Democracy

Amy Keith started working for Common Cause Florida about a year and a half ago as Florida Program Director, leading the organization’s voting rights, redistricting, and accountability work, including its federal congressional redistricting case that’s still working its way through the system. As of December 1 she serves as the organization’s Executive Director.In that federal congressional redistricting case (Common Cause Florida v. Byrd) Common Cause Florida, Fair Districts Now, the Florida State Conference of the NAACP, and individual voters from across Florida argue that the Florida Legislature and Governor Ron DeSantis engaged in intentional racial discrimination in violation of the 14th and 15th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution when they crafted the state’s current congressional map. She joins us to talk about that case, and the other issues Common Cause Florida is focusing on right now.

The statewide battles over abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a constitutional right to abortion have exposed another fault line: the commitment to democracy.As voters in state after state affirm their support for abortion rights, opponents are acting with escalating defiance toward the democratic processes and institutions they perceive as aligned against their cause.

In April of 2023 a small group of southwest Floridians got together to express their concerns about what they see as growing trends toward autocracy here in Florida, and more broadly across the United States. They formally launched their nonpartisan nonprofit called Floridians for Democracy in May and since then have been working to bring people together who share similar concerns. The primary focus of their concerns are the policies and positions being put forth by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and the Republican-dominated state legislature, which they say demonstrate autocratic or authoritarian tendencies. We get an update on the work they're doing from Floridians for Democracy co-founder, Jim Nathan; and from Dave Aronberg, the elected State Attorney for 15th Judicial Circuit which includes Palm Beach County.

We explore global trends for democracy and authoritarianism with with Michael Abramowitz, President of Freedom House and the former director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Levine Institute for Holocaust Education, and a former national editor and White House correspondent for The Washington Post.

Dr. Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera was born in Mexico and has spent her career focusing on U.S.-Mexico Relations and issues around the border. She lived along the border in Brownsville, Texas for eight years, and over the past decade has traveled along its length three times from Brownsville to San Diego collecting stories for a book she’s working on about life along the border. We talk with her about the current state of U.S.-Mexico relations.

The idea that Ukraine is an independent nation with its own national identity is one that Russian President Vladimir Putin has openly disputed since long before the invasion, and he’s not alone and this is not a modern idea but one that dates far back into history. Our guest today strongly disputes this claim, and his recent books offer direct evidence of a decades-long effort by the Soviet Union and then Russian to stoke divisions among the Ukrainian diaspora and people around the world, and cast doubt on the very idea of an independent Ukraine.

As the recounts for governor, U.S. Senate and agriculture commissioner dominated the news here in Florida, educators in Broward County decided to try to…

We’re joined by Professor Jack Goldstone in advance of his lecture here at FGCUthis Friday, March 23 at 6:00 p.m. called "Is Democracy Dead - and should…