DecodeDC

Latest Episodes:

150: Inside Trump's Brain Trust Jul 21, 2016

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Now that Donald Trump has the nomination, what's the game plan to win the general election? That's the question DecodeDC host Jimmy Williams poses to Kellyanne Conway, a top advisor to the GOP nominee. We bring you this podcast from Cleveland, Ohio at the Republican National Convention.

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149: Why Trump Won Jul 19, 2016

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The day no one thought would actually happen has arrived. As the Republican National Convention kicks off this week, Donald J. Trump, real estate magnate-turned-reality TV-star-turned-birther-turned-presidential candidate will formally accept the Grand Old Party's 2016 presidential nomination. By all accounts, Trump is the most unlikely candidate to receive a major party nomination in recent memory, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't have seen it coming.
This week on the podcast, host Jimmy Williams sits down with DecodeDC's Dick Meyer to dissect his story, "The Road to Trumpdom" and try to pin down how one of the great oddball events in American politics came to be.

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148: Kids are terrified of Donald Trump Jul 14, 2016

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Kindergartners having nightmares of Donald Trump. Second graders wondering if their families will be deported. Muslim students being called terrorists.
This is the trickle down effect of the 2016 presidential campaign in schools, and it’s happening across the country. That’s according to a survey of 2,000 teachers released by the Southern Poverty Law Center, titled “The Trump Effect: The Impact of the Presidential Campaign on our Nation’s Schools.”
On the latest DecodeDC podcast, host Jimmy Williams speaks with a researcher, and one of the teachers who took the survey, diving into the disturbing realities of how the rhetoric from this election season is having a major impact on kids.

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147: Learning To Love The F Word: Federalism Jul 07, 2016

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This ain't your daddy's federalism. Heather Gerkin of Yale Law School tries to convince Jimmy that even though federalism (or states' rights) was used in the past to keep segregation in place, today it can be used to knock down discriminatory laws.

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146: Closet Partisans and the Myth of the Independent Voter Jun 30, 2016

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People really don't like Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. But will that matter come election time? Probably not. Are voters ditching the parties in droves to declare themselves independents? Not really.
Take everything you think you know about this election cycle and throw it out the window, says Alan Abramowitz, a professor of political science at Emory University.
On the latest DecodeDC podcast, Abramowitz strikes down some of the conventional wisdom surrounding the 2016 campaign, and instead offers up some conclusions from a model that he’s built to predict election outcomes.

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145: Political consultants win even when they lose Jun 23, 2016

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Every campaign season has its winners and its losers - but there are some people who win no matter what happens. Political consultants are considered a necessity in today's elections, and about half of all money spent in campaigns is going through consultants, whether their candidate wins or loses. Adam Sheingate, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, explores the world of political consultants in his new book "Building a Business of Politics: The Rise of Political Consulting and the Transformation of American Democracy." And in today's episode, he tells Jimmy that business is booming.

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144: #LoveWins Jun 15, 2016

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Nearly a year after the Supreme Court made marriage equality the law of the land, the main plaintiff in the case, Jim Obergefell, has released a new book called ‘Love Wins.’
On the latest DecodeDC podcast, host Jimmy Williams talks with Obergefell about the book, his relationship and marriage, the legal road to the Supreme Court and other plaintiffs in the case.
We should note that this interview took place before the Orlando massacre, where 49 people were killed for being gay or trans, gay allies or in a gay club.
But if there’s anything to learn from Jim Obergefell, there’s always hope.

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143: Make conventions great again Jun 07, 2016

Show notes

Bernie Sanders isn't giving up. The Vermont senator is vying for a contested convention in Philadelphia this July, even as Hillary Clinton has reportedly reached the golden number of delegates to win the Democratic nomination.
As is par for the course this election cycle, the convention this summer could be full of surprise, drama and who knows what else. In fact, it could mark a return to the very theatrical conventions of decades past, like in 1952, where both the GOP and Democrats had contested conventions -- fights broke out on the floor, and party bosses eventually picked the nominees.
We tried doing a podcast a few weeks back about a potential contested convention on the Republican side, but then The Donald creamed all 16 of his opponents. So now we bring you this show, slightly de-Trumpified, about picking presidential candidates, and why 2016 could be the year when the greatest political show on Earth returns.

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142: Pissed off millennials are taking on the Democrats Jun 02, 2016

Show notes

Can you feel the Bern yet? With the California primary less than a week away, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders continues to battle erstwhile frontrunner Hillary Clinton despite a clear deficit in delegates. The longtime independent has staked his campaign on grassroots support from middle and working class voters, but it's a different electorate that has kept him afloat: snake people--er, millennials.
This week on the podcast, host Jimmy Williams and Scripps campaign reporter Miranda Green dig into the growing millennial support for Bernie Sanders on college campuses. Why are these millennials such fervent supporters and what does this mean for the Democratic Party moving forward?

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141: The alter egos of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton May 26, 2016

Show notes

One grew up the daughter of a Navy petty officer in 1950s suburban Chicago, the other spent formative years in Indonesia before being raised by his grandparents in Hawaii. Their experiences couldn’t have been more different but over the last eight years, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have become the twin pillars of the Democratic Party. Once rivals, then colleagues, it would seem that there’s not much daylight between the President and his former Secretary of State on major foreign policy issues.
But there are differences and, as New York Times White House correspondent Mark Landler discovered in reporting his new book, "Alter Egos: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and the Twilight Struggle over American Power," those differences are sometimes quite significant.
This week on the podcast, we sit down with Landler to talk about the relationship between the president and his party’s presumptive nominee, how their backgrounds shaped their views on foreign policy, and the pair's evolving relationship.

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