ON THE RECORD ....
It’s been a long time since the GOP was the Party of Lincoln. But regardless of what happens in Iowa and thereafter, when it comes to voting rights, the GOP is now the Party of Cruz. -- Ari Berman on Ted Cruz who is leading the charge in support of tough new voting restrictions.
“Hillary Clinton is the right choice for the Democrats to present a vision for America that is radically different from the one that leading Republican candidates offer — a vision in which middle-class Americans have a real shot at prosperity, women’s rights are enhanced, undocumented immigrants are given a chance at legitimacy, international alliances are nurtured and the country is kept safe.” -- NY Times Editorial Board 1/30/15
“People are in disbelief; they think he (Donald Trump) is borderline crazy. People are kind of scared about what it would be like to live in a world where he is one of the most powerful leaders.” - Magnús Sveinn Helgason, an Icelandic historian. 1.29.16
“My only takeaway was you Republicans are so dumb: Megyn Kelly should be your candidate! She’s so much better than the stiffs on the stage.” -- Bill Maher on the last Republican debate. 1/29/16
“Bill Press makes the case ... read this book.” -- Senator Bernie Sanders' above-the-title blurb on the jacket for Bill Press’ new book, titled “Buiyer’s Remorse, How Obama Let Progressives Down”
"Look, Ted Cruz is a total liar. I am so against Obamacare. I've been saying it for two years in my speeches, I'm going to repeal and replace Obamacare. I don't even know where he gets this. ... I mean, look, Ted is a liar. This is why nobody likes him." -- Donald Trump on Ted Cruz. 1/31/16
Sanders says it will take a revolution. Americans are angry and frustrated, but it's far from clear they're prepared to embark on one. -- Ruth Marcus 1/31/16
“Maybe he’s been hanging out in a corn field too long huffing ethanol." — Sarah Palin, in response to Rep. Steve King’s (R-IA) allegation that Donald Trump bought her endorsement. 2/01/16
"Based upon exit polls, Rubio seems to have gotten the lion's share of the Prevaricating Little Weasel vote." -- Ann Coulter @AnnCoulter
Bernie Sanders post-caucus rally as her late-night remarks aired inside the hall. When
When Clinton declared “I am a progressive,” the Sanders crowd chanted, “she’s a liar!” -- When Hillary Clinton's speech took over the televisions after the Iowa caucuses, suggesting a deep ideological divide that will become harder to bridge the longer the race goes on. 2/01/16
IN THIS ISSUE
IN THIS ISSUE
1. The Late Show w/Stephen Colbert: Colbert Moderates An All-Trump Debate
2. Daily Show w/Trevor Noah: Donald Trump Vs. Megyn Kelly
3. The DAILY GRILL
4. Republican debate recap from the Daily Kos
5. From MEDIA MATTERS (They watch Fox News so you don't have to)
6. Late Night Jokes for Dems
7. Study Finds Republican Voter Suppression Is Even More Effective Than You Think
8. Daily Show w/host Trevor Noah and correspondent Jordan Klepper: Iowa Caucuses -The Winners And The Real Winners
9. The Borowitz Report: Cruz Victory Gives Hope To Despised People Everywhere
10. The Anti-Abortion Activists Targeting Planned Parenthood Have a Slew of Legal Troubles
11. New Rule – Lies Are the New Truth
12. Donald Trump Comes Out Of Iowa Looking Like Pat Buchanan
13. Attention media: You do know you made up the whole 'won on a coin toss' story, right?
1. Allen Clifton: Sorting Through Hillary's “Top Secret Email Controversy”
2. Dana Milbank: Cut Clinton some slack
3. Kathleen Parker: Trump isn’t politically incorrect. He’s just simply incorrect
4. Leonard Zeskind: White Boy Day
5. Eugene Robinson: The Rising Pull of the 'Change' Candidates
6. Hillary Clinton: There are too many Flints
7. Alexandra Schwartz: Should Millennials Get Over Bernie Sanders?
| FYI |
1. The Late Show w/Stephen Colbert: Colbert Moderates An All-Trump Debate
2. Daily Show w/Trevor Noah: Donald Trump Vs. Megyn Kelly
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/xdpk87/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-donald-trump-vs--megyn-kelly
3. The DAILY GRILL
“He has been very supportive, he has not been a sniper like so many of the others have. And he has been very supportive of the positions I’ve taken, agreed with the wall [on the border] on illegal immigration, he didn’t try to make points by sniping…I always liked him. There’s a very strong mutual respect.” -- Donald Trump on Ted Cruz 9/4/15
VERSUS
“He’s a nasty guy. Nobody likes him. Nobody in Congress likes him. Nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him. He’s a very –- he’s got an edge that’s not good. You can’t make deals with people like that and it’s not a good thing. It’s not a good thing for the country. Very nasty guy.” -- Donald Trump on Ted Cruz, 1/17/16
“Mr. Sanders is not a brave truth-teller. He is a politician selling his own brand of fiction to a slice of the country that eagerly wants to buy it.” -- WA Post Editorial Board 1/28/16
VERSUS
"That's not a new argument. We've been hearing that months and months (sic), and that's in a sense what this campaign is about. People are telling us, whether it's the Washington Post editorial board or anybody else, our ideas are too ambitious—can't happen. Too bold, really? I know the Washington Post may think I'm radical, but I'm not." -- Bernie Sanders responding to the WA Post Editorial Board 1/28/16,
“Mrs. Clinton, 68, has always counted on women of her generation as her rock-solid base. Polls don't quantify doubts, but anecdotally, enthusiasm for her is anemic. Ambivalence is seeping in about her authenticity and the power of her symbolism as a woman. Once again, she has been caught coasting on inevitability by a grass-roots idealist with a universal health care plan. And there's a sense that those cracks in the ceiling, from 2008, were historic enough.” -- Gail Sheehy in the NY Times 1/29/16
VERSUS
Absent from Sheehy's narrative was polling data to support her claims about Clinton's support among boomer women. In fact, polling data shows that Clinton has dominant support from that demographic. According to an NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll, Clinton outpolls Sanders among women over age 65 by a 63 percent to 26 percent margin and among women 45 to 64 by a 63 percent to 25 percent margin.” -- Matt Gertz in Media Matters 1/29/16
“Obamacare "is the biggest job-killer in this country -- millions of Americans have lost their jobs, have been forced into part-time work." — Ted Cruz during the Iowa Republican presidential debate. 1/29/16
VERSUS
“By every measure, millions more people are working and millions fewer are stuck unwillingly in part-time work since the time the Affordable Care Act became law. The law might have affected part-time work for certain kinds of people, but that didn’t change the improvement in the overall numbers. We rate this claim Pants on Fire.” -- Politifact1/29/16
4. Republican debate recap from the Daily Kos
"If you were lucky enough to miss tonight’s Republican Debate (sans Donald Trump which was a small blessing), here’s a brief recap of what each candidate had to say:
Ted Cruz: Happy people hate him, Obama is Satan, he did not say that about immigration and Marco Rubio is a liar.
Marco Rubio: Loves Jesus, Obama is probably a Muslim, ISIS, ISIS, ISIS, ISIS, ISIS, he did not say that about immigration and Ted Cruz is a liar.
Jeb Bush: Loves his mother. And his brother. Probably his dad. (And after getting one anti-Marco zinger in, he disappeared.)
Chris Christie: Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton. Defund Planned Parenthood. Hillary Clinton. 9/11.
Ben Carson: Russia is a one horse country energy (really). Sleepiness.
Rand Paul: Doesn’t blame Hillary for Bill.
John Kasich: Who knows?
That about covers it. -- Daily Kos 1/28/16 http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/28/1476658/-Republican-debate-recap
5. From MEDIA MATTERS (They watch Fox News so you don't have to)
Trump's Sexist Attacks Aside, Megyn Kelly Is A Shill For Conservative Misinformation- Megyn Kelly is garnering another wave of misplaced praise, benefiting from Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump's latest attacks on her. But outside of the debate scene, Kelly's role on Fox News is little more than to shill for conservative misinformation. http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/01/28/trumps-sexist-attacks-aside-megyn-kelly-is-a-sh/208240
Fox Host Eric Bolling: Opposition To Immigration Is The Litmus Test For "True Conservative[s]" -- Immigration Issue Is "What Separates The Real Firm Conservatives From The Ones Who Are ... Squishy"http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/01/29/fox-host-opposition-to-immigration-is-the-litmu/208273
Right-wing media are seizing on news that the State Department will not release some of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails after the Intelligence Community said they contained Top Secret information to baselessly claim that the emails in question include a non-existent "stand down order" issued by Clinton during the 2012 attacks on diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya. http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/01/31/conservative-media-claim-withheld-clinton-email/208279
Rush Limbaugh: "Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton: They Pose A Real Threat To The Future Of This Country"http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/02/01/rush-limbaugh-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-th/208294
How National Media Helped Steve Deace Push Cruz To Victory In Iowahttp://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/02/02/how-national-media-helped-steve-deace-push-cruz/208320
"Surprise Of The Evening": Fox News Hypes Marco Rubio's Predicted Third Place Iowa Caucuses Finishhttp://mediamatters.org/research/2016/02/02/surprise-of-the-evening-fox-news-hypes-marco-ru/208321
Right-Wing Media Smear Mosque Before Obama's Visit -- Right-wing media smeared the Islamic Society of Baltimore (ISB) after President Obama announced that it would be the first U.S. mosque he visits in his presidency. Conservative media accused the mosque, one of the largest Muslim centers in the mid-Atlantic region, of having ties to terrorism based on cherry-picked, decades-old connections and former employees.http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/02/01/right-wing-media-smear-mosque-before-obamas-vis/208291
Fox Resorts To Bogus "Voter Fraud" Claims To Downplay Clinton Caucus Victoryhttp://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/02/03/fox-resorts-to-bogus-voter-fraud-claims-to-down/208352
6. Late Night Jokes for Dems
Nearly 70 percent of Americans said a Trump presidency would make them 'anxious.' And 30 percent said a Trump presidency would make them 'Canadian.'" –Conan O'Brien
"Trump got a major endorsement this week from the reverend Jerry Falwell Jr. It does seem strange that a Christian leader would endorse a candidate who's kind of a poster child for the seven deadly sins: Pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth." –Jimmy Kimmel
"On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders is acting a little Donald Trump-y and said he wants more debates but not on Hillary Clinton's terms, he wants them on his own terms, specifically two hours long with a half-hour break in the middle so he can watch 'Wheel of Fortune.'" –Jimmy Kimmel
"Trump said that he didn’t go to the Fox News debate, because moderator Megyn Kelly is biased against him. And Trump has a right to be scared, because usually when a younger, attractive woman disagrees with him, she ends up taking half his stuff." –Jimmy Fallon
"An analyst for Time magazine says the key to the survival of the Republican Party is bringing in young women. When told this, Bill Clinton said, 'Hey man, that's the key to every party.'" –Conan O'Brien
"In New Hampshire, somebody broke into Rand Paul's campaign headquarters. Police became suspicious when they noticed someone in Rand Paul's campaign headquarters." –Conan O'Brien
"Last night, Ted Cruz challenged Donald Trump to debate him 'mano a mano.' In response, Trump said, 'See, he's not from this country.'" –Conan O'Brien
"Donald Trump's campaign released a statement announcing he will boycott last Thursday’s debate, saying, 'Roger Ailes and Fox News think they can toy with him, but Mr. Trump doesn't play games.' A statement that would carry a lot more weight if Trump hadn't LITERALLY hosted a game show." –Seth Meyers
"California police are on the fourth day of a manhunt for three escaped convicts. The dangerous sociopaths are believed to be headed to Iowa so they can vote for Donald Trump." –Conan O'Brien
"Ben of Ben & Jerry's has come out with an ice cream inspired by Bernie Sanders. A carton costs $3.99 but when you include tax, it's $200 million." –Conan O'Brien
7. Study Finds Republican Voter Suppression Is Even More Effective Than You Think
University of California, San Diego, researchers found that in primary elections, “a strict ID law could be expected to depress Latino turnout by 9.3 points, Black turnout by 8.6 points, and Asian American turnout by 12.5 points.”
The study found that strict voter ID laws had little impact on younger voters as a whole, while there were “small indications” that poorer Americans were adversely impacted, though likely not to the same degree racial minorities were.
Given that minorities tend to vote overwhelmingly Democratic, researchers were left with little doubt that strict voter ID laws were hurting Democratic candidates. 2/02/16 http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/02/02/3745296/major-voter-id-study/
8. Daily Show w/host Trevor Noah and correspondent Jordan Klepper: Iowa Caucuses -The Winners And The Real Winners
9. The Borowitz Report: Cruz Victory Gives Hope To Despised People Everywhere
Senator Ted Cruz’s stunning victory in the Iowa caucuses is serving as a beacon of hope to despised people across the nation, a number of disliked Americans confirmed on Monday.
In interviews from coast to coast, dozens of pariahs said that the Cruz triumph meant that “the sky’s the limit” for widely hated people like them.
Tracy Klugian, a real-estate agent from Jupiter, Florida, said that the fact that she has systematically alienated her co-workers, by bad-mouthing them to management and stealing their listings, no longer seems like an obstacle to advancement.
“Sometimes, knowing that everyone in the office hates me so much that they won’t even ride in an elevator with me kind of brought me down,” she said. “That’s why this Cruz thing is such a game-changer.”
“There are a lot of despised little kids out there who probably think that they’ll never be President,” Klugian said. “Ted Cruz gives them a reason to dream.” http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/
10. The Anti-Abortion Activists Targeting Planned Parenthood Have a Slew of Legal Troubles
Despite the fact that 11 investigations by various states have cleared Planned Parenthood of wrongdoing, the release of the CMP videos has emboldened efforts by state lawmakers around the country to try to shut down the organization by attempting to cut off funding for local Planned Parenthood clinics, as well as triggered threecongressional committee investigations, multiple congressional hearings, and intense public fever-dreaming by GOP nominees. It has also inspired a massive surge of violence toward Planned Parenthood clinics and abortion providers. In November, Robert Lewis Dear shot and killed three people at a clinic in Colorado, saying “no more baby parts” to the officers who arrested him. Just this month Dear further explained to the media: “I picked Planned Parenthood because it’s murdering little babies.”http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2016/01/
david_daleiden_and_sandra_merritt_s_undercover_videos_have_created_massive.html
11. New Rule – Lies Are the New Truth
Republicans believe:
President Obama is a Muslim.
“Obamacare” is a job killer.
The economy is worse now than in 2008.
Benghazi was some elaborate coverup and the Michael Bay movie proves it.
President Obama isn’t an American citizen.
Guns have nothing to do with gun violence.
Climate change is a massive liberal hoax.
President Obama is planning to confiscate guns.
They believe all of that (and more) despite the fact that literally none of it is true.
Read more at: http://www.forwardprogressives.com/bill-maher-blasts-republican-propaganda-theyre-now-just-making-sht-up-video/
12. Donald Trump Comes Out Of Iowa Looking Like Pat Buchanan
What might Pat Buchanan plus obsessive, round-the-clock media coverage look like? Well, possibly a lot like Donald Trump. Iowa voters made Trump appear to be much more of a factional candidate along the lines of Buchanan, who received 23 percent of Iowa’s vote in 1996, than the juggernaut he’s been billed as. We’ll know a lot more after New Hampshire weighs in next week. -- Nate Silver in FiveThirtyEight. 2/02/16 http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/donald-trump-comes-out-of-iowa-looking-like-pat-buchanan/
13. Attention media: You do know you made up the whole 'won on a coin toss' story, right?
A few Iowa precincts that ended their caucuses with the flip of a coin have led to an avalanche of terrible coverage, much of it outright false. Raise your hand if you’ve seen coverage claiming that Hillary Clinton’s narrow Iowa Caucus win was determined entirely by coin tosses, which her camp somehow won every single time they happened. If you have, you’ve seen some of this bad reporting.
Maybe you saw Chuck Todd claiming that “Basically we're talking a coin flip may have decided the presidency.” Maybe you saw an outlet like Fox News making similar claims, but then, that’s Fox News. Maybe you saw a Bernie Sanders-supporting outlet angry that the caucus results could supposedly have gone the other way with a different call of the coin. In most of these cases, reporters were confusing county-level delegates for state delegate equivalents, but county delegates and state delegates are two very different things, with the county level being worth much, much less when it comes to finally awarding Iowa’s national delegates, the ones that decide who will be the Democratic presidential nominee. 2/03/16 http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/2/3/1479200/-Attention-media-You-do-know-you-made-up-the-whole-won-on-a-coin-toss-story-right
| OPINION |
1. Allen Clifton: Sorting Through Hillary's “Top Secret Email Controversy”
First, let’s get some facts straight since about 99.99 percent of the people I meet who think Clinton is on the verge of a criminal indictment don’t seem to have a damn clue about what the truth is on any of this. First, Hillary Clinton is not – let me repeat that – Clinton is not under criminal investigation by the FBI.
Politifact investigated this bogus claim and said this:
The FBI is conducting a general inquiry into the security of Clinton’s private email server. But law enforcement officials have said Clinton herself is not the target of the inquiry, and it is not a full-blown criminal investigation.
They also point out how Fox News, one of the main drivers of all of this nonsense, almost always cites “unnamed sources,” making it impossible to verify if anything their “experts” claim to know about what’s going on with the FBI’s inquiry is remotely factually based.
On Friday Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the guy who failed to get anything on Clinton during his Benghazi witch hunt, said that he believes the FBI director would “love” to indict Hillary. What sources does Issa have for his claim? Basically nothing. He just… said this. Though I’m sure the fact that he said this random, not-at-all verifiable statement the Friday before voters went to the polls in Iowa is all a huge coincidence. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that he’s been a key player in the Republican party trying to sabotage Clinton’s presidential campaign for years. 1/30/16 Read more at: http://www.forwardprogressives.com/sorting-through-hillary-clinton-top-secret-email-controversy/
2. Dana Milbank: Cut Clinton some slack
Q: When is a win not a win?
A: When the winner is Hillary Clinton.
The Iowa Democratic Party confirmed in its final tally Tuesday that Clinton had won Monday night’s caucuses. She not only beat Bernie Sanders but got more votes than any Republican candidate, and she becomes the first woman ever to win the Iowa caucuses. Clinton remains the prohibitive favorite to win the Democratic presidential nomination.
Yet from the coverage of Monday’s caucuses, you’d think Clinton was on the ropes.
The New York Times: “Hillary Clinton Campaign, Unnerved by Iowa, Braces for New Hampshire”
The Washington Post: “Hillary Clinton appeared to squeak past insurgent rival Sen. Bernie Sanders ... revealing the shortcomings of a candidate who once seemed invincible.”
Politico: “How Iowa went wrong for Hillary Clinton”
CNN: “Did Hillary Clinton really win the Iowa caucuses?”
One shudders to imagine the coverage if she had lost Iowa. 2/02/16 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/cut-clinton-some-slack/2016/02/02/5656a30e-c9f5-11e5-ae11-57b6aeab993f_story.html
3. Kathleen Parker: Trump isn’t politically incorrect. He’s just simply incorrect
Insult, an artless form perfected by Trump, isn’t politically INcorrect. It is rude. Name-calling isn’t clever; it is childish and lazy.
Yet Trump has managed to convince his legions that making vile comments about someone is a revolutionary act, a badge of honor and a long-overdue tipping of society’s scales back toward reason and truth. Sometimes he’s right, but so is the proverbial broken clock.
More often he’s wrong.
You could say, for example, that we need to secure our borders because, though most immigrants are good people in search of a better life, others are criminals or criminal-minded. This is both true and lacking in drama.
Instead, Trump — recognizing the anger in others that he either feels or feigns — took the low road and said people entering our country illegally are rapists and murderers, adding perfunctorily, “and some, I assume, are good people.”
This isn’t politically incorrect; it’s simply incorrect. It is also intentionally hyperbolic in the service of a campaign to incite and engage rage — the brimstone of a demagogue seeking to liberate populist anger to fuel his own lust for power.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-trump-isnt-politically-incorrect-hes-simply-incorrect/2016/01/29/4d686764-c6cb-11e5-9693-933a4d31bcc8_story.html
4. Leonard Zeskind: White Boy Day
White Boy Day Has Arrived for Donald Trump’s Army of Nationalists
It’s showtime for America’s white-nationalist movement.
Donald Trump and the extreme rhetoric of the 2016 presidential campaign have created a huge opportunity for some of the farthest-right’s groups to reach new followers, after nearly a decade in the wilderness. “He has disrupted business as usual… he’s uncovered the gulf separating the Republican Party from the people who vote for it… he’s taken celebrity culture and turned it into nationalism,” cries the National Policy Institute, a so-called think tank for white-ists.
While Trump may publicly reject their support, he is certainly helping them when he retweets messages from WhiteGenocideTM, a pro-Hitler Twitter user who has posted interviews with Holocaust deniers and is fervently behind the GOP’s frontrunner.
Also on the coattails: Thom Robb’s Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the Arkansas-based group that has recommended Trump’s opposition to brown-skinned immigrants and Muslim refugees as a great conversation-starter. The Occidental Quarterly, a journal of white-nationalist thought, has declared the real-estate mogul’s candidacy “a game-changer.” And then there’s the American National Super PAC, which is paying for the wave of robo-calls that were ringing in Iowans’ living rooms in support of Trump.
To be sure, white nationalists have a long way to go from an election campaign to a white republic. Ultimately, white-ist strategies will also include battles over Confederate memorials, armed militias, and takeovers like the federal Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation in eastern Oregon. The year to come will be full of new challenges—and far more dangers, too. 1.31.16http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/01/white-boy-day-has-arrived-for-donald-trump-s-army-of-nationalists.html
5. Eugene Robinson: The Rising Pull of the 'Change' Candidates
Traditional politics and politicians have failed.
That glaring fact is still difficult for the establishments of both parties to grasp. I mean, surely Republicans will realize they cannot possibly nominate a populist tycoon, with zero experience in government, who vows to round up and expel 11 million people. Of course it will dawn on Democrats that it is inconceivable to have a self-declared socialist as their standard-bearer. Inevitably the planets will return to their normal orbits and everything will go back to the way it should be.
Anyone thinking along these lines, I believe, is in for an unpleasant surprise.
I know that not a single vote has been cast. I realize it's still probable that Democrats will eventually settle on an establishment candidate and still possible (though pretty unlikely) that Republicans will do the same. But even if the Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders insurrections somehow fizzle, their impact will not soon fade. These unlikely messengers are showing us how ignorant many of our leaders are about the nation they purportedly serve.
As individuals, Sanders and Trump are hardly cut from the same cloth; one rails against billionaires and one is a billionaire. Their supporters would probably not mix well at a cocktail party. But there's a reason these are the only two candidates who regularly fill basketball arenas with passionate, standing-room-only crowds: Both call for change that is fundamental, not cosmetic or incremental. 1/29/16 http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/01/29/the_rising_pull_of_the_change_candidates_129478.html
6. Hillary Clinton: There are too many Flints
What’s happening in Flint, Michigan, is unconscionable.
A city of 99,000 people — 56 percent African-American, 40 percent living below the poverty line — has spent nearly two years with poisoned water.
Nearly two years of boil orders, foul smells and false reassurances that the water was safe to drink.
Nearly two years of having residents’ concerns dismissed and belittled by the state government.
Now, thousands of kids may have been exposed to harmful levels of lead, which can irreparably harm brain development and cause learning and behavioral problems. The rate of lead poisoning among children has nearly doubled since Flint approved a state-appointed emergency manager’s plan to switch their water source. And even now that the state is finally launching a belated response, Flint’s undocumented immigrant community is reportedly afraid to get the help they need.
Flint isn’t alone. There are a lot more Flints out there — overwhelmingly low-income communities of color where pollution, toxic chemicals and staggering neglect adds to families’ burdens.
We need to face some hard truths about race and justice in America. After 250 years of slavery, 90 years of Jim Crow, and decades of “separate but equal,” our country’s struggle with racism is far from over. That’s true in our criminal justice system. In our education system. In employment, housing, and transit. And tragically, it’s true in the very air our children breathe and in the water they drink. 1/30/16 http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/there-are-too-many-flints
7. Alexandra Schwartz: Should Millennials Get Over Bernie Sanders?
Bernie’s attractiveness as a candidate relies on the premise of purity—a political value as ancient as politics itself. In contemporary American politics, purity is the domain of independents, who can claim to resist the nefarious influences that representatives from the major parties must necessarily fall prey to, including the influence of the parties themselves—their ingrained culture, their policy platforms, their network of donors, even their traditional voter base.
One risk that comes with all the celebration of Bernie’s intransigence on the issues is the implication that any change in political opinion or action is automatically corrupt. As Taylor Gipple made evident, the suspicion that political compromise is inherently venal is at the root of the grievances that so many of Bernie’s young supporters harbor against Hillary, whose long record bears the kind of battle scars that are easily dodged by an independent senator from Vermont. But rethinking one’s position, or tactics, or point of view, can be a far greater mark of integrity than any purist’s staunch refusal to yield, in politics as in anything else. One conclusion to draw from Obama’s Presidency is how necessary the right proportion of flexibility and resolve is for the job, and what a significant liability the insistence on purity can be when it comes to the actual business of governing.
The intragenerational gap asserts itself with the speed of Moore’s Law these days, which might be why a micro-split was in evidence in the Harvard millennials study, with twenty-five- to twenty-nine year-old Democrats—the portion of the age bracket that has voted before, and witnessed the election-to-elected transformation firsthand—preferring Hillary, a candidate whom many believe to be as impure as they come. “Seasoned,” her supporters might say. What will my twenty-something counterparts in New Hampshire make of that? “They throw all this stuff at me, and I’m still standing,” Hillary told Gipple, before reminding him that the ultimate point is to have the Party come together to win in November, a point that she repeated in her Iowa narrow-victory speech. For that to happen, a lot of young Democrats may have to learn how to embrace compromise. 2/02/16http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/should-millennials-get-over-bernie-sanders
