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The Case for 'DC' Statehood Is Clear
Last week, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 51, a bill that would make Washington, D. C., the 51st state of the union. It would finally end the denial of voting representation to its more than 700,000 residents, the majority of whom are black or brown.
The Movement for Justice Will Not Be Deterred
The result will open the floodgates even further to the wave of partisan laws that Republicans are pushing in states across the country to suppress the votes of African Americans and other people of color. The right-wing justices continue their assault on the meaning and power of the Voting Rights Act, a triumph of the civil rights movement that Justice Elena Kagan, writing in dissent, noted represents the "best in America."
John Lewis, a founding father of American democracy
When John Lewis left us, editorials and columns paid tribute to his leadership, his courage, his moral example. The praise was well deserved. A broader context helps understand his true contribution.
The Mark of History Scars Tulsa
Memorial Day marks one year since the murder of George Floyd by the hands of the Minneapolis police. This week also marks the 100-year anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre - a brutal government-aided leveling of a prosperous African American community for which there still has been no accounting and no justice. Few even know about the massacre. It hasn't even been taught in the Tulsa public schools until this year. Although 100 years old, the massacre poses questions of justice and of decency that America cannot avoid.
Trump and His Big Lie Pose A Clear and Present Danger to Our Democracy
The Jan. 6th committee hearings have shown how Donald Trump sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost. But Trump’s efforts are far from the most serious threat to our democracy. Across the country, Republicans have spread Trump’s Big Lie that the election was stolen, and used it as a weapon to justify a range of restrictive legislation that makes registration and voting more difficult, and gives partisan officials greater scope to overturn the results of elections where they don’t like the result. Worse, these efforts have been bolstered by a series of Supreme Court decisions – written by activist right-wing judges – dating back long before Trump that undermine free and fair elections in the United States.
Do Trump's Actions Meet the Test of Treason?
Will Donald Trump be held accountable for the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and what was a multi-layered conspiracy to overturn the results of the presidential election?
Right to register and vote is not a partisan issue
The right to vote, Dr. Martin Luther King taught in his famous “Give Us the Ballot” address, is one of the “highest mandates of our democratic tradition.” Democracy is founded on the right of citizens to decide via popular, free and fair elections who should represent them. Across the world, the U.S. champions democracy. Yet at home the right to vote is embattled.
Trump Committed to War Without End?
It has come to this. An impeached president -- still pending trial in the Senate -- orders the assassination of one of Iran's leading generals across the world where he is meeting with the leader of Iraq, a supposed ally. He does so without consultation, much less approval, of the Congress. Besieged at home, he lashes out abroad.
Trump's Big Lie Is a Threat to American Democracy
On Thursday evening, the House Select Committee investigating the sacking of the Capitol on January 6 will hold the first of its primetime, public hearings. The committee has done an exhaustive investigation, interviewing a thousand witnesses, looking at tens of thousands of documents. The hearings will reveal new information about what was in fact a multi-layered effort to overturn the results of a presidential election, driven by the White House and involving Republican legislators, operatives, state officials, and donors. The hearings will ask every American to understand how vulnerable our democracy is, and how close we came to losing it.
Trump’s State of the Stink Address
As he delivers his first State of the Union address tonight, President Donald Trump is looking for approval. He'll brag on the economy, with a likely focus on his Twitter claim that "because of my policies," black unemployment is at its "lowest rate ever recorded."
UAW Auto Workers Will Get a Fair Deal Only If They Fight for It
Five days ago, 12,700 United Auto Workers Union (UAW) workers walked out in the first strike wave against the Big Three automakers – GM, Ford, and Stellantis (the company that took over Chrysler). Every worker in America – union and non-union, young and old, female and male, Black, brown and white – has a stake in this strike. At issue is not simply whether autoworkers can gain a living wage, but whether this country can begin to rebuild a middle class and curb the extreme inequality that undermines our economy and our democracy.
Sessions Opens the Door Again to Privatized Prisons
Next week, March 7, will mark the 52nd anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the historic march and shocking police riot in Selma, Ala., that helped build public support for passage of the Voting Rights Act.
Time for Democracy to Work
The right to vote is fundamental to a democracy. Today in America, however, that right is under partisan attack across the country. If it is to be defended, nonpartisan reforms must pass across a partisan divide. The question now is whether Democrats will join together to protect the right to vote from the assault it faces from Republicans at every level of government.
Why Are a Few Democrats Blocking Biden's Bold Recovery Agenda?
This is the week that will tell whether Washington will act to address the growing crises that threaten our democracy.
'Have you no sense of decency, sir?'
Texas is suffering from record high temperatures, with heat indexes topping a staggering 120 degrees.
We Americans Must Face Our Addiction to Guns
Fifty-eight dead and counting; 500 sent to hospitals. The deadliest mass shooting in modern American history took place Sunday in Las Vegas, as a lone gunman firing from a window on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel savaged a crowd gathered to watch a country music show. It was, as one observer noted, like shooting fish in a barrel. The automatic rifle fire lasted for minutes. The shooter didn't really have to aim; he only had to pull the trigger.
Georgians Will Have a Clear Choice On Jan. 5
Leave it to Donald Trump to run brazen subversion -- refusal to accept the decision of the voters in the presidential election -- as a clown show, marked by wingbat lawyers, delusional tweets, and hailstorms of lies. The noise, however, should not delude us: Trump is leading an American counter-reformation right to the edge of secession, if not beyond. And at the core of this is America's continued struggle with race.
Remembering Brown v. Board of Education
Last Sunday marked the 66th anniversary of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision, Brown vs. the Board of Education. The Brown decision addressed consolidated issues from four different cases involving racial segregation. The issues emanated from Kansas, South Carolina, Delaware, and Virginia. The unanimous opinion of the court was written by Earl Warren, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower's newly appointed chief justice. The Court declared that forced segregation of public-school children violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and was therefore unconstitutional.
Trump's Insatiable Appetite for Regime Change
Push is coming to shove in Venezuela. Trump has decided that the government of Nicola Maduro must go. Senior officials -- led by John Bolton, Trump's super-hawk national security adviser, and Elliott Abrams, stained by his cover-up and lies about death squads in El Salvador and contras in Nicaragua in the 1980s -- boast publicly about their plots for regime change. They have recognized an obscure right-wing Venezuelan politician -- Juan Guaido -- as head of state. They've tightened sanctions again and again, adding directly to the dire suffering of the Venezuelan people. They've encouraged the military to revolt. And when the failure of Guaido's latest coup attempt embarrassed them last week, they've threatened direct military intervention.
Facing the Assault On Civil Rights
The Trump administration has launched an unprecedented rollback of civil rights and voting rights. Those who care about building a more perfect union face harsh headwinds. We've gone from an administration seeking to fulfill these rights to one seeking to repeal these rights.
