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.
As we close in on Indiana Primary Election Day 2024, I return to the top of the ticket. The United States Senate Seat being vacated by Trump-sycophant and denim shirt aficionado, gubernatorial candidate Mike Braun (boooo!) is up for election this November. Hoosier Republicans threw all their weight behind 3rd-district Congressman Jim Banks, somehow an even more pathetic Trump-bootlicker than Braun, clearing the field for the insurrection-supporting, Russia-loving, MAGA dickweasel.
Indiana Democrats, on the other hand, have a contested primary. In one corner, former State Representative and longtime lobbyist Marc Carmichael; in the other corner, psychologist Valerie McCray. I liked my last two-part episode so much, I thought I’d do another, presenting each of the candidates before you head to the polls.
I spoke with Dr. McCray in the previous episode. Now I turn to her primary challenger, Marc Carmichael. Quoting his website,
Marc is a lifelong Indiana resident and a Notre Dame graduate who was elected to the Indiana House when he easily defeated the sitting Republican House Speaker in a 60% Republican district. Carmichael defended his seat twice before stepping down to become the Director of Governmental Affairs for the Indiana Gas Company.
In 1999, Carmichael took over as President of the Indiana Beverage Alliance, a statewide trade association for Indiana’s family owned beer distributors, and retired from that position in 2020.
[His] entry into the race was driven by a deeply personal concern – the potential impact of the fall of Roe v. Wade on his granddaughters. This pivotal moment galvanized his commitment to fight for reproductive rights and ensure equitable access to healthcare for women across the nation. Carmichael’s dedication to this cause stems not only from political conviction but also from a heartfelt desire to safeguard the well-being of future generations.
Despite facing fundraising disparities and the daunting prospect of challenging an established incumbent, Carmichael remains undeterred. Drawing upon his past electoral victories, including a historic triumph over former Indiana House Speaker J. Roberts Dailey, he exemplifies resilience in the face of adversity. For Carmichael, the path to victory lies in grassroots mobilization and the unwavering support of the community.
Beyond his advocacy for reproductive rights, Carmichael’s platform encompasses a range of pressing issues, from gun violence prevention to climate action and healthcare equity. Embracing an “old school” approach to governance, he emphasizes the importance of bipartisanship and collaboration in addressing the nation’s most pressing challenges.
In this conversation, Marc and I talk about his background, why he jumped back into electoral politics after so long out of the game, and why lobbyists sometimes get a bad rap. We’ll discuss his political influences, past and present, before jumping into the successes and failures of the Biden administration. He and I revisit some bad decisions made by recent Democratic Senators, talk about what he would have done differently; I get his positions on all the big issues, and we talk some shit about Jim Banks.
But first, I could use a hand.
2024 has proven to be far more difficult than many of us expected - and I was expecting a trying year. After my 19-year old son passed away in January, the day-in/day-out grind of handyman work just didn’t seem important anymore. I doubled down on HoosLeft in an effort to shed more light on state & local politics, where Indiana’s Republican supermajority and their financial benefactors enact policies that ensure more Hoosier parents know the grief of losing a child - by allowing guns to flood our communities, bullying queer youth, and poisoning our environment… or simply running the next generation out of state with their draconian policies.
I’ve received an outpouring of support. Our subscriber base has grown tremendously, and we’re picking up paid subscribers all the time. I’ve been able to publish more frequently, learn new skills, and expand beyond audio into video podcasting. But the cushion has run out. My wife and I have exhausted our savings so I’ve had to don the Carhartt once again, returning to work scraping & sanding, painting & priming, maybe doing a little unauthorized plumbing (shhhh), working on this project whenever I can. I’d much rather devote my time to this, and to you, but I can only give this project the attention it truly deserves with your help.
I will continue to work to highlight Indiana’s bad actors so we can replace them with more empathetic leadership, and also shine the spotlight on the activists, organizations, and elected officials who are doing the hard work to build a more just, equitable, and compassionate Indiana for the next generation of Hoosiers. And I’ll take on Democrats too: when they put their donors over their voters, when they talk out of both sides of their mouths, and when they fail to push back against GOP authoritarian extremism with the necessary urgency and tenacity. The party is a tool we can use to achieve our goals - it serves us; we do not serve it.
I will go deep to provide information and analysis you won’t get anywhere else in the Hoosier State. I’m not motivated by the dollars, but everything costs money. Web hosting, equipment, editing software, travel to meet with other activists and organizers, and most of all, time. I need your financial support with a paid subscription over at scottaaronrogers.substack.com. For five dollars a month or $50 a year, you can help me push our state in a better direction, and help keep the refrigerator stocked for my ravenous 16 year-old. And while the best way to help this project is a financial contribution, if you can’t afford it 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 show on whatever platform you use. Follow me on social media at facebook.com/hoosleft (spell); I’m also now on Bluesky at the same handle. I’m personally at scottrog78 (spell) on Instagram, Threads, and Twitter; and on Mastodon at scottrog78@hoosier.social. Prefer a visual medium? I’m now posting full video episodes of the pod on YouTube and clips on TikTok: the handle on both of those is @hoosleft. Please, subscribe to those. But, most importantly, share our message. Forward the articles to friends, family, and colleagues; don’t just like, but share on social media; nobody is coming to save us - we must be our own saviors.
With your investment, a full time HoosLeft could look like new content every day, full coverage of the 2024 election cycle in Indiana and beyond; and zooming out to see how the networks acting in our state function nationally and even globally. And even though I’m here asking you for money, I do not plan on paywalling any content because, as bestselling author and owner of a Masters Degree from IU, Sarah Kendzior says, “it’s not cool to paywall political content in a political crisis.” I believe in open access to information, and your support helps make that knowledge freely available to all Hoosiers. But I desperately need your contributions in order to keep bringing you all the content you deserve. So please, before this interview, pause right now, go to scottaaronrogers.substack.com and subscribe at the paid level. To those who have contributed already, my sincere thanks. And to everybody, thanks for listening.
Here is my conversation with Marc Carmichael
Once again, that was candidate for US Senate, Marc Carmichael.
Having heard from both Democratic candidates, here are my thoughts on this race.
First of all, the stakes: Republican nominee Jim Banks is a far-right, Trump-humping, MAGA extremist ideologue who shouldn’t even be allowed into the US Senate chamber on a tour, let alone voted into office. Let me run through just some of his greatest hits, with an assist from a Daily Kos profile published last August 3rd, titled, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”.
Banks was first elected to Congress back in 2016, riding the Mango Mussolini’s coattails to Washington. Prior to that, he entered the political arena in the 2010 Tea Party Wave back and served six years in the Indiana State Senate. In his time at the Statehouse, he voted against the Medicaid Expansion, co-sponsored a bill to drug test welfare recipients (a massive waste of money meant only to humiliate), another bill to defund Planned Parenthood in Indiana, and helped pass an extreme anti-abortion bill requiring women to bury or cremate fetal remains that was quickly overturned by the courts.
He is also a tool of HoosLeft arch-nemesis ALEC - the American Legislative Exchange Council, bringing forth anti-union “right-to-work” legislation on behalf of his corporate masters.
December 18th, 2019: Banks votes to let his Daddy Trump skate in his first impeachment trial for attempting to extort Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
January 10th, 2020: After Congresswoman Ilhan Omar mentions in an interview that she still has PTSD from her time as a child refugee from Somalia… Jim Banks comes along to minimize her suffering, and try to pretend that she’s not being honest about her condition, and that her remarks were “offensive to our nation’s veterans”. How? I don’t know.
December 10th, 2020: Banks signs his name to an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, begging them to overturn the results of the same 2020 election in which he won reelection. No, not his result. Just his lord and savior Donald J. Trump’s legitimate loss.
January 6th, 2021: Jim Banks votes for the objection to the electoral college’s votes in the 2020 election, casting his lot with the insurrectionists who overran the Capitol earlier that day.
January 13th, 2021: Rep. Banks votes against the second impeachment of Donald Trump, because attempting coups and killing cops is just fine, appartently
Through 2021 and ‘22: Banks votes against:
the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
HR 1, a bill created to prevent the corruption of money in politics, and protect voter access to the ballot box.
the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act
the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, because guns have more rights than women, I guess.November 5th, 2021: Jim Banks votes against HR 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
supplemental funding for infant formula (real pro- life there, champ).
May 18th, 2022: Rep. Banks votes against HR 350, the Domestic Violence Prevention Act, because these days, a plank of the Republican Party is ostensibly domestic terror.
HR 7688, a bill which would help prevent gas companies from gouging customers on prices.
House Amendment 262, which would require the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and Secretary of Defense to publish a report on the infiltration of American law enforcment by Neo-Nazis and white supremacists, offer measures to be taken to remove them from their ranks, and prevent further infiltration by others.
the Right to Contraception Act, which codified the right of Americans to have access to birth control.
HR 7946, which was meant to honor the promise to grant citizenship to immigrants who served in the United States Armed Forces.
Banks is one of 67 Republicans who co-sponsored The Life at Conception Act, which would ban both abortion and birth control federally, and…
one of 70 Republicans who vote for an amendment that would cut all U.S. funding to support Ukraine - because he’s a Putin-loving authoritarian lapdog.
Just last month, Banks, who founded the ridiculous anti-woke caucus in Congress, was accompanied on a multi-stop tour of the state by the stochastic terrorist and Libs of Tik Tok creator Chaya Raichik, perhaps to celebrate her recent addition to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s extremist watchlist.
I hope this detailed rundown clearly illustrates the kind of dangerous individual we’re dealing with. BANKS MUST BE KEPT OUT OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE. The two Democratic candidates I’ve just profiled would each be infinitely better than Banks (though to be fair, a punch in the dick would be better than Jim Banks). The question for Hoosier voters with a conscience is, “who is most able to defeat this heinous scumbag come November?”
Though they might not have been on the Indiana Democratic Senate candidate A-list at the beginning of this cycle, I couldn’t be more impressed personally with both Mr. Carmichael and Dr. McCray after speaking with them both.
Let me tell you a little story about Marc to show you what kind of guy he is. We originally recorded on March 14 and had a series of technical difficulties. For the most part, I’ve not had major problems with my podcast hosting service - a few things here and there - but our computers just didn’t want to talk that day. Marc was gracious, patient, and worked with me to try everything. We completed the interview, but due to problems outside our control, about half of the recording was unusable. We reconnected a couple times in the weeks since the original recording to try again. Marc jumped through all the hoops with me, tweaked settings, downloaded different apps, tried this, tried that, and tried them all again. Still, for whatever reason, our devices would not cooperate. Under a time crunch, we were finally able to connect over Zoom this past Friday. The recording quality wasn’t as good as usual, and we had to rush through the second half of the interview, but Marc was infinitely patient, gracious, and invested far more time in this conversation than we just heard, and I want to state publicly how much I appreciated it. As a US Senate candidate, his time is precious, and he easily could’ve blown me off.
I see in Marc the kind of old-school, bipartisan, handshaking, backslapping, sit-down with anyone and come to a consensus kind of politician. And, on one hand, that’s exactly how politics SHOULD work: a good-faith, respectful argument between opponents - not enemies. Just an incredibly genial guy, Midwest nice, Hoosier Hospitality - can work across the aisle, somebody you’d like to sit down and have a beer with.
I just deeply fear the time for those kind of politics may have passed and Carmichael wouldn’t find many like-minded Republicans to sit down with in our current age of polarization. And wasted beer makes me sad.
Dr. McCray, on the other hand… Well, if nothing else, she can certainly identify the pathologies afflicting the MAGA horde across the aisle. Now, I don’t know if she and I fully threaded this needle during our conversation in the last episode, but one thing she understands is that the last 40-50 years of all-out, unregulated, neoliberal capitalism is tantamount to decades of psychological abuse directed at the entire population. Here, I will cite an article by Anna Zeira published in Community Mental Health Journal in 2022,
“Over the past decade, several economists, journalists, sociologists, and mental health practitioners have posited that the increases in mental illness and distress are due to neoliberal economic policies and ideologies. In his book The Selfish Capitalist, psychologist Oliver James found that twice as many people suffer from emotional distress in the English-speaking nations that have adapted neoliberal capitalist policies when compared to people in the Western European nations which did not. He also notes the rapid increase in emotional distress in the United States since the 1980s when the country began to implement neoliberal policies such as eliminating restrictions on the trade market and cutting social services. Economic policies such as deregulation of industry and decreased public sector spending starting in the 1980s have spawned wealth inequality, mass incarceration, and job insecurity, which all can contribute to emotional distress. Additionally, economic and social policies created a change in ideology favoring individualism, materialism, and competitiveness, which are not compatible with human needs such as social connection and community, leading to anxiety and depression . Furthermore, through poor access to mental healthcare due to the for profit healthcare system and the medicalization of emotional distress due to the rise of biological psychiatry, how we treat mental illness in the United States has also contributed to rising rates of anxiety and depression.”
Again, both of these Democrats represent a drastic improvement over the extremist Banks. Let’s send one of them to Washington this November and begin to tackle the mental health crisis that is unrestrained capital. And if we can’t, well, I’ll take that beer.
Thanks for listening. Thank you to my guest today, Marc Carmichael - find him at www.marcforindiana.com (spell). As for me, you can find me on Facebook, Bluesky, YouTube and TikTok at hoosleft and on most other social media sites at scottrog78. If you want to reach me, send me a DM on the socials or email me at scottrog78@gmail.com. If you haven’t yet done so, when you’re finished here, please go to scottaaronrogers.substack.com and subscribe at the paid level. Help me keep this project going. Until next time, this has been the HoosLeft podcast. I’m Scott Aaron Rogers. Love each other, Indiana.
HoosLeft #33: Hoosier Next US Senator? - Part II
Guest: Marc Carmichael, Candidate for US Senate
https://scottaaronrogers.substack.com/subscribe
https://www.marcforindiana.com/
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/3/2184946/-Fanatical-Republican-Extremist-of-the-Day-Jim-Banks-2023-Update
https://ballotpedia.org/Jim_Banks_(Indiana)
https://votesmart.org/bill/14525/37953/116801/requires-drug-testing-for-tanf-applicants#.XxuW5OdlBPZ
https://votesmart.org/bill/13162/34688/116801/repealing-medicaid-funding-for-planned-parenthood#.WG6Q57YrLSA
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/01/us/federal-judge-blocks-indiana-abortion-law.html?_r=0
http://www.theindychannel.com/news/politics/national-group-pushes-indiana-right-to-work-law
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8145185/#:~:text=Over%20the%20past%20decade%2C%20several,not%20(James%2C%202008).
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