Two pieces, one by David Brooks and one by Ta-Nehisi Coates, have been bouncing off one another in my head. Taken together, they suggest a two-prong path forward on police reform. In “The Lost Language of Privacy,” Brooks makes the argument for what we’ll sacrifice with police body-cams. I think he’s right, that we’ll be sacrificing… Continue Reading
Suppose you think everyone should have access to higher education in this country. How would you do it? Lately, student debt forgiveness has become the default approach of reformers. It was the means for President Obama’s proposal for free community college (really debt forgiveness for graduates) and it was the foundation of Gov. Cuomo’s suggestion of free state school tuition for… Continue Reading
What would my new Voting Rights Amendment* mean for the nation? Automatic registration, state-issued IDs, felon voting, consolidated elections, a national voting holiday (and state versions), and higher turnout. Those are all positive outcomes. As a reminder, my basic premise is this: All citizens should get to choose their government, not the other way around.… Continue Reading
If you want to know what political panic looks like, check out the fight for religious freedom. Let’s trace the steps: 1) Not long ago (2008, for instance), religious conservatives were taking a no compromise approach to same-sex marriage, declaring that theirs was a principled stance and that the future of the nation hung in… Continue Reading
When a pundit wants to highlight a candidate’s nuttiness or “extremism,” the go-to comparison is Barry Goldwater. Now Goldwater’s failed 1964 campaign is the analogy du jour for Ted Cruz. But such comparisons get Goldwater terribly wrong. Goldwater’s positions were radically for his day. He was a dyed-in-the-wool, no-holds-barred, small government, Cold War hawk who was ideologically… Continue Reading
The long effort to roll back voting access (previously here and here), Obama’s recent speech at Selma, and now Oregon’s step toward automatic voter registration has again called my attention to our voting rights. So here’s my contribution: a draft constitutional amendment on voting. Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are… Continue Reading
You may have seen this image (originally from reddit) and the accompanying article from the Washington Post about what gerrymandering is, and why it is a problem. But the real problems are articles and images that challenge gerrymandering while conflating space and population, ignoring other considerations, and assuming the existence of an easy solution that simply doesn’t… Continue Reading
The more I teach and think about our history, the more I teach and think about race. It is really inescapable, as highlighted by three events this past week (in reverse order): President Obama’s masterful speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday (video, text). The Justice Department’s scathing report on race in the Ferguson criminal justice… Continue Reading
It’s time again to look at the state of the presidential race. What should we expect from the ‘invisible primary’ in the coming months? My guess is that we will see at least a few candidates get more open about their 2016 decisions early next month. Why? Because financial reports are due quarterly. So if… Continue Reading
I was watching State of Affairs the other night (I know, I know, it’s ridiculous) and noticed a positive element of partisanship (party loyalty and separation) that’s worth pointing out.* What caught my attention tonight was a secret meeting between a high-level staffer and a leader in the opposition party. In that meeting, the leader… Continue Reading
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