Politics
-
Chicago's Gangs Aren't the Problem
When discussing the problems of violence in Chicago, people should focus beyond gangs, Mikki Kendall writes at The Toast. Kendall argues that the city “needs healing and access to resources and opportunities that have vanished with each wave of gentrification.” Experts on Chicago (who often are neither from Chicago or remotely educated about Chicago politics or…
-
Miriam Carey: When We Ignore Black Women and Mental Health
At Salon magazine, Brittney Cooper connects the incident in Washington, D.C., involving Miriam Carey — the African-American woman who tried to crash her car into a White House barrier — to the current dysfunction on Capitol Hill over the right to health care. Her case is a “cautionary tale about what can happen in a nation…
-
Obama Is Called Nazi Name: 'De Fuhrer'
(The Root) — President Barack Obama has been called many variations of “leader” during his presidency, but one Arizona state representative has taken it upon herself to refer to him as “De Fuhrer” — a term typically associated with genocidal dictator Adolf Hitler. “Someone is paying the National Park Service thugs overtime for their efforts…
-
How White Rage Led to the Federal Shutdown
A “small group of congressman who represent a lily-white, neo-Confederate nation” have caused the government shutdown, writes Andrew O’Hehir at Salon magazine. Their frustration can be attributed to a “white rage and white derangement” about America’s changing racial landscape. Statistics and recent electoral history paint a deceptive picture of an increasingly diverse society that mostly…
-
The Tragic Game of the Federal Shutdown
Americans are tired of playing the Republican Party’s blistering game of high-stakes political brinksmanship, writes the New York Times‘ Charles M. Blow. He calls on the GOP House to end its futile feud with President Obama and get on with the business of governing the nation. Speaker John Boehner barked Friday about the government shutdown:…
-
Is a New Confederacy Rising?
In an insightful piece at the Washington Post, Colbert I. King provides historical context to the partial shutdown of the federal government. An “insurgent political force” has captured the Republican Party “and is taking up where the Old Confederacy left off in its efforts to bring down the federal government,” he writes. It took on…
-
Obamacare Isn't Big Enough
(The Root) — It is long past time for Barack Obama to launch a rhetorical and public policy offensive, one that outlines economic priorities to promote job growth and end poverty. In 1941 President Franklin Roosevelt outlined the “four freedoms” that all Americans had the right to enjoy. Freedoms of speech and religion were combined…
-
Can Black Women Do Better Than Hillary?
(The Root) — It might be appropriate to preface this with the fact that I’m a dude injecting myself into what boils down to a woman’s decision at the polls. But it’s still a peculiar and necessary question that we should keep asking from now through 2016: Why should African-American women support Hillary Clinton for…
-
Enough GOP Votes to End Shutdown?
(The Root) — It appears as if the ranks of GOP opposition in Congress are cracking. Over the last 24 hours, a few Republicans have stepped up, and now the House has just over the magic number of Republican votes it needs to pass a clean government-spending bill and end the government shutdown — that…
-
Obama Has Compromised Already
(The Root) — Given that they spent their August recess bragging that they’d oppose Obamacare at all costs, you’d think House Republicans would take ownership of the government shutdown. But maybe they’re not all that proud of it, because after the shutdown’s first full day, they pushed back on President Barack Obama’s assertion that it’s…