Trump friend-turned-foe Conway has enraged the MAGA right by charging on X, “They may not want to hear it, and it may incense them, but the parallels between what the Nazis did then [with Wessel], and what Trump and MAGA are doing today [with Kirk], are striking, chilling – and as any expert on authoritarianism will tell you, straight out of the same toxic, but dog-eared, playbook.”

In a conversation with Dick Price and Sharon Kyle of the LA Progressive, emeritus professor of history at the West Kentucky Community and Technical College in Paducah, KY, Berry Craig explains why the comparison between the murder of Horst Wessel and Charlie Kirk is important to understand. This conversation was sparked by an article written by Berry Craig for the LA Progressive. Here is a link to that article:

https://www.laprogressive.com/progressive-issues/charlie-kirk-echoes-horst-wessel

Andrea Mazzarino, the co-founder of Brown University’s Costs of War Project joins Dick and Sharon to discuss the consequences of war rarely discussed. While conventional casualty figures focus on battlefield deaths, Andrea Mazzarino asserts that the indirect toll—the number who die or suffer due to illness, malnutrition, disrupted infrastructure, lack of healthcare, mental trauma, and disability is significantly higher. Shockingly, of over one million lives lost, at least 800,000 are traced to these secondary effects. Mazzarino, who is also an activist and social worker, is the co-editor of the new book War and Health: The Medical Consequences of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Her extensive research in this field provides essential information for those who believe there are alternatives to war.

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The rapid rise of a pugilistic and politicized white evangelicalism occurred in direct tandem with the virulent reaction to the advances of the midcentury civil rights movement. Peter Laarman a retired minister who formerly led Progressive Christians Uniting in Los Angeles joins Dick and Sharon of the LA Progressive to discuss how white christian nationalism was sparked by the same elements that promote predatory capitalism.

To read the full article that launched this conversation, click here:

https://www.laprogressive.com/science-and-religion/dangerous-white-christians

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In a political landscape increasingly defined by polarization and corporate influence, Jeff Mackler stands as a principled voice for revolutionary socialism. As the national secretary of Socialist Action, a Trotskyist political organization, Mackler has spent decades fighting capitalism, imperialism, and environmental destruction—often from far outside the mainstream. His is a politics rooted not in triangulation or compromise, but in unwavering commitment to justice, equality, and the working class.

Jeff Macker joins Sharon Kyle and Dick Price of the LA Progressive as they discuss his political activism and the future of the United States as it turns decidedly more authoritarian Mackler may not be a household name, but his life’s work spans from the streets of labor picket lines to the frontlines of the movement to free Mumia Abu-Jamal. He’s been an educator, a climate organizer, a political prisoner advocate, and a two-time presidential candidate. His vision is not simply to reform the system—but to replace it entirely.

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Frank Joyce and Elizabeth Woodson joined Dick and Sharon of the LA Progressive to talk about the role that white people MUST play in creating democracy for all. They are both dedicated to dismantling racism. When speaking of herself and Frank, Elizabeth said, “We are not of the same gender or generation. But we have two things in common. We are both white as defined by the racial categories entrenched long ago to sustain white male power. And we’re both dedicated to confronting and repairing the harms of whiteness, settler colonialism, enslavement, segregation and other aspects of the enduring racial hierarchy within ourselves and our white communities.”

In our interview, Elizabeth explains white racialization and the toll it takes. Frank’s journey was initiated by the 1960s Black Freedom struggle; Elizabeth’s in 2014 by the Black Lives Matter movement.

Both Frank and Elizabeth agree that, in order to see a more perfect union, we can’t continue to do what we have always done. They say that that only perpetuates the cyclical pattern but doing something different might lead to real and lasting change.

For a very long time U.S. efforts at social change can be described as pursuing a pendulum theory of change. The idea is that our history see-saws between good times and bad. That’s how it is and how it will always be is what many think as if it’s an inescapable cage. But Frank Joyce and Elizabeth Woodson have another idea and they share it with Dick and Sharon. You can see their full article here:

https://www.laprogressive.com/racism/responding-to-the-chaos

Frank and Elizabeth have dedicated their time to dismantling the co-dependent, symbiotic relationship the white male power formula has with the rest of this country.

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From his early days as a commentator on BET to his groundbreaking role as the first African American to host signature talk programs on both NPR (The Tavis Smiley Show) and PBS (Tavis Smiley), he has consistently used his platform to uplift stories that are too often ignored—those rooted in the Black experience, in the struggle for justice, and in the enduring quest for dignity. Tavis Smiley spent time chatting with Sharon Kyle of the LA Progressive. They talked a little about his past, his present and his plans for the future. Tavis Smiley keeps and real all the while pushing forward and uplifting voices that aren’t always heard.

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You can find the full article that accompanies this video here:

https://www.laprogressive.com/civil-liberties-and-civil-rights/from-pbs-to-kbla-tavis-smileys-mission-to-reclaim-the-black-narrative

Across the country, classrooms are under pressure—politically, ideologically, and pedagogically. One quiet but powerful force distorting how young people understand the world is reductionist reasoning and erasure of marginalized perspectives in the teaching of history.

Dick Price and Sharon Kyle invited Nora Lester Murad to discuss her first hand knowlege of the erasure of Palestinians in Israel. Nora is the author of the award-winning young adult novel, Ida in the Middle. A story about a Palestinian-American girl who eats a magic olive that takes her to the life she might have had in her parents’ village near Jerusalem. An important coming of age story that explores identity, place, voice, and belonging. Nora, herself is Jewish, raised in a Jewish family in Southern California but spent decades living in the West Bank with her Palestinian husband where they raised three daughters. She now lives in Massachusetts where she promotes social justice education and activism. Nora shares K-12 teaching and school advocacy resources at www.IdaInTheMiddle.com and can be reached through her blog at www.NoraLesterMurad.com.

Dick, Nora, and Sharon discuss the importance of ethnic studies. They discuss what happens to democracy when children learn from a curriculum that reduces history to a timeline of presidents and wars and omits the voices of Indigenous people, Palestinians, enslaved Africans, immigrants, workers, and women. At first glance, it might sound like good teaching—distilling complex events into simple cause-and-effect stories. But in practice, reductionist history oversimplifies the past, flattens conflict, erases marginalized voices, and prepares students to obey rather than question. In doing so, it shapes not just what students know—but how they think, act, and vote.

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Culture is the primary battlefield authoritarians use to establish a foothold in the public imagination, where fear is normalized, dissent is demonized, and history is rewritten to serve the interests of power. In our conversation with Henry Giroux, a regular writer for the LA Progressive, Dick and I learn more about the ways of authoritarians who thrive on ignorance, historical amnesia and the brutal aesthetics of cruelty, all the while normalizing their cruelty as common sense.

Our conversation was sparked after we read an article on this topic that Henry Giroux wrote and submitted to the LA Progressive. That article can be found here:

https://www.laprogressive.com/education-reform/against-the-erasure-machine

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