Like others interviewed in this series, she is cautiously optimistic — but falls squarely in the camp of seeing the country getting worse before better.
Her optimism is based on demographics, that the most retrograde elements of the country are more prevalent among older voters. Whether or not you agree, she's not the only person with this analysis.
Her hand-crafted fifth question was about Wisconsin — Why did Scott Walker win?
A note about the audio. We had originally planned to talk on the final day of Netroots Nation, where all the other interviews were conducted, then developed a last-minute scheduling conflict.
As a make-up, we did this one via Skype a few days later, and the Internet betrayed us. The actual recording occurred at Sarah's end, so her voice is clear; mine is less so, with Skype-drops and the occasional underwater sound more prevalent that I would wish.
Since the focus of the interview is Sarah and her responses, I decided to post this with some editing to minimize the problems. While I can delete the beeps, there's no way to add back what Skype has lost. I hope this works for you.
Five Questions: Sarah Burris with Gaius Publius, recorded shortly after Netroots Nation 2012. Enjoy:
The full list of "Five Questions" interviews includes the following. Links to names will take you to previously-published interviews.
- Alan Grayson, former (and perhaps future) U.S. Congressman
- Marcy Wheeler, of emptywheel.net
- Cliff Schecter, who comments regularly with Sam Seder at Majority.fm among many other places
- Tom Tomorrow, cartoonist with DailyKos and This Modern World
- Alex Lawson of StrengthenSocialSecurity.org
- Josh Orton, with Russ Feingold's Progressives United
- Frances Causey, producer–director of Heist, the documentary
- Chris Pearson, a Progressive Party Vermont state legislator
- Susan Smith, Progressive Caucus chair of the Florida Democratic Party
- Sarah Burris, labor activist and progressive youth organizer
GP
To follow or send links: @Gaius_Publius
