With more than 600 cases in the United States alone, the media has begun to speculate about the potential impact of the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) on the 2020 presidential election. President Trump recently called his response “terrific,” adding that his management of the crisis will “help, not hurt” him in November. History, however, suggests otherwise….
From the Archives: “Warren Won’t Endorse Sanders”
I wrote the following on February 22, 2016 and I expect the reasoning to hold up as Warren makes a very similar calculation in the wake of ending her presidential bid: Speculation about when or if Senator Elizabeth Warren would endorse one of the candidates battling for her party’s nomination has been hot and heavy. …
The Waltons Are Winning the Debate Over the Boston Public Schools
Here’s a small exercise I thought of in light of today’s James Vaznis story in the Boston Globe concerning what to do about the Boston public schools. I tried to rank the responses of those interviewed from left (status quo, send more money) to right (state takeover). Out there on the right fringe is the…
Globe Mentions MassFiscal’s Hidden Money. But Why Talk to Them At All?
Today Matt Stout of the Boston Globe continued the healthy habit, when reporting on the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, of stating that it hides its donors. (See Baker’s Push to Curb Emissions Draws a Familiar Foe: His Own Party). But since no one can say with any accuracy whose interests MassFiscal represents, why include it in…
Power Outage: Right Wing Attacks on Black and Latinx Political Power in Massachusetts
Yesterday’s post on the Boston Globe’s suggestion of a future state takeover of the Boston Public Schools discussed Domingo Morel’s Takeover: Race, Education, and American Democracy. Morel’s research shows that state takeovers of school districts usually (not always) bring about the political dis-empowerment of communities of color. Unfortunately we’ve seen several attempts to restrict representation…
Joe Kennedy’s Case is Thin but Probably Sufficient
Last night Senator Markey and Congressman Kennedy faced off in their first televised debate. Three highlights that made this morning’s papers were Kennedy’s criticisms of Markey’s Iraq War vote, his “present” committee vote as a new member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2013 on a resolution to authorize the Obama Administration to use…
The Racial Politics of the Globe’s Proposal for a State Takeover of the Boston Public Schools
On Friday the Boston Globe editorialized in favor of a possible state takeover of the Boston Public Schools, pointing out city-state political obstacles. It isn’t city-state politics at issue though. It’s racial politics. In Takeover: Race, Education, and American Democracy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), Domingo Morel finds that state takeovers of public school…
Congress Needs to Wake Up to the Coronavirus Threat
The recent outbreak of novel coronavirus is one of the most alarming public health emergencies of the twenty-first century. Nancy Messonnier, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD), called the situation “unprecedented” adding that the CDC is “preparing as if this is the next…
Two and a Half Ways (Maybe 3?) the Waltons (and Charles Koch?) Welcome Themselves into the Democratic Primaries
In the world of dark money, things are never what they seem. So as the Democrats try to pick a presidential nominee is it a surprise that the Waltons and Charles Koch (?) are funding front operations to influence the process, disrupting an Elizabeth Warren speech, forming an anti-union “union”, and trying to nudge the…
The American Electoral System
Have you ever thought about how insane the way we elect our President is? Consider the following: it has been 2 and a half years since the first democratic hopeful—John Delaney—officially announced his candidacy. Since then we have had 18 candidates announce and drop out all before a single vote was cast. We will now…