Tag: Gerrymandering
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Inadequate to the stormy present
“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.” Abraham Lincoln This quote has been…
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A real constitutional crisis is well underway
I was hoping Trump’s defeat would lead to the death of the Republican Party. Obviously that didn’t happen. It is fair to say that the Republican Party is basically the Trump Party now, so in that sense it is dead. Ronald Reagan, for example, would not recognize the party, although he did much to put…
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Righting our Upside Down government
Down is the new up. This was honed in last Saturday when the U.S. Senate voted in Brett Kavanaugh as our newest justice, despite multiple credible allegations of sexual assault against him. The vote was perhaps not surprising as Republicans always put party before country. Had Kavanaugh been defeated or withdrawn, someone of similar far…
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Republicans reestablish the patriarchy
For Republicans, Donald Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh as the justice to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court is like winning the Triple Crown. It’s the greatest news possible for them. This is because with Kennedy’s departure and Kavanaugh’s likely lifetime appointment, Republicans will finally formally control all three branches of government.…
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Obama’s new long-game
President Obama’s biggest mistake was probably roasting Donald Trump at the 2011 National Press Club dinner. It likely infuriated Trump and led to his run for the presidency some years later and the current national disaster we are experiencing from his presidency. It’s hard to say for sure, but I think if Obama hadn’t lampooned…
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The oligarchy in charge
Based on polls, only 25% of Americans want Congress to enact the Republicans’ tax “reform” plan. A look at the proposed plan (which will likely change substantially before getting a vote) makes it easy to see why: despite all the hoopla, there is nothing in it for most of us, since most of us are…
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The tyranny of the minority
I’ve written so much about our gun problem in the nearly fifteen years my blog has been around that I pretty much have said it all. In a sense this week’s rampage that killed 59 people at an outdoor concert in Las Vegas was fated to happen. Sensible people wonder why we can’t seem to…
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Dear Supreme Court: please free our political moderates
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case on whether Wisconsin’s state assembly map constitutes an illegal partisan gerrymander. The court has never struck down a voting district map based solely on its political boundaries, so it’s unwise for those who would like to see fairer voting districts to get their expectations up. I’m…
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The southern strategy bites back
Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson recently wrote that Donald Trump has changed the Republican Party permanently. In the past the establishment elite controlled the party. Unfortunately well-moneyed Republicans were relatively few in number. They had to find votes somewhere so they adopted a “southern strategy” that pandered to the fears and prejudices of those principally…
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The tyranny of the extremes
It’s sort of like President Bush’s approval ratings in 2007 and 2008. Every time you wondered if they could possibly get any lower, they dropped again. The same is true today with Congress. Its approval ratings are in the single digits, 9% to be exact, according to pollster PPP. They must have a sense of…
Occam's Razor 