Politics

The important thing to understand about the Democratic Party’s primary debates is that they are no longer about convincing anybody. The Democratic Party is down to two candidates—Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton—and anyone who plans to vote in the remaining Democratic primaries already knows which of these candidates he or she is going to vote…

My name is Lottie Shackelford, and I am the Women’s Caucus chair of the Democratic National Committee; a vice chair emeritus; the former mayor of Little Rock, Ark.; and a mother and a grandmother. Every day I try to focus on ways to make life better and safer for women. However, I’m uncomfortable when people…

It began before he was even elected.  In the spring of 2008, when it became clear that the Illinois senator would likely be the Democratic nominee for president, there were chain emails declaring that Barack Obama was born not in Hawaii but in Kenya and was therefore ineligible.   The “Birther” effort, claiming the president’s…

Germans know fascism when they see it. While Americans can joke about “Soup Nazis” and Hitler mustaches, Germans know firsthand what it means when a failed businessman moves from a fringe candidate to a leader who takes over your democracy and burns everything to hell. I learned this, repeatedly, while I was in Germany for…

The late Whitney Houston once infamously told Wendy Williams during an interview, “Watch what you say, baby girl. Watch what the f—k you say.” In the past few weeks, select black activists and voters have more or less been telling Hillary Clinton the same thing while a speech she gave back in 1996 continues to…

African-American voters are the biggest story coming out of Super Tuesday, to the surprise of many in both parties. Republican turnout was higher than Democratic turnout in just about every state, but the numbers in two places, Georgia and Virginia, are particularly striking. In both states, African-American turnout in the Republican primaries jumped by historic…