertain and confused, is engaged in political projection. The Negro freedom movement has a policy and a program; it is the white power structure that gropes in indecision. White America, caught between the Negro upsurge and its own conscience, evolved a limited policy toward Negro freedom. It could not live with the intolerable brutality and bruising humiliation imposed upon the Negro by the society it cherished as democratic. A wholesome national consensus developed against extremist conduct toward nonwhite Americans. That feeling found expression in laws, court decisions and in the alteration of long-entrenched custom. But the prohibition of barbaric behavior, while beneficial to the victim, does not constitute the attainment of equality or freedom. A man may cease beating his wife without thereby creating a wholesome marital relationship."
AMY GOODMAN: That was Dr. King in ’66.
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: And King, very forcefully, later in that piece, as I said raised the critical importance of economic justice, of economic equality and freedom, which of course he brought with him in the last days of his life to protests.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Katrina, I wanted to ask you, much of the attention on The Nation is on its political role, but it has played a major cultural role in terms of cultural criticism. Could you talk about that aspect of it the magazine’s contribution.
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: The special issue, I think, brings to bear — brings to life, first of all the, first of all, the great poets who have written for The Nation, from Sylvia Plath to Adrienne Rich to Amiri Baraka, Allen Ginsberg. And it has — over the years, the critics have elevated ideas and artists. Clement Greenberg elevating Jackson Pollock, the New York School. Harold Clurman, a great theatre critic. James Agee was our film critic. He writes in here about John Houston. Stewart Cowans [sp] is a great film critic today. Arthur Danto, who died just a while ago, was an eminent philosopher whose essays about, from everything from Andy Warhol to Las Vegas and art, elevated that. Interestingly, The Nation — as we call it, the back of the book, the literary section, was at wart with the front during the '40s and ’50s, politically and culturally. I mean, there was a kind of anti-Communist, liberalism in the back, and in the front there was a vigorous, led by the editor then, Freda Kirchwey, anti-fascist, unwillingness to ally with what Arthur Schlesinger called, vital center Cold War liberals. So, that battle went on both culturally and politically. But, those brawls — you know, Christopher Hitchens didn't just write about politics for us. I mean, he would engage — and Katha Pollitt, our great columnist — one of her great essays was "Canon to the Right of Me," I think, and she still writes about cultural issues when we can get her to.
AMY GOODMAN: Speaking of battles, Israel-Palestine, Edward Said, the late, great professor of comparative literature at Columbia University, leading Palestinian voice. When did he write?
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: His first piece for The Nation was in a special issue in —- 33 years ago. Kai Bird, who was a longtime editor at The Nation, Pulitzer Prize-winning way biographer of Robert Oppenheimer, has a fascinating essay in this issue. Coming off of the special called "Myth of the Middle East," published 33 years ago, calling for, essentially, disengagement, U.S. disengagement with the Middle East at this point. Edward Said wrote his first piece for The Nation in that issue. I also remember the time of the Oslo Accords, I was then editor, and we published Edward’s essay as a cover story denouncing the accords, seeing, I think, in a prescient that they were leading to -—
AMY GOODMAN: He became a pariah in the establishment after that.
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: And I would say that The Nation, you know, has many readerships, and part of its readership is a liberal readership, and there were many that thought that it was premature that we published that essay, who found it offensive, who called it... One of the editors, Oswald Garrison Villard, said the week was not full if he had not received his requisite number of cancellations. Today, they come in different ways, but there is no question that one of the roles of the The Nation is, I believe, to lift up ideas that might be considered heretical at one time, that later in another generation appear more commonsense.
Now, the Israel-Palestine issue remains deeply contested. I would, you know — 1954, the great historian of Vietnam argued in our pages, that maybe a negotiated solution to Vietnam would be better than what came, thousands killed. And I think on a number of fronts the opposition to the war in Iraq, which Democracy Now! was very much part of — there were very few media outlets at that time, in the run up to the war. We were called names, we were vilified. Opposing war after 9/11 was not a popular stance, but that is part of what I think the role of The Nation has been, to stand stand apart, to not — the faith in what can happen when you tell people the truth is something that is part of our DNA.
But, Edward — this is not the piece I mentioned, but this was September 8, 1997. And he writes, Edward Said, the great scholar of Joseph Conrad, the writer, by the way, that "It has taken almost four years for the Oslo peace process to peel off its cosmetic wrappings to reveal the stark truth hidden at its core: There was no peace agreement. Instead, Palestinians entered an appalling spiral of loss and humiliation, gulled by the United States and the media into thinking that we had at last achieved some measure of respectability, bludgeoned by Israel into accepting its pathological definition of security, all of which has impoverished our people, who are obliged to watch more settlements being built, more land taken, more houses destroyed, more sadistic collective punishments meted out. Israel should explain why we should forget the past, remain uncompensated, our travails unacknowledged, even as all other victims of injustice have the right to reparations, apologies and the like. There is no logic to that, only the cold, hard, narcissistic indifference of amoral power."
AMY GOODMAN: And that is Edward Said in 1997. We’re going to break, and then come back to this discussion, and talk about what’s happening today as well in electoral politics in this country. Katrina vanden Heuvel is Editor and Publisher of The Nation, America’s oldest weekly magazine, it is celebrating its 150th anniversary with a quintuple length, blockbuster edition of The Nation. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. Back in a minute.
[music]
AMY GOODMAN: That is Joni Mitchell, "The CircleGame." She was found unconscious in her home last night in Los Angeles.She was taken to the hospital, but, according to her website, right now, she is in good spirits in the hospital so all the best to Joni Mitchell. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman with Juan González. Our guest is Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor and Publisher of The Nation. She is celebrating, not exactly her 150th birthday, but the 150th birthday of The Nation magazine, the oldest American weekly in the United States. Juan?
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: Someone did approach, [indecipherable] a former editor and publisher, who has a really magnificent essay in the special issue about what this country lost as result of McCarthyism or also we call it Hooverism, since we’ve learned so much J. Edgar Hoover behind the scenes. But what was lost by voices stigmatized, views stigmatized, marginalized during the McCarthy period. But, he begins the piece by saying someone approached him the other day and said, did you found The Nation? And he said, I may — you know. But, it is a testament to...
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Katrina, I wanted to ask about a giant at the confluence of both politics and literature, John Steinbeck, who also wrote for The Nation and perhaps you might be able to read one of the segments that he wrote and talk about his role as well.
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: You know, he was, well, this is a piece about the dust bowl and the drought which we’re seeing play out again now in California. But, he was someone who was very much part of the New Deal moment which Don Guttenplan spoke about in the documentary. And The Nation, you know, heralded the New Deal, though, I hope consistent with our role we were always pushing Roosevelt to move to the left and working with the labor movement and others; but, John Steinbeck, a great literary voice and, if I could add, part of what The Nationhas tried to do over the years is bring great literary voices to bear, to bear witness to the political moment of Tony Kushner, whose in the — Toni Morrison, Gore Vidal, E. L. Doctorow, to bring to bear a literary insight. So, let me just, "“Dubious Battle inCalifornia"":http://www.thenation.com/article/199473/dubious-battle-california. This was September 1936
“Let us see what the emigrants from the dust bowl find when they arrive in California. The ranks of permanent and settled labor are filled. In most cases all resources have been spent in making the trip from the dust bowl. It is quite usual for a man, his wife, and from three to eight children to arrive in California with no possessions but the rattletrap car they travel in and the ragged clothes on their bodies. They often lack bedding and cooking utensils.
Attempts to organize have been met with a savagery from the large growers beyond anything yet attempted. The usual repressive measures have been used against these migrants: shooting by deputy sheriffs in 'self-defense,' jailing without charge, refusal of trial by jury, torture and beating by night riders. But even in the short time that these American migrants have been out here there has been a change. It is understood that they are being attacked not because they want higher wages, not because they are Communists, but simply because they want to organize. And to the men, since this defines the thing not to be allowed, it also defines the thing that is completely necessary to the safety of the workers.” Think about —
AMY GOODMAN: That was the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer —
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: Did "Grapes" — if you think, so many have seen "The Grapes of Wrath," and you can see it in what he writes. But, you can also, again, the echoes of the assault on working people, on labor, on organized labor today met with a different kind of savagery, but with a savagery.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you take us to Molly Ivins, and then that will take us to Texas where we can talk about Ted Cruz.
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL:Do we have to?
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about modern politics. Molly Ivins wrote in what, 2003 —
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: This is 19— what, 2003, and I will, right here, I just have to... Molly Ivins wrote many pieces for The Nation, many of them about Texas. This is called "Is Texas America?" .
“Well, sheesh. I don’t know whether to warn you that because George Dubya Bush is President the whole damn country is about to be turned into Texas (a singularly horrible fate: as the country song has it: 'Lubbock on Everythang') or if I should try to stand up for us and convince the rest of the country we’re not all that insane.
Truth is, I’ve spent much of my life trying, unsuccessfully, to explode the myths about Texas. One attempts to explain—with all good will, historical evidence, nasty statistics and just a bow of recognition to our racism—that Texas is not The Alamo starring John Wayne. We’re not Giant, we ain’t a John Ford western. The first real Texan I ever saw on TV was King of the Hill’s Boomhauer, the guy who’s always drinking beer and you can’t understand a word he says.
So, how come trying to explode myths about Texas always winds up reinforcing them? After all these years, I do not think it is my fault. The fact is, it’s a damned peculiar place. Given all the horseshit, there’s bound to be a pony in here somewhere. Just by trying to be honest about it, one accidentally underlines its sheer strangeness.”
Now, I have to say before we talk Ted Cruz, I think she ended that piece by saying, “as Willy Nelson sings, if we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane.” And if you want to segue into Ted Cruz on that note.
AMY GOODMAN: So Ted Cruz has announced for President. Hillary Clinton hasn’t and Elizabeth Warren says she won’t.
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: Right, right, so, what to say. First of all, thanks to Democracy Now!, I hope The Nation, move beyond the horse race, we hope, every cycle, we try. We try to bring to bear the issues commensurate with the scale of the crisis in this country. The Nation believes that, you know, that this country deserves a contested primary, at least on the Democratic side. Now on the Republican side, you’re right, Cruz is the first and we’re going to have a caravan, a caravan of all kinds of, you know, clowns, thugs, operators, and you know —
AMY GOODMAN: But, Cruz, Jeb Bush both have endorsed the Indiana so-called "Religious Freedom Law".
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: I mean, you know, this is — what struck me the other day is somewhat different, we have talked about this, how far the Republican Party has moved from, I mean, conservatism as maybe Edmund Burke understood. This is an extremist party. James Baker, Secretary of State under George the First, spoke at the J Street Conference the other day. Spoke words, very carefully chose his words about Israel and why U.S. policy needed to be tougher on Israel. The Republican Party went berserk. Bill Kristol, who was over in Israel meeting with Netanyahu said that, if it was legal, Netanyahu would be the Republican candidate for president.
I mean, somewhere in here, as Molly Ivins might say, there is something opp— but this an extremist party that is turning against the civilizing advances of this country. I mean, we have a way to go; but what has been fought for, you see it in Indiana. And the delicious part, I have to say, is that there has always been a struggle inside the Republican Party where I think ordinary Republicans, ordinary working people Republicans, get shafted by the elite establishment money primary Republicans, and you are seeing that exposed, it seems to me, because you get the corporations coming in now saying we don’t want any of this fake morality, fake freedom stuff. But, there are people who are supporting that, the Santorums, the Huckabees.
There is a wing of the party which is still tied to what used to be called the Christian Right, The Moral Majority. So, I think anything — I do believe movements make change in this country; but, when the elites divide as they are in some ways in the Republican Party, that is going to be interesting to watch.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I wanted to ask you, in fairness to criticism of the other party, you wrote a piece recently in The Washington Post about the Transpacific Partnership Agreement where you criticized President Obama for, in his State of the Union Address, claiming we should write the trade rules, and questioning who does he mean by we?
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: Let me just step back, Juan, because you raise a good question, criticizing the other party. I think one of the reasons for The Nation's survival is that we have called out — first of all we — it's a poor country. We have two mainstream, you know, parties, but, we have called out the Democrats and that is part of what we have been about.
It is — this is a bipartisan piece of legislation, right? I mean you have got corporate Democrats signed up for it, but it’s a broader problem that corporate America is writing the tax and trade policies for this country and this investor state mechanism privileges corporations, undermining the rights of ordinary people to control their destiny. So, I think it is about the biggest crisis for our country today and I do think Elizabeth Warren speaks most eloquently to this, is the rigged system, the rigged system. Money, power, politics, the fusion of that, not just at home, but is in the Transpacific Partnership deal, the global rigged rules which are shafting working people. So, how people take back power.
You know, one of the reasons The Nation and I think Democracy Now! may stay in business, to use a crass term, for many years is, you know, I don’t believe there are any lost causes. There are a lot of causes to be fought for, but, there are only causes waiting to be won and organized people, and this is, as I have said, a time when people are in motion, I think you’ve got "Black Lives Matter," you’ve got “Post Occupy,” you have “The Fight for 15,” you have the fast food workers, you have migrant rights, immigrant rights movements. I mean, there is a sense that something is happening and people are aching for a better America that works for people, not just, as this Transpacific Partnership illuminates most clearly, corporations.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you very much Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor and Publisher of The Nation, America’s oldest weekly magazine. We will link to your website . The Nation is celebrating its 150th anniversary with a quintuple length blockbuster edition of the magazine. That does it for our broadcast.
Headlines:
Former Military Ruler Wins Presidency in Historic Nigerian Vote
Former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari has defeated incumbent Goodluck Jonathan in Nigeria’s presidential elections. Jonathan conceded after results showed him losing by some 2.7 million votes. It is the first time a Nigerian opposition party has risen to power through a democratic election. A spokesperson for Buhari’s All Progressives Congress party hailed the landmark result.
Lai Mohammed: "We are all happy because we are witnessing victory, history in the sense that this is the first time in Nigeria that a sitting government would be voted out of power using purely democratic means. Before now, when our governments were not popular, they either sit tight or are removed by the military."
Buhari’s democratic victory marks a return to power after three decades. He headed Nigeria for nearly two years after leading a military coup in 1983. Buhari oversaw a major crackdown on civil liberties that included the jailing of political opponents –- among them the legendary Nigerian musician Fela Kuti. But he campaigned against Jonathan on the pledge that he has embraced democratic ideals as a changed man. Jonathan leaves office amid widespread public anger over his failure to stop the Boko Haram insurgency, which included the kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls one year ago this month.
Iran Nuclear Talks Continue after Negotiators Extend Deadline
Negotiators in Lausanne, Switzerland, continue to meet over an Iran nuclear deal after extending the talks for another day. In Washington, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said enough progress was made to continue negotiations past the U.S.-imposed Tuesday deadline.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest: "It also doesn’t make sense, if we are getting serious engagement from the other side, to just abruptly end the talks based on this — based on this deadline. Because the fact is, if we are making progress toward the finish line, then we should keep going."
Russia says "key aspects" of a general agreement have been reached, to be finalized in a new phase aimed at a comprehensive agreement in June. But other sources have denied any deal has been struck. Details of the talks have been kept under wraps.
U.N. Warns of Yemen’s "Total Collapse" as Toll Grows; Apparent Saudi Strike Kills 23
The United Nations has issued dire warnings for Yemen amidst a rising civilian death toll from internal violence and a Saudi Arabian-led military campaign. Witnesses in the city of Aden say clashes between Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed forces loyal to deposed President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi have left hospitals flooded with casualties. Water has been cut off for days and power only available for hours at a time. Meanwhile, in the town of Dahle, Houthis and affiliated military forces have reportedly attacked three hospitals, killing an unknown number of people. And an apparent Saudi airstrike on the Red Sea port of Hodaida has reportedly killed 23 workers at a dairy factory. The latest violence follows the Saudi bombing of a camp for the displaced on Monday that killed 40 people and wounded around 200, dozens seriously. U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq called the strike a violation of international law that should be punished.
Farhan Haq: "Whoever is responsible, this is a violation of international humanitarian and human rights law. This camp, as well as the hospitals that have also been hit, are under protected status and should not be hit. So, whichever forces are hitting them are in violation of the law, there should be accountability for that and ultimately all such attacks have to cease."
In a statement, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad called the crisis in Yemen "extremely alarming," adding: "The country seems to be on the verge of total collapse."
Iraq Claims Control of Central Tikrit; Hundreds of ISIS Fighters Remain
The Iraqi government says its forces and Iran-backed militias have driven the Islamic State out of the center of the town of Tikrit following a month-long fight. But hundreds of ISIS militants remain holed up in three neighborhoods still under the group’s control.
Obama Admin Lifts Post-Coup Freeze on Military Aid to Egypt
The Obama administration has fully lifted a freeze on military to aid to Egypt first imposed after the country’s July 2013 military coup. The White House says President Obama told President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi he will remove holds on weapons shipments, including F-16 jets and Harpoon missiles, and continue the $1.3 billion in annual aid. The White House had partially suspended aid to Egypt but has avoided a full cutoff by refusing to deem the ouster of elected President Mohamed Morsi a "coup." The United States will now lift all of its restrictions by exempting Egypt from a "democracy certification" required by Congress. In a statement, the White House said: "We will continue to engage with Egypt frankly and directly on its political trajectory and to raise human rights and political reform issues at the highest levels." According to the New York Times, Obama’s move "signaled he was done punishing Cairo for toppling an elected president and that he was instead focusing on the shared goal of combating extremist elements in Libya and Yemen."
Palestinian Membership in International Criminal Court Takes Effect
Palestine has officially become a member of the International Criminal Court. The Palestinian Authority joined the ICC earlier this year after the United States and Israel successfully lobbied against a U.N. Security Council measure calling for an end to the Israeli occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state by 2017. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the court has already opened a preliminary inquiry into possible war crimes committed by Israel in the Occupied Territories.
Saeb Erekat: "The court has already begun preliminary examination and we hope that those who are trying to pressure Palestine not to make referral to the court, we are the victims, they should go to the criminals and ask them to stop committing crimes. Settlement activities, dictations, demolition of homes, the continuation of occupation are all war crimes and Israel will be held accountable."
Israel had retaliated against the ICC bid by withholding hundreds of millions in Palestinian tax revenue needed to pay salaries and provide public services. But it recently released the money in a bid to ease tensions with the United States and avert the Palestinian Authority’s collapse.
Backlash Prompts Indiana to "Correct" Anti-LGBT Law; Arkansas Set to Enact its Own
Indiana could be backing off its so-called "religious freedom" law just as Arkansas has approved one of its own. Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has said he plans to sign the measure, which critics say could allow business owners to refuse service to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender customers in the name of religious freedom. The CEO of Wal-Mart, Arkansas’s largest corporation, has called for Hutchinson to veto the bill. Wal-Mart joins a growing number of corporations and governmental bodies opposing the religious freedom bills. Following an outcry in Indiana, Gov. Mike Pence has announced he will ask lawmakers to pass new legislation that clarifies the measure.
Gov. Mike Pence: "I believe in my heart of hearts that no one should be harassed or mistreated because of who they are, who they love, or what they believe. And I believe every Hoosier shares that conviction. But as I said we’ve got a perception problem here because some people have a different view and we intend to correct that. ... .I would like to see on my desk before the end of this week legislation that is added to Religious Freedom Restoration Act in Indiana that makes it clear that law does not give business a right to deny services to anyone. We want to make it clear that Indiana is open for business."
Obama Commutes Prison Sentences of 22 Drug Offenders
President Obama has commuted the sentences of 22 people the White House says were serving "outdated" sentences for drug crimes. Eight of the prisoners had been sentenced to life in prison, and all were prosecuted for intent to distribute an illegal drug. Obama has commuted the sentences of a small group of prisoners since the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 reduced sentencing disparities between users of crack cocaine and powdered cocaine to address a racial imbalance in prison terms. But the law did not apply retroactively. Last year, the Justice Department widened the criteria for clemency to consider nonviolent felons who have served at least 10 years behind bars and who would have received shorter terms had they not been sentenced under old laws.
Critics: New U.S. Climate Pledges "Disguise Weak Reductions"
The Obama administration has announced new cuts to carbon emissions ahead of this year’s U.N. climate talks in Paris. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the measure was announced in line with the pollution reduction deal struck with China last year.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest: "The fact is the kind of agreement the president succeeded in striking with China and is implementing here in the United States will have a positive impact on carbon pollution, will have a positive impact on trying to make the air safer for Americans here in this country, will have a positive impact on our economy. That’s why the president is pursuing this so aggressively."
In a statement, the Center for Biological Diversity said the administration’s new pledge "uses deceptive accounting to disguise weak reductions that won’t prevent catastrophic warming." The group added: "Global efforts to prevent catastrophic climate change depend on the United States making much more ambitious cuts to planet-warming pollution."
Syracuse University to Divest from Fossil Fuel Holdings
Syracuse University has become the latest school to join the growing list of institutions divesting from fossil fuels. On Tuesday, trustees voted to purge the university’s $1.8 billion endowment from fossil fuel corporations. The campus-led divestment movement calls for purging investment portfolios of assets tied to companies that drive and profit from global warming.
Follow
ACTION ALERT
WEB EXCLUSIVE
INTERNSHIPS
207 West 25th Street, 11th Floor
New York, New York 10001 United States
____________________________
____________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment