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Right-wing SCOTUS justices are not acting alone
The right-wing gang of six justices on the Supreme Court just ruled that affirmative action in university admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina violates the Constitution. Do not be fooled. This ruling is not limited to the elite universities that seek to ensure diversity in their student bodies. It is not limited to education. The right-wing majority on the Court is escalating war on the reconstruction that was launched by the civil rights movement.
Mobilizing the Poor People's Campaign
This week in Washington, the powers that be are hearing from a vital new democratic force in this country. For three days, the Poor People's Campaign will bring poor and low-wage Americans to the nation's capital to call for a moral renewal in this nation. They will question many of those who are seeking the Democratic nomination for president.
We Are a Better Nation Than Trump Understands
When Colin Kaepernick first took a knee during the national anthem last year, he acted alone, a silent protest against a society that repeatedly fails to hold police accountable for the killing of unarmed African-Americans. Kaepernick was condemned and now essentially has been banned from the NFL, with the owners surely colluding to insure that a quarterback of immense talent would not find a place among the dozens of teams desperately in need of one.
SCOTUS Guarantees That Poor Women Will Suffer
In their decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the six right-wing judicial zealots on the Supreme Court scorned legal precedent and mocked history to deprive women of equal citizenship under the law.
It Is Time for Congress to Act to Defend Free Elections
Jan. 6, 2022 marks one year since the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, incited by a president voted out of office by the vast majority of the American people. What is now clear is that Donald Trump and his tong of zealous aides and complicitous right-wing legislators were deadly serious about overturning the results of that vote and keeping Trump in office. They failed but have since launched a systematic campaign in states across the country to make it possible to succeed the next time.
Republicans Once More Defending Extremism in Defense of Their Views
The inmates have taken over the asylum in the Republican Party. In the party that once prided itself on being pro-military, one wingnut senator is blocking the confirmation of hundreds of senior military officials, including the secretaries of the Navy, Army and Air Force.
Automatic voter registration a sensible first step
As Americans, we hail our democracy as a beacon to the world. And all agree the right to vote is the fundamental cornerstone of democracy. Yet in our election last fall, fewer than half of all eligible voters cast a ballot – and that is considered a relatively high turnout. We need a nationwide drive to extend and promote the right to vote, the most fundamental of all political rights in a democracy. Let’s start by automatic voter registration – registering every eligible voter automatically on his or her 18th birthday.
History Cannot Be Unlived
Last Saturday, three African Americans were murdered by a 21-year-old white gunman at the Dollar General Store in Jacksonville, Florida, who then shot himself. The murderer was motivated, Jacksonville Sheriff T K Waters reported, by an “ideology of hate.” The shooting took place 15 months after 10 African Americans were murdered in another racially motivated shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo. Racial violence against Blacks has scarred America since the first slaves were forcibly shipped to America.
Now Is the Time When People of Conscience Must Stand Up
GuiYing Ma was assaulted as she swept up the sidewalk in front of her Queens home, her head beaten with a rock so that she ended up in a coma for weeks. Christina Yuna Lee was fatally stabbed more than 40 times by a stalker who followed her to her apartment in Chinatown. Michelle Alyssa Go was pushed to her death at a Times Square subway station. In Atlanta last March, eight people were killed at mass shootings at three Asian spas.
It's Time for Patriots to Stand Up
America's democracy is under assault -- systematic, unrelenting and unhinged. The assault is waged by one party -- the Republican Party. It is largely driven by the lies and racism of Donald Trump, who simply will not accept that he lost the last election. To deny that unacceptable reality, Trump has spread -- and Republican officials across the country have echoed -utterly fraudulent claims of fraud to justify measures to make voting more difficult.
Will the Ron DeSantis Bubble Burst?
Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, has made himself into the leading rival to Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. He won a sweeping re-election victory as governor in 2022, even as Republicans generally were underperforming. Now, he’s used that position to pick purposeful fights on polarizing social issues, clearly seeking to cater to the fury of the MAGA Republican base. By assailing what he calls “wokeness,” including everything from vaccinations, Dr. Fauci, critical race theory, LGBTQ students, and how American history is taught, he apparently hopes to offer Republicans a new generation culture warrior who can rouse Trump’s base and have a broader appeal to suburban voters.
Selma's Mirror
The Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, is famed as the site of Bloody Sunday, the violent 1965 police riot that sparked a national outrage powerful enough to drive the Voting Rights Act through the Congress. This past weekend, my son Jonathan and I joined with President Biden, political leaders, ministers and veterans of that march to commemorate that terrible day.
It's the Substance, Not the Label That Counts
After Nevada, Bernie Sanders is now the front-runner in the Democratic presidential race. In South Carolina, the next primary, former Vice President Joe Biden is the favorite, buoyed by his support among African American voters. Sanders will come into the state with real momentum, having won the popular vote in each of the first three contests.
The Trump Administration's Lies Are Starting to Hurt
For many of his supporters, Donald Trump's casual relationship with the truth was at first amusing, part of his brash, anti-establishment appeal. He says what he thinks, went the argument, and if it isn't true, so be it. His voters, we were told, have learned to take him seriously but not literally.
How We See the Past Reflects How We Live In the Present
Our history involves both hard facts and interpretation – the context in which the hard facts are presented. Interpretation inevitably is political and contested. How we see the past reflects how we live in the present and what we hope for in the future.
Should We Hold Parents Responsible for the Terrorist Acts of Their Children?
When Ethan Crumbley, a troubled 15-year-old, shot and killed four students at Oxford High School, in Oxford, Michigan, he was charged with terrorism and murder. In a virtually unprecedented step, the prosecutor, Karen McDonald, also indicted Crumbley's parents for involuntary manslaughter, arguing that they should have known their son was a danger to his school and should have revealed that he had access to a handgun that was an early Christmas gift from his parents, and stored in an unlocked locker in their bedroom.
U.S. Needs to Make Its Asylum Policy Clear
Today, the makeshift migrant border camp in Del Rio, Texas, is virtually empty, cleared of thousands of Haitian refugees who came there seeking asylum in America. State troopers now line the border area to discourage others from gathering.
Let Us Remember, and Rekindle the Spirit of, the Emancipation Proclamation
One hundred forty-five years ago on January 1, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, helping to transform this country from a union of states into a nation, from a country stained by slavery into one moving at great cost closer to "liberty and justice for all."
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.
Trump Has No Coherent Plan to Make Health Care Affordable
What is this year's midterm election about? President Trump wants it to be about him, stumping the country saying that he's on the ballot. Or that it's about immigrants, or Justice Brett Kavanaugh, or tax cuts, or about hurricanes, droughts and catastrophic climate change, or about an economy featuring low unemployment and stagnant wages. In fact, what is notable about the election amid all the mudslinging and name-calling is that voters are making it increasingly about health care.
