2315 - History Of Gay Republicans; Analyzing Harris’s Economic Ideas w/ Neil J. Young, Hal Singer

The Majority Report with Sam Seder

It's an EmMajority Report Thursday! She speaks with Neil J. Young, co-host of the Past Present podcast, to discuss his recent book Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right. Then, she speaks with Hal Singer, economics professor at the University of Utah, to discuss some of Kamala Harris' recent economic policy proposals. First, Emma runs through updates on Israel’s expanding offensive in the West Bank, major polling bumps for Dems, the first Harris/Walz interview, Trump’s Q invocation, Trump’s would-be assassin, Biden’s major victory over drug prices, SCOTUS’ continuing attacks on student debt relief, Brazil vs. Elon Musk, Cornell’s labor action, and corruption in journalism, before parsing through the overwhelming threat of every type of violence that Palestinians face in the West Bank. Neil J. Young then joins, diving right into the roots of the gay Republican movement in the Cold War-era Lavender Scare, an overwhelming attempt by US federal, state, and local governments to criminalize, surveil, and punish queer Americans, be they politicians, military, police, or just every-day citizens, leading up to a 1978 ballot initiative from the religious right in California to ban queer people from teaching in public schools that saw an overwhelming organizing effort from gay Republicans to shoot down the initiative and prove that they belong in the GOP, a belief that took root among white gay men in San Francisco, before taking off nationally. Moving forward, Young then looks to the major role played by California Governor and US President Ronald Reagan over the outset and evolution of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in pushing rhetoric and policy that sought to otherize and demonize the homosexual “lifestyle” as the root of the crisis, and helping to launch a period of severe backlash to the social progress of the 1960s, particularly among the right. After expanding on the role of the public school system, and specifically the targeting of public school teachers, in right-wing attempts to marginalize and exclude queer folks, Neil and Emma walk through some of the major parallels we see with the challenges facing queer Americans today, wrapping up with the importance of understanding the immense stakes of this moment within its historical context. Professor Hal Singer then jumps right into the story of the US fight against inflation over the last few years, tackling the roles of price gouging and a corrupt rental market in exacerbating this economic crisis, including an expansive conversation on RealPage’s landlord price-fixing suit, and the absurd arguments that economists and elites used to obscure these root causes. Next, Professor Singer and Emma walk through the recent economic proposals from the Harris campaign that focus on these particular issues and what they mean within the context of the transition between Biden and her administrations, before briefly challenging the focus on anti-trust as a tool to prevent price gouging, and wrapping up the interview with an assessment of Biden major victory in drug price negotiations with the pharmaceutical industry, and how Harris can expand on and learn from that win.

And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Brandon Sutton and Matt Binder as they watch JD Vance and Tim Walz make clear the party divide on unions, Royce White insults the “cuck mentality” that won Trump his first campaign, and JD Vance’s cousin, BD, gives a peak behind the ol’ country curtain of JD’s campaign. Kari from New York unpacks RFK’s myriad problematic beliefs, Jamie from ME on Gen-Z and Biden, and Mike Huckabee on Trump’s prescient assholery, plus, your calls and IMs!

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