InfluenceWatch Podcast
The podcast where we go beneath the surface to reveal the web of connected influence, money, and motivation driving the news.
We found 10 episodes of InfluenceWatch Podcast with the tag “left”.
-
Episode 156: Defending the Freedom of Association (with guest Jennifer Braceras)
February 12th, 2021 | 22 mins 49 secs
civil rights, conservative, constitution, culture, dark money, democrat, disclosure, donors, freedom, information, iwlc, jennifer braceras, left, liberal, libertarian, philanthropy, politics, privacy, progressive, republican, right, supreme court
In this episode: We discuss an issue that is well known to those involved in politics and to donors, but perhaps not as well known to the average voter. So we’re hoping to shed some light on it. The issue is donor disclosure, and we have as a special guest Jennifer Braceras, director of Independent Women’s Law Center, project of independent women’s forum, and a former member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, who wrote a very sharp op-ed on the subject recently, "Freedom Of Association Is Under Attack. Will The Supreme Court Protect It?" We discuss a few cases surrounding donor disclosure that could be heard by the Supreme Court in the coming months.
-
Episode 155: Party Realignment: Radical Republicans, Corporate Democrats?
February 6th, 2021 | 13 mins 23 secs
2020, business, capitol, commerce, conservative, culture, democrats, labor, left, liberal, libertarian, parties, politics, progressive, republicans, right, society, tech, wall street
In this episode: Continuing what has become something of a series on how American big business, big labor, and other “bigs” have gotten aggressively more aligned with progressive liberalism, today we turn to Big Business—Wall Street, Big Tech, and so forth. Groups like the Chamber of Commerce were once stalwarts of the Republican Party, but in the 2020 election they were far less aligned with their historical allies Joining me to discuss the realignment of Big Business support is my Capital Research Center colleague Shane Devine.
-
Episode 154: The Left’s “Dark Money” Machine
January 29th, 2021 | 13 mins 57 secs
2020, biden, california, conservative, dark money, election, freedom, georgia, kamala harris, left, liberal, libertarianism, litigation, mark zuckerberg, money, philanthropy, phill kline, politics, privacy, progressive, right, senate, society
In this episode: We welcome special guest Dan Judy, vice president at North Star Opinion Research in DC. He’s a Georgia native and a fellow UGA alumnus (Go Dawgs!) http://www.northstaropinion.com/about/our-team
-
Episode 153: The New Presidential Administration
January 23rd, 2021 | 18 mins 54 secs
biden, biden-harris, conservative, culture, favors, influence, labor, labor relations board, left, liberal, libertarian, paris climate accord, politics, president, progressive, right, society, special interests, transition, trump
In this episode: It’s a new week, and there’s a new Presidential administration in town. And if his modern-era unprecedented early firing of the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board and his immediate re-entry to the Paris Climate Accord are any indication, the administration of President Joe Biden is going to be a series of favors for the left-wing special interest groups that helped get him elected. Joining us to discuss the new Biden administration and the role those special interest groups have had in his transition process is Capital Research Center’s Research Specialist Robert Stilson, who compiled InfluenceWatch’s extensive profile on the Biden-Harris Transition.
-
Episode 152: Aggressively Political Philanthropy
January 15th, 2021 | 19 mins 24 secs
america, business, conservative, elections, foundations, government, labor, law, left, liberal, libertarian, nonprofits, philanthropy, politics, progressive, right, society
In this episode: In recent years, American big business, big labor, and other “bigs” have gotten aggressively more aligned with progressive liberalism—even those bigs, like Big Philanthropy, that are technically required by law not to intervene in elections. While Big Philanthropy might always have been liberal-leaning ideologically, it has gotten so openly Democratic that as conservative philanthropic scholar Bill Schambra noted, “it’s no longer suspect, or even noteworthy, to treat nonprofits and foundations as anything other than useful tools to “build a Democratic Party that can translate [progressive values] into public policy as a true governing majority.”” Joining us to discuss how we got here and the consequences of philanthropy losing its nominal political neutrality is Mike Hartmann, head of Capital Research Center’s Center for Strategic Giving and editor of the Giving Review blog at Philanthropy Daily.
-
Episode 151: This Business Will Get Out of Control
January 7th, 2021 | 15 mins 11 secs
conservative, culture, democrat, demonstration, evil, florida, joe biden, left, liberal, libertarian, mob, politics, president, progressive, protest, republican, right, riot, speech, united states, violence
In this episode: We’re doing something different this week, because we're recording this on Thursday January 7, 2021. Yesterday, a riotous mob stormed the U.S. Capitol and attempted to prevent the certification of the votes of the Electoral College that make Democrat Joe Biden President-elect of the United States. There is no excuse for demonstrators, whatever their beliefs and goals, to overrun police barricades and attempt to prevent the people’s elected representatives from carrying out their duties. Violence is not speech—and storming the Capitol is violence. At Capital Research Center, we do have a specific point of view: We believe in free markets, Constitutional government, and individual liberty—violent disruption of the legislature is not that.
-
Episode 150: The "Rising American Electorate"
December 31st, 2020 | 18 mins 23 secs
2020, blue, conservative, democrat, democratic, election, florida, hispanics, jobs, latino, latinx, left, liberal, libertarian, president, progressive, red, republican, right, texas, year end
In this episode: A strange thing happened on the road to the Emerging Democratic Majority. Even as Joe Biden won a roughly four-and-a-half percentage point national lead in total ballots cast, the “Rising American Electorate” demographics that were supposed to deliver “blue Texas” actually kept the Lone Star State and Florida in the Republican column while swinging to the right—even in deep-blue areas—as the country tilted to the left relative to 2016. The swings were most notable in two areas: The Mexican border region of Texas (known as the Rio Grande Valley or RGV) and South Florida—in both places, Hispanic constituencies Democrats assumed would be permanently in their camp swung hard to the right, helping keep those states in the Republican column. Joining us to discuss this unexpected development is Alfredo Ortiz, President and CEO of the Job Creators Network.
-
Episode 147: RIP Dr. Walter Williams (with guest Veronique de Rugy)
December 5th, 2020 | 17 mins 2 secs
capitalism, conservative, economist, free-market, george mason university, left, liberal, libertarian, mercatus center, progressive, right, rush limbaugh, thomas sowell, walter williams
In this episode: Last week, free-market economics lost one of its greatest evangelists: George Mason University professor, occasional Rush Limbaugh Program substitute host, book author, syndicated columnist, and Capital Research Center Advisory Board member Dr. Walter Williams. Joining us to reflect on Williams’s life and legacy is one of his colleagues, Mercatus Center scholar and columnist Veronique de Rugy.
-
Episode 146: Unions Want Coercive Power...
November 20th, 2020 | 19 mins 38 secs
ab5, california, conservative, contracting, culture, democratic, federal, georgia, law, left, legislation, liberal, libertarian, politics, progressive, right, right-to-work, society
In this episode: As all eyes are turned toward Georgia’s two Senate runoff races, we discuss proposed legislation that both the Democratic challengers in Georgia support, and that has serious implications for right-to-work laws nationally if the Senate flips from red to blue. The legislation is called the Pro Act, and it’s an expanded federal version of the controversial AB5 legislation in California that has upended independent contracting in that state.
-
Episode 145: Roadblocks to an Aggressive Left-wing Agenda (with guest Steve Malanga)
November 13th, 2020 | 26 mins 34 secs
2020, american, ballot measures, california, census, colorado, conservative, culture, left, liberal, libertarian, new york post, politics, presidential election, progressive, prop 15, property tax, redistricting, right, society, taxes, voters
In this episode: While the provisional results of the 2020 presidential election are disappointing to many conservatives, American voters threw roadblocks and cautions to an aggressive progressive agenda in even some of the bluest states. Illinois voters rejected a “progressive”—read, higher—income tax; California voters defeated the union-backed plan to override the commercial property tax limitations in Proposition 15 that we discussed a few weeks ago and rejected a measure to overturn the state’s ban on racial preferences; Colorado voters cut their state income taxes; and state legislative voters handed stinging defeats to Eric Holder’s National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a well-financed effort led by the Obama Administration’s attorney general that sought to secure Democratic state and Congressional power for the next decade by winning crucial state legislatures and gaining control of district-drawing after the 2020 Census. Joining us to discuss the ballot measures and broader down-ballot ramifications of the 2020 elections is Steve Malanga, George M. Yeager Fellow at the Manhattan Institute.