WCPT AM 820 Link to Listen Live
My commute to and from work is about 30 minutes, on the surface streets of Chicago. Unless there's construction, or something unusual going on, it's a commute by which you can set your clock. We're fortunate here to have a talk radio station that isn't afraid to tell the truth. WCPT is well known among Chicago and Northeastern Illinois Democrats, as well as in Minneapolis, where some of its programs are also heard.
Santita Jackson, daughter of civil rights leader the Reverend Jesse Jackson, had a call-in talk show that I caught on the morning commute. Her time slot, from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. was part of her daily podcast, and, as might be expected, was a niche program emphasizing the Rainbow Push Coalition, and featured issues and discussion centered on that slice of progressive interest related mainly to racial justice. It was her callers, many of them regular, and their willingness to share their personal experiences, that attracted me to the show. The politics, well, it was mostly focused on local elections and local politicians.
Presidential Politics Are a Different World
As the Presidential election drew closer, Jackson's comments demonstrated a lack of understanding of the issues at stake. I get the unique "niche" she is trying to build, and getting attention for issues she and the community she represents feel are often ignored, downplayed or unjustly dismissed. But her Presidential politics weren't realistic. Her anti-Biden bias was pretty clear, though it went unexplained, and she didn't seem to get the very obvious reality that third party candidates, while they might pick up and articulate some measure of understanding for the problems she sees as pertinent issues, are powerless to do anything about them, because they will never get elected to office.
What ended my interest was that I called in one morning, and surprisingly got on the air almost right away. Santita does not understand that the quirky, undemocratic way we have of electing a President means that third party candidates, who may share similar political perspectives, but who have no chance of winning the election and putting their agenda into play, simply take votes away from the candidate who is closest to their own ideology. That opens the door for a candidate who is totally opposed to those interests and totally against that perspective, to win electoral votes they otherwise wouldn't get. Trump won in 2016, and Bush won in 2020 because third partiers on the far left fringe of the Democratic Party, Jill Stein and Ralph Nader, took enough Democratic votes in enough states to allow Republican candidates, Trump in Stein's case and Bush in Nader's, to make sure that their own agenda and issues never saw the light of day.
When I tried to explain that taking Democratic votes away from Biden and giving them to Cornell West was one of the best paths to being elected that Trump has, I got cut off. No discussion, not even a courtesy disagreement. Her comments simply downplayed what I was able to get out in the few seconds that I had before she hung up and she acted like I was still on the phone when she made her last comments. Apparently, screening out callers who share the same perspective I do is a common practice. I haven't listened to her show since then.
Chew's Views, a Delightful, and Sensible Replacement
My morning commute became a matter of getting out the phone to listen to Democracy Now! Until, one morning, after listening to WCPT the night before, I discovered Chew's Views with Richard Chew. Apparently, WCPT listeners weren't happy with Santita Jackson, or her third party promotion, and they cancelled her show and replaced it.
There's no question that Chew's view is that Biden, as the Democratic nominee, is the only hope for American democracy. He has repeatedly pointed out that black voters, Latino voters, Asian voters, LGBTQ voters, younger voters, working class voters and several other constituencies have absolutely no business casting a ballot for either a third party candidate, or for Trump, and he emphasizes how ridiculous, and self-defeating it is for those constituencies who are thinking Biden is too old, or that they haven't seen the economic benefit they think they should have, and are planning to either protest the Democratic party's nominee by voting third party, or, maybe, they'll vote for Trump.
He makes no bones about exactly how ridiculous and stupid that is.
Trump has made it very clear that his America is a rich, and white America. He's sided completely, and openly, with both white supremacists and Christian nationalists. There's no place in his America for Latinos, or Blacks, or Asians, or anyone he considers to be an immigrant "poisoning the blood" of the country. Chew, who is black, clearly points out that no matter the politics, it is self-defeating for any person of color, or any LGBTQ person, to vote either third party or Trump. I appreciate his being direct and to the point when pointing out the obvious.
There is One Clear Path To Saving Our Democracy: Re-Electing Biden and Electing a Democratic Congressional Majority
I encourage everyone reading this to click the link between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. CDT, and listen to Chew's Views. This is the message which must be made clear. There is no future in a Trump Presidency for Democracy, for American Patriotism, for sincere and true Christianity, and for any person who is of a different ethnicity or race than Caucasian of European origin. He's openly said so. Latinos, particularly those coming as refugees from places like Venezuela and Central America, Asians, and Arabic Muslims are "poisoning the blood of our country." Those are his words. How can anyone who is Latino, Asian, Black or Muslim hear that and possibly cast a ballot to make him President?
The same goes for persons of LGBTQ orientation. There's no place for them and they will have no rights in a Trump Presidency. It's likely they will be persecuted, labelled as criminals and imprisoned, if the Christian nationalists get their way. What you'll hear on Chew's Views is that it is ridiculously native or purposefully stupid for those who Trump has declared unAmerican to vote for him, or a third party candidate who will take votes away from Biden.
Enjoy the program.
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