Politics
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Hollywood Celebrities Show Up in Support of DC Statehood
In a room sprinkled with celebrities—and there were quite a few, from Ashley Judd to David Schwimmer—one stood out for reasons other than a starring role on TV or in the movies. Eleanor Holmes Norton has been on the front line of social-justice causes her whole life, and she has no problem uniting with more…
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#DNCinPHL? Don’t Forget to Ask Black Philly About That
No convention of a major political party in the city of Philadelphia can take place without great degrees of deference to its blackness. Pundits unable or unwilling to do so will quickly melt into nonsensical half-assedness, the consequence of white-typecasting Philly with the lore of cheesesteaks, perennially angry Eagles fans and “Brotherly Love.” But in…
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Dear Michelle Obama, Never Leave. Sincerely, Everyone
I am not unique when I say I have had a long and special relationship with first lady Michelle Obama. It started way back in 2008 when I got so many robocalls from her to get out and vote that I thought Barack might get jealous. In the last eight years, that nonexistent fantasy relationship…
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Democrats Will Unite After They Finish Self-Destructing Over Emails, Bernie-or-Bust Crowd
As the Democratic National Convention gets underway, it’s always good to remember what Will Rogers once said: “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” And boy, those words have never rung more true than this year. Where the Republicans, when not running Donald Mussolini for president, are usually…
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This Election, Let’s Refocus on the Pillar Issues
As citizens, we deserve election seasons that are seesawing, back-and-forth spectacles of clashing ideas. Instead we find ourselves often immersed in the frantic pace of the horse race. Campaigns devolve into poll-watching parades, focused more on opposing personalities than on issues of great consequence. Issues get lost. This is one of those elections. The general…
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Debbie Wasserman Schultz Shoots Herself in the Foot Right Before the DNC
The Wikileaks drop on Friday has brought up the dreaded words “email,” “rigged” and “Debbie Wasserman Schultz” again right before a week that was supposed to eliminate all of those words from the minds of Democratic National Convention-goers and viewers. Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz will resign from her position at the end…
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The RNC Is Over, but Can We Talk About Pastor Mark Burns?
Look, I’m a simple black man. I only have a few rules in life. If you call it “stuffing” instead of “dressing”—the way all right-thinking black folks refer to it—don’t bother friending me on Facebook. You either root for the Los Angeles Lakers or you’re just wasting my time. And if you’re against black people,…
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Donald Trump, America’s Savior: 3 Takeaways From His RNC Speech
On Thursday night, I sat in a booth with several other journalists and watched Donald Trump tell America he was going to save us. He was going to save us from the undocumented immigrant criminals, the lazy politicians, the bad trade deals, the violence in our streets and the terrorism abroad. His speech was more…