Author: Michael A. Ventrella

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Not Mourning Scalia

Do I need to remind people of the terrible, hateful, and racist things this man has said over the years about women, gays, blacks, minorities, non-Christians?antonin-scalia-12-16-15-1.jpeg Not to mention the power of the government to screw over your Constitutional rights.

If he were the head of the KKK you’d all be happy he’s gone. But in fact, with the same views, he was instead given power to DO things about his bigotry and hatred. The fact that he had power is MORE reason to be glad he’s gone.

No, I am not going to pretend to be sorry for his passing just because he was on the Supreme Court. He was a horrible man and the world is a better place without him and the harm he caused.

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Editorial cartoon: Feelin’ the Bern

bern

David Horsey

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It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superdelegate!

Oh no, it’s a rerun.

Eight years ago, a bunch of Obama supporters were bitching all over the internet because even though Obama was doing well in the primaries, Hillary got more delegates. This is because the Democratic party has a provision for “superdelegates” composed of elected and appointed officials who automatically get to go to the convention and help pick the candidate.superdelegate

This was a provision set up over thirty years ago. And in the eight years since Obama’s election, there has been no serious movement to change these rules.

Now the Bernie people have discovered this rule and they are bitching just as loudly as the Obama people back then, claiming it’s unfair, undemocratic, illegal and “fraud.”

Well, no. You can dislike this rule, but it’s not illegal, it’s not fraud, and there’s nothing you can do about it now. Bernie was well aware of the rules of the game when he started playing. Maybe if he didn’t like these rules, he could have joined the Democratic party 30 years ago and done something about it, hm?

Mind you, I’m a Bernie supporter. But these complaints I am reading from other supporters doesn’t make me go “Yeah! The Man is keeping us down! It’s treason!” — instead it only makes us look like uneducated childish whiners.

The purpose of the Superdelegate was to prevent some demagogue like Donald Trump from coming in and grabbing the nomination away from legitimate Democrats. And in many ways, to the Democratic insiders, that definition fits Bernie, who was an independent up till now.

The rules are working exactly as they were designed.

People need to remember that primaries (and caucuses) are not Constitutional elections; they’re private rules the party uses to pick their candidate. The party could decide to get rid of primaries completely and choose the candidate in smoke-filled rooms like they used to do in the old days. You don’t have a “right” to demand anything from the Democrats any more than you have the right to demand a say in how the local Boy Scout troop picks its scoutmaster. It’s a private organization.

Now, there are a lot of changes I’d make in the primary process — for instance, let’s not let two states filled with people who do not represent a cross-section of Americans be the first two to vote — but the bottom line is that the parties can set their own rules for how they choose their candidates.

Go ahead and lead a fight to change the rules, but don’t go bitching because you don’t like the rules that currently exist when you have never done a thing in the past to try to change them.

 

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Editorial cartoon: Insult the voters, that’s a good idea

Matt Bors

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Political Scientists: “We don’t know nothin'”

Sanders and Trump have taken New Hampshire, which just goes to prove that Political Science is to science what military music is to music. bernturmp

I graduated cum laude with my Political Science degree. I worked on many campaigns (including being a campaign manager for a state representative), was a lobbyist for a while, taught political science, and continue to follow politics while blogging about it. And, like my fellow political scientists, I didn’t see this coming.

I’m not talking about predicting this a month ago. I mean a year ago — when Trump and Sanders started talking about running. Like all the other pundits that cover politics, I thought that these anti-establishment fringe candidates would fade by the time the primary season started.

Here’s what I wrote about Bernie last April:

He doesn’t have a chance of winning. He will only raise a fraction of what Hillary already has in her war chest. He doesn’t look like a President and that New York Jewish agitator vibe won’t help him in the slightest with most of the country. 

And that’s what most other commentators thought, as well. We then said similar things about Trump.

But the world has changed since we studied Poli Sci in college, and in two major ways.

First, Americans are sick and tired of politicians. We’re ready for an outsider — someone who doesn’t base his views on opinion polls and is not afraid to say what we’re thinking but have been told we’re not supposed to. For Democrats, that means talking about income equality, socialism, and social justice. For Republicans, that means embracing racism, sexism, xenophobia, and a mistrust of anyone not rich, white, and male (apparently).

But more importantly, the second factor is the internet, which has changed the way the game is played. The internet is a model of democracy — anyone can start a blog (like me!), spout an opinion, and share an article. Information no longer comes down to us from the gatekeepers — it moves up, often through “viral” posts. The mainstream media, instead of leading public opinion, is often scrambling to catch up.

This is not necessarily a good thing. So much misinformation gets passed around as fact. “I read it on the internet so it must be true” posts skew reality, and people end up believing the most amazing things. And then when the media whose job it is to report  the truth tells you that what you read on the internet is false, people instead disbelieve the media and embrace the comforting lie.

And that has helped Trump.

But the internet has also helped Bernie. He has been able to bypass the normal channels politicians usually follow, get his message out cheaply and easily, and raise lots of money without having to plead with the big donors and corporations that usually finance campaigns.

So this is a fascinating year.

And if anyone tells you that they know what’s going to happen, just remember: Nobody knows nothin’.

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Editorial cartoon: Dividing America

Darrin Bell

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Hillary versus Bernie: Who can accomplish more?

There is a difference between being a loyal Democrat and being a mindless follower.

While there are Bernie supporters and Hillary supporters that are being completely unreasonable and are spending too much time shooting friendly fire at each other, there are also those who are saying that we should not question either of them because, after all, we want one of them to win in November.hilbern

I have criticized both of them before — just like I have criticized Obama when he says and does things I disagree with. I don’t think anyone should be above reproach. I will still happily vote for whichever one gets the nomination over any of the Republican candidates.

We can debate which one would do better in November without attacking the other.

One of the biggest criticisms of Bernie that I am hearing from Hillary supporters is that she knows how to get things done and he won’t be able to accomplish anything — therefore, we shouldn’t aim too high.

I hate that for two reasons:  (1) This is politics. We should aim high. We should dream of great things we can accomplish;  (2) The idea that the GOP will work with Hillary is ridiculous.

Look, they hate her. They’ve hated her from the day she appeared on the scene. They’re not going to work with her. They never have in the past.

Not that they’re going to treat Bernie any better. Any Democrat is going to have to deal with a Republican congress that says “no” to everything.

People are forgetting what the GOP has become. They haven’t let Obama do anything. Remember Bill Clinton? They hated him, too — they freakin’ impeached him. The only way Bill accomplished anything was that he had more Democrats in Congress than we have now.

And that is the bottom line — voting for either Hillary or Bernie won’t make much difference unless we also elect more Democrats to Congress. We have the numbers on our side. All we have to do is show up and vote.

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Editorial cartoon: Emailed

Mike Lukovich

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Earth, Wind, Fire, and Racism

I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone before.  A memory that popped into my head when I read about the death of Maurice White, the leader of the band Earth, Wind, and Fire. ewf

Way back in the 70s, I was in High School in Richmond, Virginia, which Tom Robbins calls “The World’s Biggest Confederate Museum.” It was a turbulent time, with protests over busing and integration still going on.

I went to a high school in the suburbs where we maybe had ten black students total.

Now, my parents taught me to be a good, clean-cut kid. I never said a curse word, never drank or smoke or took drugs –I was a good, boring kid who was really into the drama club and music. My parents also were no bigots. They taught me that the “n” word was just as bad as the “f” word and there was no way I would ever say either.

Anyway, I remember listening to an Earth, Wind and Fire song on the radio and liking it (although I can’t recall which one right now). I had already been playing in bands and writing my own music, and I was really impressed with the musicianship and the complexity of the song.

And in my mind, I imagined the work that would go into it. And my mind conjured up an image of all the arrangers and composers working on that song.

And then I had a shock. An epiphany.

In my mind, all the people making the record were white. The black guys were just the singers. For some reason, my mind couldn’t imagine that the black guys could have accomplished such an ornate and complicated task of writing, arranging, producing and playing that song.

And I felt ashamed for my thought.

I certainly didn’t see myself as a racist, and I had thoughts like that? Me? I had been the campaign manager for one of the black kids who had run for class President and we won, making the local news and everything. I had black friends in the drama club. I had Funkadelic albums! How could I think something like this?

I realized how ingrained racism in our society could be. And I started thinking about it a lot. And then I thought about sexism in our society and how we take so much for granted and don’t question it.

It was an important first step for me. I still had a ways to go. For instance, it took many more years before I realized that gay people deserved to get married, but that was basically because society around me had not even gone in that direction yet.

Fortunately, the younger generation is growing up without the same environment I had. That kind of thinking is foreign to them. It’s us old folks that had to change (and that’s why, the older you are, the more likely you are to be racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, and Republican).

So thank you, Maurice White, for making me think about the biases we all have. And thank you for making me want to change them.

 

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Editorial Cartoon: “Together, we can accomplish mediocre things!”

Patrick Hendy Rodham Clinton

Ted Rall