POLITICS – Page 29

Why the US still hasn’t had a woman president

9Mar

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

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...

Voter Turnout May Reach New Heights In November

5Mar

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

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/

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

18Feb

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

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 tran...

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

3Feb

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

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...

Democrats Need Black Women Voters Now More Than Ever

21Nov

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

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 Black w...

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

14Nov

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

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 cr...

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

8Nov

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

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 ...

Why isn’t the US dealing with the rising threat of white supremacy?

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS, VIDEO REELS

Why isn’t the US dealing with the rising threat of white supremacy?

Despite growing white nationalist violence worldwide, US conservatives are pushing for antifa to be designated a "terrorist" group. Twenty people are dead in a weekend shooting at an El Paso Wal-Mart. The incident is being called one of the worst attacks on Latinos in US history. The suspected shooter is in police custody, and posted an anti-immigrant manifesto online before the attack. Authorities are charging him with “domestic terrorism .” Around the country, calls are growing for the US to starting taking white nationalism seriously. In July, FBI director Christopher Wray said the majority of the 100 "domestic terrorism" arrests made by the bureau this year involved white supremacists. And white supremacists were responsible for 49 homicides in 26 attacks in the...

2Aug

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism, POLITICS

The Declaration of Independence Told Us What to Do About Tyrants Like Trump

Are we courageous enough to take action? Over the past week, I’ve done a pretty good job of ignoring the trash that comes from U.S. President Donald Trump and his supporters. Even the comment telling four mostly U.S.-born congresswomen of color to “go back” to the “totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” I wish more people would do the same. I mean c’mon. There’s nothing new here: Lots of White folks have been spouting such ignorance to Black and Brown folks since Reconstruction. And guess what? We’re still here! We know Trump is an agent whose role and sole purpose is to further this nation’s particular brand of imperialist white supremacy capitalist patriarchy, while lining his and his family’s pockets. Although a dwindling minority of the popul...

15Nov

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS

The Biggest Winner This Year: Democracy

Voters targeted corruption in government in both red and blue states. In Michigan, it began with an MBA student’s Facebook post seeking a solution to gerrymandering shortly after Donald Trump’s election. In North Dakota, a coffee group of grandmas decided they’d had enough of corporate government rule. They and others are now seeing their efforts pay off. Cities and states across the U.S. passed 15 anti-corruption measures Nov. 6 that were made possible by grassroots movements, according to RepresentUs, an activist organization that supports local efforts to improve voters’ and candidates’ access to the political system. The measures cover areas as diverse as automatic voter registration, anti-gerrymandering and the elimination of dark money in local elections. Those strid...