Aspiration and the conniving racist albatross

"How do we get there from here?" Presidential candidates are supposed to be standing at the foot of a mountain called Aspiration, their hands gesturing affirmingly as they express their soaring ideas and respective visions for our country. They passionately implore us, explaining how, if we follow the path on which they are embarking, if…

Hillary’s establishment pragmatic idealisim vs. Bernie’s political revolution

Let's call this fight over now, before we go any farther than we already have. Being a liberal progressive and being an establishment candidate or cause are not mutually exclusive. There is little doubt that groups like Planned Parenthood and the Human Rights Campaign are on the front lines, fighting for progressive causes everyday. There's…

When it comes to voting, it’s not all about that base

Senior citizens and college students, Wall Street bankers and the religious right, Southerners and African Americans, industrial magnates and union workers: if you're in one of those groups, and a handful of others, chances are either Republicans or Democrats think they can already count on your vote on election day. They call those monoliths the…

Will the power of impassioned politicians work down-ticket?

Curiouser and curiouser. It's like Alice herself is guiding us through the United States of Wonderland's early primary season going into the 2016 presidential elections. Showmanship and passionate authenticity seem to be ruling the day, while establishment electoral politics sits bemused on a mushroom. Just how long can this go on? With the angry Republican…

Bottoms up – starting a conversation for change in the rural South

"I've always believed that change doesn't come from the top down; it comes from the bottom up." -President Barack Obama, September, 2009 It's been Obama's mantra since the beginning of his administration, and even before, when he first ran for president in 2008. Search whitehouse.gov for "top down bottom up," and you will be overwhelmed…

The Democrats’ mutual denial society

"There is much that is going right in this country, and there is still time for Democrats to say so." - New York Times Editorial Board, October 21, 2014 If President Obama would not have delayed acting on immigration until after the election, he may have saved the seats Democrats lost in the Senate, that…

Triage for a bleeding lame duck

"We conclude that the Recess Appointments Clause does not give the President the constitutional authority to make the appointments here at issue." - Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the majority opinion in the unanimous finding of N.L.R.B. v Canning, issued 26 June, 2014 "The Constitution makes it clear that a president’s job is…

Compelled to compromise, Obama and Dems can’t win

When Barack Obama ran for president, in 2008, he spoke of ending the Bush era tax-cuts for the upper two percent of earners, of bringing an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, of allowing the most draconian aspects of the Patriot Act to end and of ending the cultural divide over decades-old social…