Thursday, May 16

POLITICS

It’s a bad idea for journalists to censor Trump – instead, they can help the public identify what’s true or false
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IN OTHER NEWS, POLITICS

It’s a bad idea for journalists to censor Trump – instead, they can help the public identify what’s true or false

In times of mortal strife, humans crave information more than ever, and it’s journalists’ responsibility to deliver it. But what if that information is inaccurate, or could even kill people? That’s the quandary journalists have found themselves in as they decide whether to cover President Donald J. Trump’s press briefings live. Some television networks have started cutting away from the briefings, saying the events are no more than campaign rallies, and that the president is spreading falsehoods that endanger the public. “If Trump is going to keep lying like he has been every day on stuff this important, we should, all of us, stop broadcasting it,” MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow tweeted. “Honestly, it’s going to cost lives.” News decisions and ethical dilemmas aren’t simple, but withholding in...
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Biden’s big night with moderates, African Americans and Baby Boomers
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POLITICS

Biden’s big night with moderates, African Americans and Baby Boomers

With the race for the Democratic nomination narrowed to two front-runners, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, six states went to the polls on March 10: Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington. We asked three scholars to examine the primary results. Keisha N. Blain, University of Pittsburgh The March 10 Democratic primary results highlight the power of the African American vote. Despite Sanders’ efforts to reach African American voters, he was unable to win their vote on Tuesday night. He underperformed in several states, including some he previously won in 2016. At the heart of Sanders’ loss is the African American vote. While African American voters are not a monolithic group, the majority lent their support to Biden on March 10. There are many factors that acco...
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Black turnout in primaries might make Democrats think twice about swing voter strategy
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POLITICS

Black turnout in primaries might make Democrats think twice about swing voter strategy

Big wins for Joe Biden on Super Tuesday and in the South Carolina primary a few days earlier have seemingly bolstered a centrist view of how best to capture the presidency: appeal to the middle, pick up swing voters. It is true that a sizeable chunk of moderates cast a ballot for Biden over his main rival, the more radical Bernie Sanders, in these contests. But a closer look at how the vote broke down suggests a different interpretation: Biden’s surge may be less about moderates and more about getting out the anti-Trump vote. As a political scientist who teaches in South Carolina and studies African American politics, I believe that understanding what drove the outcome of these early primaries may be key to creating a successful Democratic strategy to beat Donald Trump. The Biden bounce...
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Why the US still hasn’t had a woman president
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Journalism, POLITICS

Why the US still hasn’t had a woman president

Estonia, Singapore, Ethiopia and Finland – these are some of the 21 countries currently governed by a female president or prime minister. Yet a woman president of the U.S. still remains only a hypothetical. The 2020 Democratic nomination contest originally featured six women candidates, a record number. But the most prominent female candidates for the Democratic nomination – Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar – have all dropped out, and the focus of the race has narrowed to two males. My research examines what countries where women run the government have in common – and why the U.S. still lags behind. Where women lead Since 2000, 89 women have newly come to power. That’s more than double the total number of women who entered office between 1960 and 1999. Women’s greater...
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Voter Turnout May Reach New Heights In November
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POLITICS

Voter Turnout May Reach New Heights In November

Political interest is high— from the number of small-donor contributions made to presidential candidates to cable news viewership—signaling voter turnout may reach new heights in November. By Tracy Matsue Loeffelholz Tracy Matsue Loeffelholz is creative director of YES! Connect: LinkedIn Twitter https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
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Democratic candidates seek a big and unprecedented K-12 funding boost
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POLITICS

Democratic candidates seek a big and unprecedented K-12 funding boost

Democratic presidential candidates are proposing new approaches to the federal government’s role in public education. Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders want to triple the US$15 billion spent annually on Title I, a program that sends extra federal dollars to school districts that educate a high percentage of poor children. Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to go further and quadruple funding for that same program. Other candidates have similar proposals to substantially increase funding for public education, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg hasn’t yet issued his education platform, or indicated where he stands on federal K-12 funding. Funding increases of this scale would tra...
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As Democratic primaries near, educators can teach hope to a polarized citizenry
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POLITICS

As Democratic primaries near, educators can teach hope to a polarized citizenry

With the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary approaching many Americans are making their choice, although there are those who are still struggling with who to vote for. Elections often inspire hope, but that hope can quickly turn to political despair when candidates fall short of voters’ expectations. As a philosopher who specializes in citizenship education and political theory, I believe that political hope can be taught in schools and colleges. As I argue in my new open-access book, hope can lay a pathway to help citizens make good choices at the ballot box and sustain political engagement well after the polls close. Despair in democracy A recent study published in the Journal of Democracy found that across the globe citizens have “become more cynical” about the value of a democrati...
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Democrats Need Black Women Voters Now More Than Ever
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POLITICS

Democrats Need Black Women Voters Now More Than Ever

Turnouts demonstrate that when we are effectively engaged, our work can make seemingly impossible victories possible. Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro caused a stir last week when he remarked that it’s time to change the order of the primary states in presidential elections. The current schedule puts first two of the Whitest states in the country, Iowa and New Hampshire. Neither is demographically “reflective of the United States as a whole, certainly not reflective of the Democratic Party,” Castro said. After that MSNBC interview, Castro furthered those comments to other media outlets. He told Rolling Stone, if Democrats don’t elevate voters of color, “Why the hell are we Democrats in the first place?” To Vogue, he said, “We can’t go around thanking Bla...
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Democratic candidates want to boost school funding – research shows that will help low-income students
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POLITICS

Democratic candidates want to boost school funding – research shows that will help low-income students

Research shows that school funding impacts student achievement. Rido/Shutterstock.com With few exceptions, the various Democratic plans for public education share a common theme: more funding, less privatizing. Candidates Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders have promised to dramatically increase or triple current federal funding for low-income students and curtail charter school growth. Elizabeth Warren recently went even further, promising to quadruple federal funding for low-income students and end federal funding for charter expansion. These proposals have provoked a deluge of harsh responses from commentators. Increasing public education funding and limiting charters, critics say, is nothing more than pandering to teacher unions and demonizing charter schools. While this c...
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Trump calls on black voters to reject Democrats, says impeachment ‘failing fast’
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POLITICS

Trump calls on black voters to reject Democrats, says impeachment ‘failing fast’

President Trump appealed to black voters Friday to support his reelection campaign, saying that Democrats in Congress are wasting their time on an impeachment effort that’s “failing fast” instead of working to improve black communities. “Imagine if Democrats just put 10% of the energy they devote to attacking me and my administration to instead making this a better country for African American citizens,” Mr. Trump told a largely black audience in Atlanta. The president said Democrats and the media are pushing “the deranged, hyper-partisan impeachment witch hunt, a sinister effort to nullify the ballots of 63 million patriotic Americans.” “It’s not happening, by the way, that’s failing,” Mr. Trump said of impeachment. “It’s failing fast, it’s all a hoax.” Mr. Trump spoke to the largely ...
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