No Red Wave Materializes, Progressive Ballot Measures Outperform Dems

Sputnik

In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Natalia Marques, writer and organizer from New York City to discuss the results of the midterm election and the apparent failure of the so-called red Republican wave to materialize , what these results reveal about the deeply unpopular program of the Republican Party, the many progressive ballot measures that were passed around the country and what that highlights about the Democrats' failure to keep their campaign promises, and what the looming danger of a contested election in 2024 reveals about the ruling class anxieties around keeping this system intact.

In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Hannah Dickinson, professor and organizer with Geneva Women's Assembly in Geneva, NY and Managing Editor of Breaking The Chains Magazine to discuss how abortion rights fared in the midterm elections as five states voted on abortion- related ballot measures, what the protection of far-right attacks on abortion reveals about the prevalence of abortion rights and the truly undemocratic nature of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, why the coming narrative on Democratic politicians and their successes driving the victory of abortion rights is wrong, and why only a movement will be able to protect abortion rights no matter who wins control of Congress.

In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Jeremy Kuzmarov, Managing editor of CovertAction Magazine and author of four books on US foreign policy, including The Russians are Coming, Again, with John Marciano and Obama's Unending Wars to discuss the Joe Biden's record on foreign policy two years into his presidency as the threat of nuclear conflict between the US and Russia looms, how the Biden administration has continued its proxy conflict in Ukraine and exposed his true colors as a war hawk, the double standards on human rights that the Biden administration uses to demonize some countries and ignores in other countries, and why the presentation of US involvement in Ukraine as a matter of protecting democracy is a facade.

Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Dr. Radhika Desai, a Professor at the University of Manitoba and Director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group to discuss the midterm elections and the failure of the Biden administration to address the issues that were important to voters, how inflation is connected to the financialization of the US economy and why the Federal Reserve is unlikely to address that root cause and instead cause pain to workers, how inflation, the Fed's response to it, and the financialization of the US economy is continuing to uphold the dollar system, and the prerequisites for peace negotiations put forth by Volodymyr Zelensky and how waning US support for Ukraine may affect the course of the conflict.