In the Las Vegas Sun, Clarence Page debunks the Republican Party’s perception that blacks are the primary recipients of food stamps, saying, “a California surfer dude has become the new ‘welfare queen.’ ” Republicans who voted last week to cut food stamp benefits represent most of the counties that experienced the largest growth in food…

Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page says goodbye and good riddance to the conservative Minnesota politician and her tactics.  Rep. Michele Bachmann got it backwards in her surprising retirement announcement. Many of her “mainstream liberal media” critics will miss her, especially the fact-checkers. “I fully anticipate,” the Minnesota Republican declared in an eight-minute, 40-second, video, “the…

In his column at the Chicago Tribune, Clarence Page reprimands the GOP for pointing fingers at President Barack Obama in the IRS scandal, saying that they’re doing so because they don’t know who’s really to blame. … But the big question occupying Capitol Hill is, who is to blame? House Speaker John Boehner’s remarks on…

Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page highlights the problems with relying on a race-classification system created in a different era. A notable example of how Americans fall through the cracks in census data-gathering caught my eye recently. It appeared on the black-oriented TheRoot.com website under this intriguing headline: “I found one drop; can I be black…

Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page makes what he says he knows will be a controversial point about the institution: It’s not a societal cure-all. I know from past experience that I’m going to upset some folks by saying this, so brace yourselves: Marriage is very important and beneficial to the raising of children, but there’s…

Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page says that All My Babies’ Mamas — the story of rapper Shawty Lo and his 11 children with 10 different women — is just one example of new forms of slavery that we impose on ourselves. No slavery is quite as pernicious as that which we impose on ourselves ……

Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page wonders whether the diverse coalition in support of legalization of the drug signals that “maybe we can all get along.” I am encouraged by the surprisingly bipartisan coalitions that backed recent state victories for marijuana legalization, gay marriage and prison sentencing reform. Maybe we all can get along. What makes…

In his Chicago Tribune column, Clarence Page tackles the failed GOP presidential candidate’s “gifts” comments, saying they echo his earlier remarks about “47 percent of Americans” who “don’t pay taxes,” and concludes that Romney is out of touch.  … Romney was proud to contrast Obama’s so-called gift-giving strategy with his own tight-fisted talk about “big…