Stories of the Republican Party, America's new majority party. Yes, they're still just barely the majority in the Senate...and in the last Presidential race...and in state legislatures around the country, where they hold just one percent more seats than Democrats nationwide.
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But Republican numbers are increasing. It's the Republicans who are on the rise. On today's program, we leave behind the official Republican talking points and ask them to speak instead about what they actually believe, and what they want for their party and for the country. The answers turn out to be way more complicated than you might think: It's not just Christians on one side of the party fighting with moderates on the other.
Prologue
Writer Thomas Frank went on the radio show On Point to talk about his book What's the Matter With Kansas? The book is about how people in his home state keep voting for Republicans even though Republican policies aren't helping them economically. But the people who called in to the radio show didn't exactly see it his way. (6 minutes)
Act One
Pink Elephant
Patrick Howell, a gay Republican from Orlando, goes on what might seem like an ill-fated hearts-and-minds mission at the Republican Convention. (11 minutes)
Act Two
Right And Righter
A visit to one of the many states where the GOP has been picking up strength, to see why and how. This American Life producer Alex Blumberg spends some time with the Alabama Republican Party. (16 minutes)
Act Three
Indecent Proposal
Mike is a Democrat, the yellow dog kind. The guys he works with—rich guys, like him—are mostly Republican. So he makes them an offer: He'll pay them lots of money if they dare to spend an evening doing something they find repellent: Watching the Michael Moore movie Fahrenheit 9/11. Shane DuBow reports. (13 minutes)
Act Four
It's My Party
One of the most civil conversations you'll ever hear between GOP members on opposite sides of the party's culture war. Log Cabin Republican Patrick Howell from Act One sits down to talk with Christian Republican Steven King from Act Two, to hash out their differences. (10 minutes)
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Act One: Government Says The Darnedest Things
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Act One
In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) declared that homosexuality was not a disease simply by changing the 81-word definition of sexual deviance in its own reference manual.
Act Four: When Businesses Act Like Humans
Then Chicago-radio-listener and writer Alex Blumberg (he's now one of our producers) tells the story of encountering a corporation on its first day.
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