Democracy Forum 9/17/21: The Two-party System and the Future of Our Democracy

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine

We’ll talk about the history and the future of the two major parties,
How parties change and evolve, how/why they splinter.
Are the parties too strong or too weak?
Are the two major parties in this moment so polarized that the system itself is undermined?
Has the modern two-party system made us ungovernable?
What reforms and options might be realistic? — multi-member districts, proportional representation, ranked choice voting?

Guest:
Lee Drutman, senior fellow at New America. He is the author of Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America
Sandy Maisel, Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of American Government at Colby College (emeritus)

To learn more about this topic:
“Quiz: If America Had Six Parties, Which Would You Belong To?” by Lee Drutman in the New York Times, September 8, 2021

“Have Democrats become a party of the left?” William A. Galston and Elaine Kamarck, for Brookings, July, 2021

“The Decline of the GOP,” Norm Ornstein in The Atlantic, August, 2020

Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America, by Lee Drutman, March, 2020. Watch an interview with the author at Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop – Political Reform.

Parties and Elections in America: The Electoral Process. by Mark D. Brewer and L.Sandy Maisel, ninth edition, 2020

The Parties Respond: Changes in American Parties and Campaigns (Transforming American Politics) Mark D. Brewer and L. Sandy Maisel, fifth edition, 2018 (essay collection)

“This Maine Initiative Could Shake Up the Two-Party System,” by Hendrik Hertberg in The Nation, October, 2016.

It’s Even Worse Than It Looks by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, April, 2016.

“Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: America’s Love Affair with the Two-Party System,” Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, Marc Horger, July 2013.

Prerecorded on 9/15 using Zoom technology.

The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

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Dawnland Signals 9/16/21: History of Native activism at USM

Producers/Hosts: Maria Girouard, Esther Anne
Engineer: Jeffrey Hotchkiss

Critical conversations of truth, healing, and change in the Dawnland: History of Native activism at USM

-Mikhu’s experience as a native student
-The Land Recognition Committee
-Hopes for the future

Guest: Mihku Paul, First Nations poet, visual artist, storyteller, and activist. She was born into the Maliseet Nation and she is a member of Kingsclear First Nation in New Brunswick, Canada.

About the hosts:

Esther Anne, is a Passamaquoddy from Sipayik who lives on Indian Island and serves on the Wabanaki REACH Board of Directors.

Maria Girouard, Penobscot from Indian Island, is Executive Director of Wabanaki REACH, a statewide organization working toward truth, healing, and change in the Dawnland. Maria is a tribal historian with a Master’s Degree in History from the University of Maine and a special interest in the Maine Indian Land Claims. Maria has devoted years to community organizing, environmental stewardship and activism, and growing food in tribal communities.

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 9/16/21: Data Brokers 1

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Most of us who use cell phones or computers or other electronic devices assume that we are being tracked and that our personal information is being used so that advertisers can better direct their ads at us. But our personal information in this digital world is being gathered and aggregated and used in lots of different ways as a recent report from the Duke Sanford Cyber Policy Program demonstrates. We bet most people will be surprised at the extent of the information data brokers gather about us and sell to anyone with the money to buy it. In today’s edition we quote from the report but the full report is worth a read and it’s available here

About the host:
Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon’s words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station’s sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage.

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Technoptimist Radio 9/15/21: The world’s largest direct air capture plant is open

Join Teresa Carey as she breaks down the latest news on the technology that is solving the world’s biggest problems. In today’s show, Teresa covers an activist way to stop illegal fishing, the world’s largest direct air capture plant, and what the Montreal Protocol did for us.

To learn more about the topics in this episode:
Unique underwater sculptures thwart harmful illegal fishing
The world’s largest direct air capture plant just opened
Saving the ozone layer avoided 2.5 degrees of global warming
Green sand beaches could erase carbon emissions
Can seaweed save the planet?
How balloons could soak up carbon and fight climate change
Should we genetically engineer carbon-hungry trees?

About the host:
Teresa Carey is a senior staff writer at Freethink.com, where she covers genetics and the environment. She is also a US Coast Guard licensed captain and a NatGeo Explorer. In addition to Freethink her work can be found in BuzzFeed, Scientific American, PBS NewsHour, NPR Weekend Edition, Smithsonian and more. @teresa_carey

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BoatTalk 9/14/21: boatyard news, rebuilding charles morgan whaleship, hurricane maria

Producers/Hosts: Mike Joyce, Alan Sprague, Jon Johansen

-boatyard news
-rebuilding whaleship
-hurricane maria in st. john usvi

guests: jeff gold, ronald grant

About the hosts:

Alan Sprague a.k.a. Flounder of the Soul Show, has been a programmer at WERU since the glaciers receded. For thirty years at community radio he has worked his way from being an unpaid volunteer to being an unpaid volunteer today, and he says he’s worth every cent of it. In 2003 he and Mike Joyce started the monthly call-in show Boattalk which has become a boating related show without piers (pi). Mike and Alan met many years ago while both were working at the Hinckley Company. Alan was the head service carpenter at the Hinckley skunkworks called Bass Harbor Marine or sometimes Kibbee’s Kennels. He worked there for nearly thirty years and saw yachts of stories to tell yawl. As part of Boattalk they organize the annual WERU Boattalk Cruise in late June for a fun pot-luck trip up Somes Sound, America’s former fiord. Quite cunning Mike and Alan are to work a free scenic boat trip with fine food for themselves.

Mike Joyce bio to follow

Jon Johansen bio to follow

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Tough Island, Maine, Episode 5 9/14/21

Producer/Host: Crash Barry

This week on Tough Island, Maine: Crash trades with Russian sailors. The fellas almost get stuck on an uninhabited island. Crash scratches Captain Donald’s truck

About the host:
Writer Crash Barry lives near a cannabis grove in the foothills of western Maine. Thirty years ago, he moved to Matinicus, Maine’s most remote inhabited island, to live and work as a sternman aboard a lobster boat. In Tough Island, Maine, Crash retells his misadventures using dramatic storytelling and unique sound design.

For over 25 years, Crash has worked as print, radio and on-line journalist, reporting on the intersection of politics and culture. He’s the author of the rollicking novel Sex, Drugs and Blueberries, a gritty memoir Tough Island and the true story of Marijuana Valley. Crash is also a filmmaker and wrote and directed the screen adaptation of Sex, Drugs and Blueberries.

Crash’s podcast Devils and Dirtbags is an ongoing investigation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, Massachusetts and a true tale of deceit, homicide, molestations and cover ups. The actions of evil Bishops and their unholy henchmen play out like a Hollywood movie, rife with death, destruction and disgrace, all framed by a murder mystery that haunted Springfield until an ex-priest made a deathbed confession. Crash tracked down both the murderer and another former priest, a serial child rapist that served as pastor of Crash’s childhood parish, to see if they felt guilt for their sins and crimes.

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Outside the Box 9/14/21: “Anti-Monopoly”

Producer/Host: Larry Dansinger

About the host:
Larry Dansinger (no pronouns) of Bangor came to Maine in 1974 and has been here ever since. Some of Larry’s activities since then: Done community organizing on numerous issues through INVERT and then Resources for Organizing and Social Change (ROSC), committed civil disobedience several times, grown a garden yearly since 1977, joined various food cooperatives and two men’s groups, refused to pay federal income taxes for war, lived on a community land trust for 23 years, and met a wonderful partner whom Larry has loved for over 40 years. Larry has produced Outside the Box features on WERU since 2007 and continues to look for unique ways of seeing almost any problem or situation.

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