baratunde thurston

We keep hearing about the enthusiasm gap this election cycle--that Republicans, energized by the Tea Party, are ready to sweep into the polls and sweep out the Democratic majorities. Meanwhile the Obama administration seems perfectly willing to blame it all on their progressive critics--as if the economy wasn't actually bad, lefty bloggers are just making people think it's bad. Additionally, notes Baratunde Thurston, "Our politicians are assumed to be corrupt and not doing much to discourage that assumption." So where do we go from here? Baratunde joins guest host John Fugelsang in studio to discuss the enthusiasm gap, the ongoing problems for the administration, and the public attention now going toward the suicide of gay teens. Rebecca Traister didn't start out as a Hillary Clinton supporter, but by the end of the 2008 election cycle she was so frustrated and angered by the relentless sexism aimed at Clinton that she wound up not just supporting her, but continuing to analyze the entire election cycle through the lens of gender. Her new book, Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women, is out now from Free Press, and she sat down with Laura in studio recently to discuss it, and how the ramifications from 2008 are still playing out in our politics today. It's no secret to GRITtv viewers that profound inequality is one of the biggest problems our schools face. For over three weeks, a group of mostly single Latina moms have been occupying a building at John Greenleaf Whittier Dual Language Elementary School in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, demanding the school system account for misspent funds--and build their kids a library. Anne Elizabeth Moore has been covering the story from the beginning, and she brings us this report.

In addition to joining our census conversation today, Baratunde Thurston gave us this video interview with Robin Stanback Stevens, a friend of his, who discusses five concrete benefits she's seen since the inauguration of Barack Obama.

Rep. Michelle Bachmann has publicly stated that she will not fill out her census form completely, expressing concerns about the census being part of a larger effort at voter fraud led by, you guessed it, ACORN. Of course, there are other communities who have long had reasons to distrust government officials asking for their information. As the deadline for filling out census forms approaches, we check in with Rob Robinson of the Right to the City Alliance, who are part of the "Yes We Count" campaign, and Baratunde Thurston of The Onion and Jack and Jill Politics, on why filling out that form matters. Thanks to New America Media and Color of Change for video in this segment. Distributed by Tubemogul.