As y’all know, I’m no fan of Identity Politics. Often, though, I seem to fail to explain why to the satisfaction of all my readers. Let me try again. Today, I eagerly called up an op-ed piece in The Washington Post that was headlined, “The voting fix that cannot wait: Stopping partisan gerrymandering.” I did […]
By which I mean, of course, that they have washed their hands of any responsibility for the single problem doing the most to divide our country and destroy our constitutional system: WHAT? Then what’s our recourse? Revolution? https://t.co/tQXB3cqEjX — Brad Warthen (@BradWarthen) June 27, 2019 I’ve got to go get some work done, but I thought I’d […]
This morning, I was in the middle of reading an E.J. Dionne column tracing the history of the breakdown in civility in our politics — headlined “The destruction of political norms started decades ago. Here’s how it happened” — when I received news of something that could actually reverse the evil process he was writing […]
Yesterday, we discussed this Supreme Court ruling: The Supreme Court ruled Monday that North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature relied on racial gerrymandering when drawing the state’s congressional districts, a decision that could make it easier to challenge other state redistricting plans. The decision continued a trend at the court, where justices have found that racial considerations […]
You may have thought the Supreme Court did some big stuff last week. Pshaw. The ACA ruling? It maintained the status quo. Nothing changed, nothing to see. Move along. The same-sex marriage ruling? Aw, who was really surprised by that? Today, in the midst of several other rulings — the Court seemed to be tossing them […]
End of last week, Bryan Caskey shared with me this link to an MSNBC host (apparently, his name is Touré — no last name) seeming to suggest that some red-state U.S. senators were voting more conservatively because they live and govern “in a gerrymandered world.” Which seemed to suggest that this guy thought that, you know, […]
Andrew Sullivan just posted something pretty cool. It’s about a computer program that draws far more logical (looking) districts than the madness that political gerrymandering creates. Just imagine — representatives elected by actual, whole communities instead of tortuously carved out to separate people by race and political proclivities, all in the name of partisanship. Go […]
Jennifer Rubin, who cranks out high-quality columns at an impressive rate, had a couple of really good ones just these last two days. The first was headlined, “Punishing a shooter’s parents delivers some justice. But not enough.” She points out that such newfangled prosecutions may be satisfying, and can be justified in certain cases, they […]
Yeah, I’ve been quiet lately. I’ve been sick for days. Had a negative COVID test, so I guess it’s something else. Still not over it, but I have been following the news… Biden Plans to Go to Israel as U.S. Pushes Aid Deal for Gaza — My hope and prayers go with him. It’s a […]
EDITOR’S NOTE: I wrote the first 600 words or so of this a week ago, and ever since then, I’ve been totally absorbed with other things — first, a project I needed to complete for ADCO, and then, a very fun trip my wife and I took to Asheville. We got back late yesterday. Of […]
Just a few quick ones, since I have actual work to do today: Troop Deaths and Injuries in Ukraine War Near 500,000, U.S. Officials Say. Horrific. Yes, folks, this is a real war going on. Further, it’s not just the Russians suffering horrendous casualties. And there’s no end in sight… Awkward Americans see themselves in […]
‘Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?’ ‘To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.’ ‘The dog did nothing in the night-time.’ ‘That was the curious incident,’ remarked Sherlock Holmes. I capitalized the words in my headline because it seemed like “The Night that Nothing Interesting Happened” […]
I’m speaking to journalists here. I thought I’d make that clear because a few days ago, in reaction to a headline that said, “Why early-voting data is an awful election predictor,” I tweeted, “Which is fine, because no one needs such a thing. No one needs to ‘predict’ elections. Discuss the relative merits of the […]
Ken misunderstood something earlier. He said the presence of the Micah Caskey ad you see at right was “apparently an endorsement.” No, no, no. That’s just an ad. An endorsement would be, well… something like that sign I have for him in my yard, shown above. I didn’t put it there. But I did ask […]
The Op-Ed Page By Lynn Teague Guest Columnist The House has adopted its Congressional plan. On Tuesday the Senate Judiciary Committee will meet to consider two alternatives and will send one to the floor for a vote. After that, the two houses will go to conference committee to adopt a common plan to go back to […]
No, not Colombians. I mean you people who live in that big town across the river from me. I just thought I’d ask, before the election happens. First, Columbians — and many of you are my friends, if I may use that word — please tell me you are going to vote. And too few […]
The Op-Ed Page By Lynn Teague Guest Columnist Brad drew my attention to an article in The Washington Post about mathematics and redistricting. This brought to mind some important math about South Carolina’s current legislative districts. The majority of South Carolina’s legislative districts are non-competitive in the general election. The winning candidate is selected in the […]
The Op-Ed Page EDITOR’S NOTE: As I’ve said so many times, there is no one more important thing we could do to reform and reinvigorate our democracy than to end the scourge of partisan gerrymandering. And it’s hard to imagine any task more difficult. So, when I got an email from our friend Lynn Teague […]
I’m voting in the Republican primary on Tuesday. The choice of which primary, of course, was easy. Where I live, there is no Democratic primary this year. Not one contested race. Not that the choices offered on the GOP ballot are anything to write home about. There are some candidates running against Lindsey Graham and […]
Following up on that last post, here are a couple of other ads that have been really bugging me, cropping up on my phone over and over. Might as well get this out of my system. First, the Walgreens one, above. This is amazingly stupid. If you really want to “shop till you drop” — […]