When I took a couple of journalists to task last year, shortly before the election, I didn’t expect it to become a theme. Neither did I expect to find myself with any common ground with Donald Trump regarding the media. While he accuses them of being liars, dishonest, and purveyors of fake news in his repetitious fashion, I like to think that I’m more civilized and understanding of their task….
I got to participate in the Women’s March in Washington D.C., on January 21st, 2017. I figured it was a once in a lifetime event; I hope it was a once in a lifetime event. Being able to be a part of the march was quite moving though. The people spoke and hopefully some people listened. It is yet to be seen how much of an impact there may be. Regardless,…
The coming peaceful transition of power from the previous administration to the next is rapidly approaching, and it’s still difficult to know what to expect from the incoming administration. Much like the contradictory (and often confused) rhetoric from the president-elect during the campaign, there are some reasons for cautious optimism for libertarians from Trump’s cabinet nominees, and also reason for concern about presidential power. Regardless, one thing that is certain is that…
It’s been a few weeks since the election, and a few interesting narratives have seemed to pop up surrounding what, exactly, happened. I thought it might be interesting to dig into a few of them, and add a few more thoughts that I’ve had since the election. Note: The majority of data used below comes from CNN exit polls along with the Wikipedia articles on the results of the 2012 and…
Apparently the hot new thing to protest the upcoming presidential administration is to donate to Planned Parenthood in Mike Pence’s name. Why? Because Planned Parenthood sends certifications to the donor’s address to thank them for their donation, so those certificates are getting sent to Mike Pence’s address. And Pence holds anti-abortion views and believes federal funds should be cut off to organizations such as Planned Parenthood. It’s clever. People get to…
Well … that just happened. Unlike a lot of other folks, I wasn’t primed for Election Day to be some sort of Democratic blowout, but this was just beyond shocking. I didn’t think a Trump win was that outside the realm of possibility, but these results are rather decisive. Though the final results have yet to be tallied, Donald Trump might top over 300 Electoral Votes, though it looks like…
Wow. It somehow seems fitting that in an election that has been unconventional in every way, it ends with a tremendous upset. If a lifelong Democrat who is on the record as being anti-gun, pro-choice and openly disdainful of members of the military can win the Republican nomination, why can’t that same person win the presidency by doing everything “wrong” and seemingly insulting every non-white, non-male group of people? It doesn’t…
With the Trump campaign seemingly self-destructing before our eyes, it doesn’t seem necessary to sell a ticket of two successful Republican governors to conservatives looking for a better option. However, it might surprise people to know that polling has shown that the Gary Johnson campaign pulls support fairly evenly from Trump and Clinton. It shouldn’t be a surprise, though, as there are a number of liberal issues where Clinton is actually pretty conservative and where Gary…
I drive around listening to NPR, like the good little brainwashed semi-millennial/semi-Gen-X college grad that I am. On a recent trip, I was listening to the Diane Rehm show. For those unfamiliar, Diane Rehm is the godmother of talk radio, particularly in the Washington, D.C. area. She’s been the host of her show—a roundtable panel discussion on the radio, which she moderates with an iron fist—for decades, and it is…
Every election, it seems like there is no shortage of people proclaiming that it’s the most important of our lifetime (and there’s no shortage of articles touching on this topic). I dislike hyperbole, but it’s hard to look at this year’s election and the major parties’ nominees and not think that this election is in the running for the most important in recent memory. Between the crass, bombastic, bullying ignorance of Donald…