Center Left Radio

No Off Ramp: The Friday Show

CLR Show 1840. Air Date August 4, 2023. The Jack Smith 1/6 indictment is airtight. The vapid, emotional responses of Trump's attorneys and minions has underscored that fact forcefully and repeatedly. Add to that the fact that Trump is incapable of admitting fault or loss, is possessed of no moral compass, has no off switch and will do anything––repeat, anything––to stay out of jail and regain power, and you have the makings of an American Saga for the ages. Stay tuned. With CLR Friday Co-Host, David Bach.

Donald: The Dysfunctional Fantasy

CLR Show 1839. Air Date August 1, 2023. With the unsealing of the 1/6 indictment against Trump and (as this is written) unknown others, America enters the final, extended episode of the Donald Show. The basic script has been written; trial, conviction and incarceration before the 2024 election are all but assured. The question remains: how will the centrist republican leadership navigate away from the Donald fantasy and reunite the party with mainstream American values and aspirations?   

Smoke and Mirrors: The Friday Show

CLR Show 1838. Air Date July 28, 2023. Donald's image management, no matter how successful in the past, will soon be no match for the 4 criminal indictments that will be weighing on him. The grievances of his most loyal sycophants and the hand wringing fears of those who believe in their imagined power will all be subjected to the real-world drubbing that will be issued to Donald by Chris Christie in the first Iowa debate. It won't be a fatal blow but it will have severe and lasting consequences.  With Friday Co-Host, David Bach.

Future Shock

CLR Show 1837. Air Date July 25, 2023. The January 6th-related indictment of Donald marks the beginning of his political and legal end. He will be convicted and sentenced and, his predictable protestations notwithstanding, he will become a functional irrelevancy to the nation and the republican party. But can the republicans successfully disinamour themselves of Donald? To not do so will alienate Independents for a generation and relegate the republican party to extended political irrelevancy... or functional extinction.        

Repeat... Don’t Panic!: The Friday Show

CLR Show 1836. Air Date July 21, 2023. Even the liberal media is encouraging us to extrapolate outward to certain electoral doom every time Donald or one of his minions does something outlandish. Yes, be concerned, but suppress the urge to panic. There's only one certain extrapolation: the indictments, trials, convictions and sentencing of Donald will have a severely negative impact on his ability to run or govern. The odds of him ever holding public office again are below miniscule. With Friday Co-Host, David Bach.

An Interview With Professor John D’Emilio

CLR Show 1835. Air Date July 17, 2023. A special interview with John D'Emilio, Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a major force in the development LGBTQ history, and gay and lesbian studies in America.  As a noted historian, quoted by Supreme Court Justices Kennedy and Sotomayor, he is optimistic that the current pushback against LGBTQ gains is an historical blip, and that hard earned LGBTQ rights will remain a viable part of our social and political landscape.    

2 Americas: Choose 1

CLR Show 1834. Air Date July 11, 2023. At the very same moment: Joe Biden is representing America at a revitalized NATO conference, projecting American competence, commitment and leadership to the world... while Donald's lawyers go for broke and request a Mar-A-Lago documents trial date 'after' the 2024 election in  a desperate bid to allow a convicted Donald to pardon himself. Which America do we choose? 

A Way Past Grievance?: The Friday Show

CLR Show 1833. Air Date July 7, 2023.  For all of the chronic moaning and prevaricating of the right, the Biden Administration has laid the groundwork––through its historic Infrastructure Bills––for a total refurbishing of our communications, transportation, medical delivery systems and so much more. It will be nearly impossible for republicans to run against these achievements, and harder yet to misrepresent or decry them. Will their culture of grievance become (even more) meaningless? With Friday Co-Host, David Bach. 

’A Court Like No Other’: The Friday Show

CLR Show 1832. Air Date June 30, 2023. In reacting to the decimation of yet another 50-year-old right, this time Affirmative Action, Joe Biden declared the current Supreme Court to be 'a court like no other.' And yet he reaffirmed his belief in the fundamental instruments of government and our ability to get past this current low point in our national experiment. Given his own 50-year track record, we would be wise to take him at his word.   

Grievancer-in-Chief... and Nothing More

CLR Show 1831. Air Date June 27, 2023. Donald's appeal to his followers is purely emotional. Objective facts are meaningless, grievance is the common currency and, arguably, any return to the White House would blunt the strength of grievance-fueled grip on the republican party. By the time he is convicted and sentenced the first time, he will most likely have altered his messaging to accommodate this altered reality, while still expanding his perpetual grift of the faithful. Even Fox will condemn him for it. Stay tuned.