Tag: New Deal

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The Danger of Nostalgia: Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant’s Sexist Slip

At a Washington Post Live event concerning children’s literacy on Tuesday, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant opened his mouth and dropped a bomb. When asked why America is so “mediocre” in terms of educational achievement, here’s what he said.

I’m going to get in trouble — do you want me to tell the truth?…I think both parents started working. And the mom is in the workplace.

Of course, the statement was media gold. Governor Bryant has since been lambasted, as well he should, as a male chauvinist pig. And since political polarization is good for business, liberal pundits were quick to … Read more “The Danger of Nostalgia: Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant’s Sexist Slip”

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The Great Migration of the 21st Century

Ta-Nehisi Coates published an article this week that speaks to an idea I’ve been pondering lately. After finishing Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns, a brilliant historical account of the Great Migration of African Americans out of the South and into Northern and Western cities in the early through mid-late twentieth century, Coates wrote,

…What becomes clear by the end of Wilkerson’s book is that America’s response to the Great Migration was to enact a one-sided social contract. America says to its citizens, “Play by the rules, and you will enjoy the right to compete.” The black migrants did … Read more “The Great Migration of the 21st Century”

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The Original Construction and Intent

According to Webster,  conservative can be defined as: tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions : traditional

I start with that definition because a few political colleagues have (gently) called me out for flipping back and forth between using the terms “conservative” and “right wing” to describe the faction of the right wing led by Republican, pro-corporate, anti-regulation, small government elites. They point to this faction’s participation in fomenting a backlash against civil rights laws and attacks on Roe v. Wade as indications that they’re radicals, not conservative; not “disposed to maintain[ing] existing views.”

I concede that … Read more “The Original Construction and Intent”

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Follow The Money: Racism and the Fundraising Congress

I believe that where there is a political problem in America, you can usually trace that problem to racism. Wanna try me? How about the corrupting influence of money in politics? It means corporations control Congress, right? And because there’s so much money in politics, getting into Congress nowadays is often not much more than a job interview for a lucrative future gig as a lobbyist for big business. Representatives don’t even want to govern. They just want to win big for their potential future employers. And in 2008, when an unregulated, out of control financial sector crashed our economy, … Read more “Follow The Money: Racism and the Fundraising Congress”