'BradCast' 6/27/2018 (Guest: John Nichols of The Nation)
b"On today's show:\\xa0 Several political earthquakes have erupted, all within the past 12 to 24 hours. Antonia Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year old Latina and political novice, unseated Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley, the fourth most powerful Democrat in the U.S. House, by a huge margin during Tuesday's midterm primaries in New York's 14th Congressional District, sending shockwaves through the Democratic Party establishment. In Maryland, proudly progressive former NAACP Chair Ben Jealous won the Democratic nomination for governor, and will run on his bold populist agenda against popular GOP Gov. Larry Hogan this November. On Wednesday morning, the stolen 5 to 4 majority on the U.S. Supreme Court overturned decades of established law, striking down so-called agency fees of public sector unions, a huge blow to labor and a long-sought victory for Republicans. In her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan charged her GOP colleagues on the Court with "weaponizing the First Amendment" for political purposes. But the day's largest earthquake by far came from the retirement announcement of 81-year old Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Court's \\u2018swing' vote on social issues. John Nichols, progressive champion and Washington correspondent for The Nation, joins us to navigate through the shake-ups, with insight and analysis on the very good news for progressives from Tuesday's primaries, as well as Brad's argument that Senate Democrats must follow the so-called "McConnell Rule," used by Senate Republicans to block a vote on President Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland, for nearly a year. Not only should Democrats insist on no vote for any SCOTUS nominee until after the November Election, but Senate Democrats should consider walking out entirely if the absence of a quorum might prevent a vote on whoever Trump nominates to fill Kennedy's seat, to stop the further erosion of American rights and values. The stakes are so high, Brad argues,\\xa0 that Democrats now need to put it all on the line and shut it down, if necessary, in advance of the 2018 midterm election that could flip the balance of the upper chamber to the Democrats...."