HoosLeft #20: The 123rd Indiana General Assembly Halftime Show
Guest: MADVoters Chelsea McDonnel
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Today on the pod, we continue the big anniversary week spectacular (and fund drive) with a return visit from MADVoters Indiana Outreach Director Chelsea McDonnel. From their website, “MADVoters is a social welfare nonprofit organization that seeks to advance equitable efforts in Indiana through education, outreach, and advocacy.”
https://www.madvoters.org/
Sorry about the poor audio at the beginning of the interview. My one year old Boxer puppy was making a racket in the background. He’s deaf. Has no idea how loud he is. Isn’t he a cutie, though?
[Keith Jackson voice] Whoa Nellie! It’s the 123rd annual Indiana General Assembly Halftime Show Starring White Christian Nationalism, featuring the Attack on Public Education, with a special guest appearance by Child Labor. Brought to you by State Policy Network, the American Legislative Exchange Council, the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, and presenting sponsor Koch Industries, fueling the right-wing hate machine since Germany, 1934. Koch Industries - “Creating Value. Transforming Life. For the Worse”
Welcome to the HoosLeft podcast, a show about Indiana politics, history, and culture from the unapologetic perspective of the Hoosier left. My name is Scott Aaron Rogers and I’m recording from Bloomington.
Today on the pod, we continue the big anniversary week spectacular (and fund drive) with a return visit from MADVoters Indiana Outreach Director Chelsea McDonnel. From their website, “MADVoters is a social welfare nonprofit organization that seeks to advance equitable efforts in Indiana through education, outreach, and advocacy.” They carry out this mission by:
Providing accessible information to Hoosiers about their legislators, legislation, and the legislative process in Indiana.
Providing regular updates on relevant current events and issues in Indiana to Hoosiers.
Encouraging active engagement with legislators and the electoral process.
Supporting voter registration and education efforts.
Support candidates who align with our core values by publicizing campaign volunteer opportunities and promoting them on social media.
Facilitating partnerships, connections, and collaboration with like-minded organizations and initiatives.
The 2024 legislative session is now just past its halfway point. Bills that originated in, and passed out of, the House are now being considered in the Senate, and vice versa. Recall, a bill only becomes law after passing both houses and being signed by the governor. After a long, contentious 2023 session, this year’s session is shorter, and slightly less offensive to open-minded Hoosiers. Chelsea will give us an overview of the major pieces of legislation her organization is following. We’ll hop right into that interview and I’ll have thoughts on the other side.
But first, some internet panhandling:
HoosLeft is dedicated to calling out Indiana lawmakers, their financial backers, and the networks of people actively working to make our lives worse by cutting education, cutting healthcare, cutting gaping holes in the social safety net; those whose policies kill children via environmental degradation, lack of access to necessary healthcare, and lax gun control laws; those that sow grief in our homes and communities. I will work to highlight these bad actors so we can replace them with more empathetic leadership. I will also shine the spotlight on Hoosier activists, organizations, and elected officials who are working to build a more just, equitable, and compassionate Indiana.
But I can’t do this without you. Right now, the only income I bring to my household is from this project. I rely on your financial support from paid subscriptions over at scottaaronrogers.substack.com. For five bucks a month or only $50 a year, you can help me push our state in a better direction, and help my family in the process. Consider it a small investment in Indiana’s future. And hey, I get it, not everybody can afford a paid subscription at this time. You can still help. Subscribe at the free level over on Substack. Set your favorite podcast player to auto-download new episodes of the show. Rate and review the podcast on Apple, or whatever platform you use. Follow us on social media at facebook.com/hoosleft (spell); I’m at scottrog78 (spell) on Instagram, Threads, and the platform everyone still calls Twitter; and on Mastodon at scottrog78@hoosier.social. Most importantly, pass on the word. Forward the newsletter to a colleague; perform a rendition of the podcast through interpretative dance. Don’t just like, but share on social media.
With your investment, a full time HoosLeft looks like new content every day; it looks like full coverage of the 2024 election cycle in Indiana and beyond; and it looks like zooming out to see how the forces at work in our state function nationally, even globally. I do not plan on paywalling any content, because I believe in open access to information, and your support helps make that content freely available to all Hoosiers.
For a wide view of the global forces at work, check out yesterday’s episode with guest Tom LaVonne. We reset the table, putting the current crisis of social breakdown in historical perspective. Wednesday, Chairman of the Monroe Country Democratic Party, David Henry, joins the show for a talk about fighting right-wing extremism via the two party system, why it works the way it does, and the benefits and drawbacks of working within that system. Thursday, Indianapolis City Councilman Jesse Brown returns to the pod to discuss his first month-plus on the council, coming into the party - and then government, as an outsider - and some of the resistance he’s faced from fellow Democrats. Friday, I’ll have a written piece on Substack. Hope to have you aboard for the full ride.
Here’s my interview with MADVoters’ Chelsea McDonnel:
Once again, that was MADVoters’ Chelsea McDonnel with a rundown of some of the most important bills making their way through the Indiana State Legislature this 2024 session. Here are my takeaways:
Many of these same bills - with the exact same, or only slightly modified language - are moving through the assemblies in Republican-controlled states all over the country. Don’t say gay? Originated in Florida. Chaplains in schools? They passed that in Texas last year. Children in dangerous industrial jobs? Passed recently by Iowa, Arkansas and others. Chances are, the legislators bringing these bills to the table didn’t write them. Armies of lawyers working for think tanks and organizations like the State Policy Network, ALEC, and the National Association of Christian Lawmakers come up with model legislation and pass it to their proxies who - in the words Former Ohio Democratic Party Chair and author David Pepper - use their states as “Laboratories of Autocracy” .
The Republican mad scientists in Laboratory Indiana are testing Hoosiers’ tolerance for bullshit on three variables: religious freedom, public education, and business regulation.
It turns out most folks don’t like Republican policies because they’re bad for people, planet, and pocketbook. So, how do you gain support if your platform sucks? Get the base whipped into a frenzy with some good, old fashioned, fundamentalist Christian zealotry. Attacks on abortion rights, LGBTQ individuals, and secular institutions animate religious conservatives to turn out in support of GOP candidates, even though their economic policies hurt their own voters.
Then, they tie these culture war issues to public education. They accuse teachers and counselors of “grooming” children to be gay; they portray accurate depictions of American history as scary-sounding “critical race theory;” they denounce colleges and universities as “woke” institutions full of “Marxists” and communists. Why attempt to destroy public education, such a Snidely Whiplash moustache-twirling cartoonishly evil position to take? And make no mistake, that is the goal. For the Christian Nationalist true believer, you get public funds directed to private, religious schools - the kind that can discriminate. For investors in the private charter segment, taxpayer dollars directed to their for-profit enterprises. Less money for public schools means closing buildings, firing teachers, and eviscerating the power of the teachers’ union - a longtime conservative goal. Allowed to continue, this creates a feedback loop as defunded public schools produce worse results, leading to further defunding.
Finally, the kids stuck in those public schools? Factory fodder. Get to work. Republicans provide their business-class donors with a poorly-educated, easily exploited workforce for their unsafe, poorly-regulated, non-union shops. With a population not trained in critical thinking, few will even be able to comprehend the totality of their domination by wealthy interests.
But wait, there’s more…. because even if we comprehend this now, even if we see their plans, send up warning flares, and organize against them, Indiana Republicans have gerrymandered themselves into a such an insurmountable majority, placed so many hurdles in front of voters, and continue to make it even more difficult to cast a ballot, that it may take decades to get our heads above water. If we have decades. The best time to stop them is now, and we need all hands on deck.
Next time we’ll look at the biggest tool the left has to fight MAGA Republican White Christian Nationalist extremism: the Democratic Party. It’s a rusty old machine with lots of complicated moving parts. Many on the left think it antiquated, ineffective, or even counterproductive. But, for all its flaws - and there are many - I still think our best bet is to use what we’ve got. Monroe County Democratic Party Chair David Henry knows a good bit about how the old jalopy operates and he’ll join us tomorrow. Until then, this has been the HoosLeft Podcast. I’m Scott Aaron Rogers. Love each other, Indiana.
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/State_Policy_Network
https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/What_is_ALEC
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/christian-nationalists-national-association-christian-lawmakers-1234684542/
https://www.indianacountycommissioners.com/legislation
https://www.madvoters.org/bill-tracker
https://pen.org/4-new-dont-say-gay-laws-passed-in-2023/
https://www.chalkbeat.org/indiana/2024/01/24/indiana-bills-on-school-chaplain-religious-instruction-advance/
https://www.thoughtco.com/why-americans-gave-the-bellamy-salute-3322328
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/28/kennedy-v-bremerton-supreme-court-prayer-public-schools-football-coach
https://thehill.com/opinion/education/3941143-the-myth-of-woke-indoctrination-of-students/
https://time.com/6319108/conservative-universities/
https://www.chalkbeat.org/indiana/2023/6/29/23778596/supreme-court-scotus-indiana-race-conscious-admissions-college-students-impact-diversity/
https://www.epi.org/blog/iowa-governor-signs-one-of-the-most-dangerous-rollbacks-of-child-labor-laws-in-the-country-14-states-have-now-introduced-bills-putting-children-at-risk/
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2024/01/23/these-2024-indiana-bills-would-ease-the-states-child-labor-laws/72315705007/
https://www.chalkbeat.org/indiana/2023/5/10/23718448/school-choice-voucher-expansion-indiana-education-policy-public-funding/
https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/indiana-private-school-voucher-program-2022-2023-report
https://dianeravitch.net/2023/05/05/indiana-voucher-expansion-aids-the-rich/
https://www.chalkbeat.org/indiana/2023/2/8/23591691/indiana-school-buildings-charters-underutilized-dollar-law-funding-loss-bill-proposal-senate/
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/education/2023/03/06/indianapolis-black-charter-school-leaders-push-for-more-state-dollars/69967995007/
https://www.chalkbeat.org/indiana/2020/2/26/21178644/how-the-state-missed-thousands-of-ghost-students-at-two-indiana-virtual-schools/
https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/indiana-virtual-charter-school-federal-indictment-enrollment-scheme-44-million
https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2023/03/23/legislation-puts-more-hurdles-in-place-for-hoosier-voters/
https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/officials-advocates-flag-privacy-voter-suppression-concerns-for-election-security-bill
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/3844296-gop-voter-suppression-measures-are-working-despite-democratic-wins/
https://prismreports.org/2024/01/17/restrictive-voting-laws-2024-presidential-election/
https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/senate-committee-passes-bill-to-increase-child-care-accessibility-remove-regulations
https://fox59.com/indiana-news/bobcat-hunting-bill-nears-final-hurdle-despite-lack-of-data/
https://www.businessinsider.com/indiana-unbanned-throwing-stars-legal-schools-rogers-sb77-ninja-golf-2023-7
https://www.madvoters.org/contact-your-legislator
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/12/culture-war-voters/
https://www.lgbtmap.org/effective-messaging/talking-about-anti-lgbtq-school-bills-false-groomer-attacks
https://rooseveltinstitute.org/2023/10/26/the-unjust-cost-of-child-labor/
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