Democrats hoped for a huge rejection of Trumpism, but found two forces still hold an intoxicating political power. By Andrew Gawthorpe, The Guardian — The expectations we carry into elections always make it difficult to objectively assess their outcome. Before the midterms, Democrats hoped for a blue wave that would decisively hand them the House and perhaps more, while Donald Trump was poised to declare victory whatever the outcome. The morning…
By Jackie McVicar, America Magazine — Though thousands of Hondurans left in recent weeks to form the main party of the so-called migrant caravan now making its way to the United States through Mexico, on a typical day hundreds of people leave Honduras, caravan or not. And as those hundreds depart, scores of others are returned after deportation from the United States. Many deportees will try their luck again. “We are living in calamity,…
Commissioner Elect Salim Adofo’s Message We did it! We became commissioner! Thank you to everyone that voted for me, donated and supported the campaign in anyway they could. I was…
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, The Hutchinson Report — Two things happened within the space of 24 hours that tell much about why expectant House Speaker California Democrat Nancy Pelosi must…
TOPICS: Defining the Black Agenda in the Post Obama Era • Suppressing the Black Vote • The Midterm Elections: Blue Wave or Red Tide. GUESTS: Dr. Elsie Scott, Interim President, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc, Washington, D.C. • Atty. Barbara Arnwine, President/Founder, Transformative Justice Coalition, Washington, D.C. • Earl Ofari Hutchinson, President, Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, Los Angeles, CA • Bill Fletcher, Labor and Social Justice Activist, Washington, D.C.
She and political strategists like Jessica Byrd and Kayla Reed are designing a new theory of the Democratic coalition. By Brittney Cooper, The New York Times — For too long, the Democratic Party has been comfortable with black women only running conventions or registering voters — doing background work. The party expects black women to be its backbone, as when 98 percent of black female voters in Alabama cast their ballots for…
Migrants are leaving not only because they fear gang violence, but because they are terrified of the brutal government. By Peter Tinti, Vice — Nineteen-year-old taxi driver Diego is not interested in politics. But his hometown of El Progreso—a transit hub in central Honduras, where everyone seems to have a friend or relative who has “gone north” to the US—has long been a hotbed of popular resistance. In 1954, workers…
By Dan Sisken, Occupy — In the mid 1990s, scholars of politics in the Arab world published a book titled “Democracy without Democrats?” It appeared in the midst of a…
The president’s speech to African American millennial supporters was rambling and toe-curling. But he and his audience loved it. David Smith, The Guardian — Put a 72-year-old man with…
The prospect of electing the state’s first black governor is expected to boost African American voter turnout. By Richard Luscombe, The Guardian — It has been nearly two years since Florida’s black voters mostly stayed home on election day and, in the eyes of some, gave Donald Trump a free pass to win the state and the White House. To Quiana Malone, it was a mistake that cannot be allowed to happen…
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, The Hutchinson Report — Trump talked about peace, harmony and all sides coming together but did not once mention the two words that if ever applied…
The president’s closing argument in the midterm elections lays bare the logic of his appeal. By Adam Serwer, The Atlantic — After Democrats lost the 2016 presidential election, a certain conventional wisdom congealed within the pundit class: Donald Trump’s success was owed to the Democratic abandonment of the white working class and the party’s emphasis on identity politics. By failing to emphasize a strong economic message, the thinking went, the party had…