On Democracy with FPWellman

One thing that Republicans have learned long ago is that when they have power to wield it ruthlessly to push through their agenda. They don’t care what anyone says or thinks to achieve their goals. The Democrats haven’t been so resolute. Norms and traditions are respected and taking the high road is the goal. That era must end. When the Trump disaster finally comes to its inevitable conclusion we...

Fear has crept into every corner of American life - but so has resistance. Investigative journalist Julia Angwin and former White House policy advisor Ami Fields-Meyer spent the first year of the Trump administration interviewing more than 100 dissidents across five continents to answer a question millions of Americans are now asking themselves: what can I actually do? Their new book, On Courage:...

With the 2026 midterms fast approaching, the threat to free and fair elections has never felt more urgent. Trump and his cronies have spent years laying the groundwork for exactly the kind of election interference that voting rights attorney David F. Walbert has spent five decades fighting. David F. Walbert is a graduate of Stanford University and the University of Michigan, where he received his...

Juneteenth reminds us of a simple truth: freedom delayed is freedom denied. More than 160 years after enslaved Americans in Texas finally learned they were free, the struggle for equal citizenship and political power continues. As attacks on voting rights, civil rights protections, diversity initiatives, and democratic institutions intensify, many Americans are asking whether the nation is living...

We are deep into the primary season and Democrats are showing up in record setting numbers across the country. A whole new crop of newcomers are running for seats in the House and Senate with many truly being outsiders like never before. Graham Platner has confounded the traditional political punditry and party structure along with many more who defy the supposed rules of the game. Fred sits down...

We know that the Department of Homeland Security has a very loose relationship with the truth and it’s only getting worse under new Secretary, and former plumber, Markwayne Mullin. Words have no meaning at all when oversight becomes politicization and protest becomes assault. A federal case in Washington state is a perfect example of how this is unfolding, as a jury convicted three ICE protesters...

With Ken Paxton’s win in the Texas Senate runoff the MAGA talkingheads have unleashed a bizarre flood of hate, misogyny, and smears todefend a man who was charged with felonies and impeached by his ownparty. For many women watching it all unfold they are nodding alongknowing that women have faced these attacks for centuries. Every womanwho steps into the spotlight faces backlash and attacks far be...

The Trump revenge tour is in full swing against not just his enemies in the Democratic Party but his own Republican members of Congress! In the last week he sent his Secretary of Defense to help successfully defeat Thomas Massie, endorsed Ken Paxton over John Cornyn, and helped oust Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy who promptly flipped his vote on the War Powers resolution. Trump still has to govern...

Trump and his Administration haven’t bothered hiding their racism this time. Every day we are reminded of his disdain for black Americans from the so called Anti-DEI attacks by DOGE to Pete Hegseth’s gutting of the military leadership of women and POC. But, Trump has special disdain for black women and shows it each time a journalist asks him a question. He bristles and calls them stupid or dumb....

The California redistricting passed and now there is change happening fast in the state and Republicans are scared. Republican Darrell Issa has been in Congress since 2003 and has decided not to run for reelection in his newly drawn 48th District and is openly talking about moving to Texas to run for Congress in friendlier ground. You can’t make up a more perfect example of how much the GOP favors...

Today marks 60 days since the war with Iran began. By law the War Powers Act is now expired and President Trump must seek Congressional authorization to continue military operations. He has not bothered and has now suggested that it actually isn't 60 days because there is a "ceasefire." Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth went before Congress this week for the first time and it went exactly as you w...

Yesterday Kash Patel triumphantly announced the arrest of a Special Forces Master Sergeant who had bet on the fall of Maduro and made upwards of $400,000. But, oddly, no investigations have been announced into the series of oil futures trades and others just minutes before major announcements by Trump on Iran. Someone with the ability to spend $760 million is acting on insider information but the...

Between the Iran war and the upcoming midterms the United States is locked in both an international and domestic battle for power, a situation we have only faced a few times in our over 250 years of history. Iran has figured out that it doesn't actually have to win the shooting war to wield vast world influence by surviving and holding world trade hostage at its doorstep. At the same time Donald T...

It’s a war. We all know it’s a war and while Trump prepares to ask for another $200 billion to fight it and an astonishing $1.5 Trillion defense budget he is also saying he doesn’t want to pay for daycare, Medicare, or Medicaid. We are sending our sons and daughters to war under the leadership of the worst Secretary of Defense in history and creating veterans that will be made homeless by the actu...

They are desperately trying to steal the midterms as we speak. From the outrageously stupid SAVE Act being jammed through Congress to the threats to deploy ICE and troops to polls this fall and, of course, the illegal mid-decade redistricting in Texas and Missouri. The Republicans are saying openly they know they are going to lose unless they steal this election and we must fight back. California...

We are three weeks into a war with no foreseeable end, and meanwhile the economy is in freefall all because of the chaos of Donald Trump and the Republican Doormat Congress. All they can do is lie but working Americans know the truth as they face impossible healthcare bills, skyrocketing prices, and nearly unaffordable gas. The incompetence and lies never stop. This week, Fred sits down with forme...

We have lost at least 14 service members since the war in Iran began. Six more were killed in the crash of a KC-135 tanker in Iraq. Pete Hegseth couldn’t even begin is press conference the next day with condolences for the families. He spent his time attacking the media and smearing the people who led the military before. All of this after one of the most disgusting acts we’ve witnessed in war whe...

We are at war. The Republicans and Trump Administration are hell-bent on twisting that word to avoid oversight and accountability but we are bringing home American service members in caskets and having F-15s shot out of the air while dropping thousands of weapons on Iran. It’s a war. That means it is Congress's Constitutional duty to ask questions and conduct oversight. They refuse to do their dut...

Donald Trump promised to get rid of the Department of Education. The far right conservative movement has seen it as an enemy for decades against their mission to dismantle public schools and transfer more money to their private and religious schools. There hasn’t been a despot in history that hasn’t targeted education of their nations youth as the place to start to create lasting power. From Musso...

Scarcely a day goes by when it doesn’t seem like the U.S. is sliding further into authoritarianism. At home we see ICE agents killing innocent civilians and terrorizing immigrant communities, unelected corporate titans dismantling public infrastructure, and unprecedented attacks on academic freedom and the press; abroad we see a disastrous tariff policy, saber rattling, and the targeting of Venezu...

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know the media is struggling to meet this moment in our nation and world’s history. Time and time again we see them follow unimportant stories, fail to explain complex issues, and shrink in the face of financial and government pressure. It’s not new. As long as we have had a nation, we have had a battle between the free press and the powers that are fighting t...

Beyond the outrageous behavior of ICE and CBP agents in the streets we are also seeing the complete collapse of the Department of Justice. Every day we see more examples that Pam Bondi and Kash Patel believe their jobs are to work for Donald Trump and not the American people. From political prosecutions to ignoring corruption we are not seeing anyone acting in the best interests of the American pe...

Yet another killing by masked federal agents in Minnesota this week has sent shock waves across the country. It’s becoming clearer by the day that ICE and CBP have become out of control. Even the professional law enforcement community is condemning the behavior of these government forces from shooting protestors to literally macing people in the face on the side of the road. The divide between the...

The images coming out of Minneapolis became even more shocking this week with the shocking pictures of little Liam Ramos being used as bait to get access to his family home. Meanwhile millions of Americans had their health insurance rates explode this month and tens of thousands losing their coverage completely. There are solutions including a bill for Medicare for All and important reforms to Med...

We have seen weeks of chaos and now there is violence in Minnesota and Steven Miller’s evil machinations coming to fruition. It’s easy to forget that it has only been just two weeks since the attack on Venezuela on January 3rd.  Now federal agents are running amok in Minneapolis, Trump is threatening Iran, Mexico and Columbia, and more while the news leaked that he has quietly sold $500 million in...