WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (WKNO): Vice President Kamala Harris chose her running mate this week, creating a ticket that seems to resonate with both Democrats and independents. With us again to talk about that and other issues is Memphis political analyst, Otis Sanford. Welcome back.
OTIS: Thank you Chris. Hope you're doing well.
BLANK: Otis, when Obama ran for president, he chose an avuncular older white man as his running mate. When Biden ran, he did the opposite. And now Kamala Harris has once again embraced what I like to call a "salt and pepper" ticket. It has the appearance of opposites, but really both of them together make the meal. Why do Democrats these days tend to like this idea?
OTIS: Well for one thing, the Democrats see America as a diverse nation and they like the opportunity to vote for people who represent the whole of America. And, of course, as you well know, this ticket has caught fire all over the country. And that is one of the reasons why.
BLANK: Democrats tend to frame their presidential ticket as a kind of co-op — that these two people will be working in tandem. Whereas, Republicans — but I think Trump especially — pick running mates who are essentially loyal foot soldiers to the president. But what do you think causes voters to swivel between a Republican and a Democratic style of presidency?
BLANK: Obviously, the voting patterns in presidential elections do tend to swivel back and forth. But over the last several election cycles, with the exception of Donald Trump in 2016, you've had voters basically siding with the Democratic party. And when you count popular vote, they have definitely sided with the Democratic Party, primarily because, as you say, the ticket is more of a tandem — a running mate. Not a subservient lackey. I think what we're going to find in this case, Christopher, that you know, it's been eight years since Donald Trump came on the scene. We have a lot of new voters now who don't see a life the way Trump tried to project life in 2016. And that's why— especially now that Biden is off the ticket and Harris is on —and [Trump] now is floundering as a result of that.
BLANK: Well, let's switch for a minute to local government. We've talked a few times about State Sen. Brent Taylor and his ongoing effort to remove Shelby County DA Steve Mulroy from office. Last month MLK 50 did a fairly long story about why Taylor was spreading a lot of misinformation on this subject. But Taylor is now crying foul because the Commercial Appeal would not publish a rebuttal of equal length. So now he's claiming media bias against Republicans. Now, this might seem petty, except for the actual stakes. If Taylor can persuade the state's Republican supermajority to remove even one Democrat from office here, it would show faithful voters that while Democrats may run local government, Republicans ultimately decide which Democrats are fit to serve. Do you think Taylor's new angle of attacking the media is helping build support for this case in Nashville?
SANFORD: I don't think so. As you said, this is petty. And earlier this week there was a Republican DA, I think, who came out and wrote a column in opposition to what Brent Taylor was trying to do here. The Commercial Appeal did not have any obligation to run his rebuttal as lengthy as the original story was. There's no obligation to do that. I mean, if he wanted wanted to respond— and he did respond on social media. Brent Taylor has gone down this road, and he can't turn back. And so now he's flailing at anybody and everybody who is opposing him. I will still be surprised if the full legislature wants to go down this path of removing people from office because of policy differences and not incompetence. And that's what is happening here: this is a policy fight and not somebody just incapable of doing their job.
BLANK: Well, finally Otis, Shelby County Schools were back in session this week and on day one — day one! — students from 12 schools were sent home because of air conditioning failures. And this just once again gives the impression of a derelict school system. Is there a way to fix this problem without more money, I guess, is the question. And if not, where does the money come from?
SANFORD: The bigger problem here that I saw was the lack of transparency. The fact that I doubt very seriously that all 12 of those HVAC units went out all on the same day. That did not happen. And so they knew this sometime this summer, they should have done dealt with it. And at the very least, they should have informed the public about it. That's the administration's responsibility. This is not a good look. And once again we have a lack of communication, a lack of transparency involving our school system as if it doesn't have other issues to deal with.
