On this episode of Us & Them, we’re taking stock of where the nation stands. In the waning days of 2022 — a year with lots of big political news and some very disturbing events — Us & Them host Trey Kay has been asking people “How’s America doing?” Featured in this program are author and historian David Greenberg, law professor Lisa Pruitt and Henry Cisneros, who served in President Bill Clinton’s cabinet as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
It’s been a year in America with lots of big political news and some very disturbing events. Supreme Court decisions are reshaping the nation’s policies as violence and shootings continue to take lives.
Us & Them host Trey Kay has been traveling around asking people “How’s America doing?” and “Why do you think that?”
Trey spent Election Day in a swing district in Pennsylvania talking with voters about the state of America. Some worry financial strains have made things worse while others say they see good things to come. There’s concern that politics has become just another sporting event, where all that matters is the winner.
But politics can also help shape the policies that lead to the American dream, so how do we come together and collectively do the right thing for the future?
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council and the CRC Foundation.
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Trey Kay
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Us & Them host Trey Kay outside of a polling place in Luzerne, County, PA on Election Day on Nov. 8, 2022.
David Greenberg
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Courtesy
David Greenberg is a professor of History and of Journalism & Media Studies at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ and a frequent commentator in the national news media on contemporary politics and public affairs. He specializes in American political and cultural history. His most recent book, Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency (W.W. Norton, 2016) examines the rise of the White House spin machine, from the Progressive Era to the present day, and the debates that Americans have waged over its implications for democracy.
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Lisa R. Pruitt is a law professor at University California Davis. There, she works in the Center for Policy and Inequality Research with a specialty in rural issues. She has a lot to say about America’s urban-rural divide.
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Henry Cisneros served in President Bill Clinton’s cabinet as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Before that, the San Antonio native was a city council member and mayor of that Texas city. These days, Cisneros serves on the board of the Bipartisan Policy Center — a think tank dedicated to looking for “the best ideas from both parties.”
