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“Hopefully, this is a renaissance,” says Sam Jean, who returns to Cuckoo 4 Politics for another episode of Raw & Uncut as we wrap up 2023. It’s been a year full of high profile labor strikes, which remind people of the power of unions to stand up to corporations to fight for a living wage. Of course, this doesn’t stop many people from blaming immigrants for depressed wages and low employment. America has a history of demonizing its most newly arrived citizens, blaming them for all its problems, while simultaneously relying on them to make up large parts of the workforce. As Americans, we must question which of our foreign policy maneuvers have forced people to come to our country to seek a better life.
This hypocrisy extends to the highest positions of government. Americans continue to labor under the illusion that those on the Supreme Court hold themselves to a higher moral standard than the rest of us. Yet, as Michael points out, Judge Clarence Thomas accepts all sorts of gifts and favors from rich donors, compromising. Sam calls for term limits in the Supreme Court, to help tamper down such corruption and compromised integrity and corruption.
Meanwhile, too many conservative candidates are weaponizing their religion as a way to mystify their followers, something that Sam predicts will only become more pronounced during the 2024 election season. If there’s one abiding truth, it’s that Donald Trump makes everything worse.
Quotes:
“We have to address why it is that people are coming here. The other thing we don’t address in terms of our foreign policy is what has American foreign policy done to some of these countries that are sending us their migrants? Why? Why is that happening?” (9:20 | Sam)
“It seems like the public understands that the workers have no leverage and their only leverage is to strike. And when they start striking and they start explaining what they want, regardless of how the media tries to interpret it like, ‘Oh, they expect a living wage.---the shock of it! God forbid someone get a wage that allows them to live–I think that (18:17 | Sam)
“One thing the strike demonstrates is the power of labor and organizing labor because the workers by themselves do not have sufficient leverage to stand up against the corporations. They just simply don’t. You think one worker can stand up to Ford, Chrysler, GM? Not at all. So this demonstrates the power of labor, and hopefully this is a renaissance for labor movements to come back.” (19:27 | Sam)
“Judge Clarence Thomas. The man is literally hanging with big donors who are paying for his–everything–from taking him on lavish vacations, to paying for anything he wants and we think, ‘You’re supposed to be impartial?’ Is he another Tim Scott?” (24:28 | Michael)
“There is a separation of church and state because we understand in this country that there are people who believe and there are people who don’t believe. We have to treat them the same way. You don’t need to insert religion to have an outcome that is fair. Can we use religious ideas to form certain laws? Of course we can, of course people do, but the laws are sufficient as they’re written without a hint and a hinge of religion.” (30:12 | Sam)
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