A new ABC News/Ipsos poll found Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump and the issue of protecting democracy is more important to voters than immigration.
Three dozen journalism and civil rights organizations, along with journalists, have called on the media to cover the rise of authoritarianism and the threat to democracy.
Vice President Kamala Harris rallied Democratic governors around President Biden by reminding them that this election is about our “f-ing democracy.”
In years past, the warnings we hear from historians, experts on tyranny and from the Biden-Harris campaign might have been mere musings but today we face the very real threat in the form of the perfect storm.
Rachel Maddow showed that by refusing to accept election results Republicans have already harmed democracy.
Rachel Maddow said it will be the American people not the courts who will defeat Trump and save democracy.
A 74 year old former Trump voter says that she dumped Trump in 2024 because she wants to live in a democracy, not a dictatorship.
The Lincoln Project pointed out that Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell have been too weak to stand up to Trump, even after he called for terminating the Constitution.
In a powerful speech, President Biden said democracy is under attack in the United States because of Donald Trump and his big lie.
We can’t really judge or evaluate Biden’s meeting with MBS without properly assessing the outright and serious threats to democracy and to overall global well-being and survival the world is now facing.
The only line of defense left to our democracy is in the Democratic Party winning elections, and they are facing horrific poll numbers for President Biden, bad maps and poor prospects for the House and Senate.
The gun, in many ways these days, has become the symbol and means of tyranny, a tool for taking down democracy.
What does it mean if 90% of Americans want the right to life, a right enshrined in the Constitution, but can’t get it because their lawmakers refuse — for decades– to respond to the will of the people?
All of these issues—women’s right to choose, gun control, the rights of people to love how they want and marry whom they want, and much more—depend on one issue: democracy.
She expands the debate beyond student loan forgiveness to give us a broader lesson in civics and reality.
Forgiving student loans is an opportunity for the nation to create policy rooted in a recognition of the importance of investing in one another.
The surest way to secure a strong economy that works for the majority of Americans is to support—and vote—for democracy, not right-wing autocracy,
Liz Cheney does not oppose the authoritarianism and anti-democratic impulses of the Republican Party.
We need large organizations that bring people and their power together to insist that people matter and deserve a voice in shaping the world in which we live—in short, in recognizing people’s equality.
Karlyn Bowman – an expert on tracking and analyzing American public opinion at the American Enterprise Institute – says there’s reason to look on the bright side.
The filibuster is another way Republicans turn reality and democracy and their heads to install a tyranny of the minority.
Meng’s insistence that “We will not let you take our voice” encapsulates the impetus behind the multiple but absolutely connected struggles for democracy and against repression.
If Democrats want to save democracy and work toward unity, they must remove the obstacle of the filibuster.
Too many in America, caught in throes of misinformation and conspiracy theories, are busy slaying mythical dragons rather than engaging in the truly wise, loving, and heroic activities of the real revolution for democracy.
Donald Trump did not do all that well in the 2020 election. He lost to Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. He lost in traditionally red states like Arizona and Georgia. He also gave back his 2016 gains, losing Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The president has been trying to overturn the election results for…
While we can repeat over and over again that Joe Biden was elected president of the United States and will be sworn into this highest office in our land next January 20, for many Americans and even media pundits, it is difficult to say the verdict is in. Nervousness persists, and it is intensely palpable….
When I first heard on the radio that retired United States Marine Corps General had issued a statement critical of Donald Trump’s threat to deploy the U.S. military to suppress the nation-wide mass protests against racism and racial violence, I wasn’t only underwhelmed, I was frustrated. Especially upon hearing this excerpt: “Donald Trump is the…
Wise people always remind us to never let a good crisis go to waste. Wise people with evil inclinations have, of course, taken this sage advice to heart, often exploiting crises, sometimes even arguably manufacturing them, in order to achieve nefarious ends. Naomi Klein, for example, in her 2007 book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise…
Recently Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters for The Washington Post Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig published their assessment of Donald Trump’s presidency to date, seeking to step out of the news cycle and “assess the reverberations” of his administration throughout the nation. Titled A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America, the book layers scene…
Speaking before the Ohio Women’s Republican Club in Wheeling, West Virginia in February of 1950, Wisconsin Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy waved a piece of paper before his audience’s eyes, insisting he had a list of over 200 communists working in the state department. He had, of course, no such list. His anti-communist crusade is now…
Remember in 2016 when an armed Oregon militia group, led by Ammon and Ryan Bundy, occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Princeton, Oregon? They viewed the federally managed land as an encroachment on their land use rights as ranchers and as an example of the federal government’s overreach in asserting its authority against the…
After last Thursday’s House vote to advance the inquiry into the impeachment of President Donald Trump, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) labeled the proceeding a “soviet style impeachment process” and effectively accused democrats of hijacking the 2020 election, usurping the people’s democratic rights because of their sour grapes over the 2016 presidential election results. “Clearly,” he…
My point then and today is we have to believe that we will prevail over Trump. Otherwise, we may as well start eating borscht and chanting “MAGA”.
All of this, I mean all of it, is about defeating our minds and our spirits. The moment we give up on America, we give in to Donald Trump.
For all the talk about socialism and the Green New Deal, though, what really drives Ocasio-Cortez, what is really at the root of her thinking, is her recognition of the need to achieve democracy in America in the most fundamental of ways and in ways, at least in my experience, most Americans rarely think about.
Sen. Kamala Harris, as a former prosecutor, knows very well how this report could be buried and why it must not.
The headlines tell the story about what is happening at urban polling places in many cities across the country this morning as voting has opened for the 2018 midterm elections. In Texas, the Houston Chronicle reported: “Long lines and machines down at multiple polling places across Houston” In Michigan, the TV station WXYZ in Detroit…
Faith communities are strategically and uniquely positioned to be on the front lines of defense against voter suppression in the upcoming midterm elections. By ensuring members of their community are registered to vote, know their polling place, and other voting rights, faith communities can ensure voter participation especially among persons of color and other minority groups. Faith communities can play a vital role in making sure every vote is counted.
A blue wave will certainly go a long way in washing away the stench from the ever-growing swamp. Yet, it will require a transformation in our politics, in the soul of our country and of each person to root out the problems that paved the way for Trump’s election in the first place.
Instead of demanding better from a president who is incapable, instead of holding him to the high standards of this office, instead of saying he is unfit and unable to serve, it has become acceptable to ask, Who are the “adults in the room” keeping him in line?
The problem is, again, that those constituents you and I might call people, the GOP, federally and at the state level, have decided are “not even people.”
This particular kind of lying and dishonesty centered around the defense of a particular political figure not only erodes the Christian witness in the public sphere but democracy itself as these are the seeds of authoritarianism.
Kushner’s new office will be an aggressive team to “run the government like a great American company and potentially privatize government functions.”
The recent uprisings at Republican town halls are demonstrating the power of the people to withstand and turn back the assault on democracy
North Carolina does so poorly on the measures of legal framework and voter registration that it ranks alongside Iran and is not classified as a democracy.
The fight for our democracy and the dignity of all will take the efforts of the global village coming together in defense of the principles and policies that make us strong.
“On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire…and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
If only this were a movie and not a metastasizing reality threatening the deepest values of our democracy, the welfare of every citizen, and our standing in a globalized world.
The election results will the story of the hopes and dreams this country has for its future.
“’I know it (obscenity) when I see it.’ Likewise, this Court knows disenfranchisement when it sees it and it is obscene.”
This combination of failure and fruition has made the Trump campaign coverage hard to watch and stomach.
In the beginning…perhaps for people of faith and those committed to the common good of all in our democracy we need to begin here more regularly and intentionally.
The rhetoric surrounding this presidential election is not only disturbing for reaching new lows, but also for its effect on the electorate who must endure it or be left largely uninformed, which is unacceptable for the responsible citizen in a democracy. The toll the Trump campaign has had on the human spirit along with the weight of the congressional conspiracy cloud that follows Clinton everywhere she goes is exhausting and distressing.
By going to the heart of our deepest moral values, people of all faiths and those with no faith can come together and work for the common good of all in this nation and throughout the world.
Do you remember the GOP’s password for their last debate? For the Republicans as we all know, the Benghazi hoax, the whole election process so far, has been about stopping Hillary Clinton. They couldn’t be any clearer about this: Democrats have a response for their debate tonight, and they, too, could not be any clearer:…
Sanders said defeating Wall Street and corporate America will take an organized grassroots movement “making them an offer they can’t refuse”
A university professor heavily funded by the Koch brothers has very publicly and openly called for less democracy to reduce the power of the majority.
We see demagogues, unregulated capitalism, and might-makes-right. These, as populism, ultraliberalism, and political messianism, are the enemy
The Great War has cast a long shadow and we are living with its effects today, as much from the defects of our understanding as the war itself
All too often, the export of democracy has looked a lot like the export of imperialism, and America’s defense of freedom translated into right-wing dictatorships
The 21st century is seeing the spread of the authoritarian principle that far from being the origin of authority, people must obey authority
Although Republicans detest democracy, they certainly understand the principle behind it and instead of swearing an oath to support a document always open to interpretation, Americans should demand that all politicians pledge to support America’s democracy; or leave office forthwith.
“When government defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman…It’s doing its job. It’s fulfilling its role as a minister of God”
Crucial to their success is Republicans’ heavy dependence on one of the Koch brothers’ legislative arms, the American Legislative Exchange Council, to create template legislation for Republicans to block access to voting in what can only be termed as a direct assault on America’s rapidly waning democracy.
The reason Washington is unable to function as it did for 232 years is that Republicans decided, after Barack Obama won in 2008, to abandon any pretense of governing in a representative democracy.
Harsh attacks by liberals on liberals who disagreed with the President’s Social Security proposal seem aimed at stifling democratic dissent
Will Republicans use the redistricting advantages they achieved after their 2010 sweep to change the way electoral votes are apportioned?
Texas says to hell with international treaties and has threatened legal action against OCSE observers if they watch Texas suppress the vote
The choice has never been either popular democracy or institutional change–the choice has always been do both or get neither.
America’s liberty is being eroded by religious and corporate fundamentalists who demand strict adherence to specific dogmata in combination with attacks on perceived threats to their dominance.
If we want a fairer society, we have to fight for it both in the ballot box and all other public spaces, in real life or online. It’s all democracy.
President Obama’s tax compromise passed Thursday with a 277 to 14 (139 Democrats and 138 Republicans voting aye). The Senate passed the legislation Wednesday.
American government has lost its designation as a representative democracy, and is turning into a racket where one man, or one party, dictates its will on the entire government, and apparently no-one is willing to stop the demise of democratic rule. There is much talk about compromise and bipartisanship from the Democrats, and the White House, but in the 21st Century American democracy, it is a fallacy and a joke.
The Republicans intend to take us to a place from which there is no return. You see, their fantasy America, the mythic America that was founded as a Christian nation in their re-written text books, is about to come to fruition. They are that close.
“These two elections, 2010 and 2012, go hand-in-hand. The theme of 2010 has got to be rebuke their errors, reject, repeal; and then the theme of 2012, it’s renew, revive and restore.”
Someday, future Americans will look back on the end of the 21st century’s first decade and feel shame, and perhaps a sense of wonder that such an advanced nation, one of the most free to have ever existed, could be home to such petty prejudice and superstition.
“The shift in opinion on same-sex marriage has been broad-based, occurring across many demographic, political and religious groups,” Pew announces.
Ideology has become so central to the Republican narrative that facts can be dismissed at a whim. The narrative need bear no resemblance to what actually took place, despite that smorgasbord of evidence all around us.
Liberty stands for human rights and freedoms. It was appreciation of America’s embrace of liberty that brought Lady Liberty to these shores. If we won’t defend her now, we might as well send her back, because we will have proven ourselves unworthy of her.
Oklahoma is hosting a referendum on Islam – State Question 755 the “Save Our State” amendment, which will ban Sharia Law in the state.
The morality police will continue to argue that the reverse is true but in a fact-based world this cannot be the case. Prayer does not reduce crime. Those who pray are more likely to be criminals than those who do not.
Christian and Islamic extremists drink from the same wellspring of authoritarianism – the desire to impose authority, to force submission to dogma, and to compel obedience. Choice is not an option. Submission precludes choice.
Conservative columnist Michael Medved believes that God is on the side of the Republicans, but misses the point that whose side God might be on went out with the Enlightenment and its values upon which the US is established, namely liberty and individual human rights, and not the Bible.
The American political system assumes that all parties will behave responsibly and continue to try to govern the nation even through disagreement. For one party to completely withdraw from the process and insist on their status as “a government in exile” is something the Founders never foresaw.
The Omaha City Weekly recently went to Sen. Ben Nelson’s town hall meeting and conducted an interesting experiment. They asked 40 attendees who were pro-healthcare reform, and 40 who were anti-reform to find Iraq on a map. While 75% of those who favor reform could locate Iraq, 52.2% of those who are anti could not.
Former DNC chairman Howard Dean talked today about healthcare reform and the death of Ted Kennedy. Dean wrote, “When President Obama signs a Health Care Reform bill late this year, Ted Kennedy’s may not be standing there next to him, but his presence will be deeply apparent in the Oval Office as the President’s pen moves across the page.”
Reaction is still coming in from all over the political world to the news that Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) lost his battle with brain cancer and passed away last night. Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter have all released statements remembering Kennedy.
Joe the Plumber spoke yesterday at a tea party in Wisconsin where he called himself a dumb plumber who understands the Constitution. He demonstrated his understanding by saying, “Capitalism is evil, at least that’s what they’d have us believe. It’s not evil. It’s our right as Americans.”Capitalism is an economic system, not a right.
If the law says such actions, like assisted suicide, are wrong, why? Is there truly a need to require someone to keep living in agony? Is there truly a need to require the families of those who are terminal to watch them fall into oblivion of Alzheimer’s final days, of cancer’s final weeks of morphine induced stupors, of chemotherapy’s cadaverous preludes?
July 4th is more than flags and firecrackers, hot dogs and apple pie. It’s even more than Independence Day. According to Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson, it is about life, liberty and the pursuit of education.
In an interview with Radio America’s Dateline Washington Rep. Dana Rohrabacher claimed that the Iranian people are protesting because they want a democracy and that President Obama is a cream puff for not interfering in Iran. Rohrabacher believes that the US is missing an opportunity in Iran that they need to be exploiting.
In an interview on CNBC today, President Barack Obama made his strongest statement yet by proclaiming that his administration would not get involved in the post election protests in Iran. Obama said, “I think’s important to recognize is that the easiest way for reactionary forces inside Iran to crush reformers is to say it’s the US that is encouraging those reformers.”
On The Sean Hannity Show today host Sean Hannity claimed that Obama has remained silent after the Iranian election, and thousands of people are growing outraged with Obama. Hannity said that Obama doesn’t want to make Adolf Jr. mad. The problem is that President Obama was on television this morning talking about….the Iranian election.
2008 Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) once again demonstrated his itchy trigger finger today by calling for US action against Iran due to the dubious outcome of their recent presidential election. While appearing on Fox News, McCain said, “It really is a sham that they’ve pulled off, and I hope that we will act.”
The Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet is giving out its Golden Dot awards today and tomorrow at the Politics Online Conference. The awards recognize the best intersections between politics and technology. Barack Obama and Ron Paul were named the Democratic and Republican online politicians of the year.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum wrote today that President Obama has antipathy for American values, and he tried to drag Obama into the gay marriage debate by suggesting that Obama supports federalized gay marriage, because he is going to let Europe dictate American policy.
The state of Vermont has become the latest target for the wrath of social conservatives after the state legislature overrode a gubernatorial veto and legalized same sex marriage. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council blamed the veto override on, “wealthy homosexual activists.”
The Supreme Court today declined to hear an appeal of a case brought by Ralph Nader against the state of A
Some times, some things are just too inane and trifling to comment upon.
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) used the announcement that the Democratic Gov.
Before his inauguration today President Barack Obama received a hand delivered letter from Nelson M