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Representation Concerns

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Thomas Frank on How Democrats Went From Being the ‘Party of the People’ to the Party of Rich Elites. To go back to your point about education: At one point you quote Arne Duncan, who was Obama’s secretary of education, saying that the only way to end poverty is through education.

Thomas Frank on How Democrats Went From Being the ‘Party of the People’ to the Party of Rich Elites

Why can’t that work? The big overarching problem of our time is inequality. If you look at historical charts of productivity and wage growth, these two things went hand in hand for decades after World War II, which we think of as a prosperous, middle-class time when even people with a high school degree, blue-collar workers, could lead a middle class life. And then everything went wrong in the 1970s. The Mythology Of Trump’s ‘Working Class’ Support. It’s been extremely common for news accounts to portray Donald Trump’s candidacy as a “working-class” rebellion against Republican elites.

The Mythology Of Trump’s ‘Working Class’ Support

There are elements of truth in this perspective: Republican voters, especially Trump supporters, are unhappy about the direction of the economy. Matt Miller Online. Mr. Miller Doesn’t Go to Washington - Matt Miller - POLITICO Magazine. Midterm Myths, Emotional Algorithms, and More. Public Radio Host Matt Miller Loses An Election. Economic Inequality and Political Representation. Data Set Summary Principal Investigators: Martin Gilens, Princeton University In his recent volume, Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America, political scientist Martin Gilens provides conclusive evidence that national policymakers are much more responsive to the policy preferences of the affluent than the middle class or the poor.

Economic Inequality and Political Representation

What charisma is, and how to get it. CHARISMA is a word that's mentioned a lot when discussing political candidates.

What charisma is, and how to get it

Dane County judge refuses Supreme Court order on voter ID. Madison — In an unusual move, a Dane County judge has refused to dismiss a voter ID case as ordered by the state Supreme Court, writing that he believed doing so would violate his oath to uphold the state constitution.

Dane County judge refuses Supreme Court order on voter ID

Instead of entering an order to terminate the case, Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess wrote in a brief order Thursday that he was instead stepping aside and having another judge dismiss the case. "The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ordered this court to deliver the coup de grace to this case by dismissing plaintiff's Amended Complaint on remand. Citizens Rising Anti-Corruption Weekend, Sept 19–21, MIT. Scholar Behind Viral 'Oligarchy' Study Tells You What It Means. Princeton Study: U.S. No Longer An Actual Democracy. Asking "[w]ho really rules?

Princeton Study: U.S. No Longer An Actual Democracy

" researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. After The Midterms, The Diversity Gap In The House Will Be Wider Than Ever. Last week BuzzFeed reported that backers of Rep.

After The Midterms, The Diversity Gap In The House Will Be Wider Than Ever

Chuck Schumer Is Wrong About the Top-Two Primary. In an op-ed in Tuesday’s New York Times, Sen.

Chuck Schumer Is Wrong About the Top-Two Primary

Charles E. Schumer of New York called for an end to partisan primaries and the implementation of a top-two system nationwide, asserting that such a change would lessen the historic level of polarization between Democrats and Republicans. According to Schumer, a Democrat, all we need to do to get more moderates elected is use the system put in place in California. There, all candidates, regardless of party identification, face off against one another in the primary. The two top vote-getters advance to the general election. Half Of The United States Lives In These Counties. Why Do Appalachians Love Clinton and Hate Obama? In Kentucky, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is running even or slightly behind in polls for reelection, despite the state’s heavily Republican lean.

Why Do Appalachians Love Clinton and Hate Obama?

The central dynamic of the race concerns whether the Democratic challenger, Alison Lundergan Grimes, can distance herself from President Obama. Md. City Lowers Voting Age for its Elections to 16. TAKOMA PARK, Md. — Takoma Park has voted to lower the voting age for city elections to 16.

Md. City Lowers Voting Age for its Elections to 16

The City Council voted 6-1 on Monday to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in city elections starting in November. Census Bureau: Black turnout passed white voters in 2012. Black voters were the only racial or ethnic group to show an increase in turnout from 2008, when 64.7 percent voted. Voter rates for whites dropped to 64.1 percent from 66.1 percent. Both black and white voters though had higher turnout rates than Hispanics and Asians in 2012, each at 48 percent. Why Republicans Are Facing a Grim Reality. The Obama era has also seen Republicans in nearly every state they have controlled impose burdensome identification requirements to vote, bureaucratic obstacles to the registration of new voters, and rolled-back early balloting. (Some of those crackdowns withstood legal challenge; others did not.)

The campaign to rig the Electoral College can be seen as a piece of the same broad effort—leveraging Republican control of state governments in order to stop the Obama coalition from exerting its numeric power. The Electoral College itself already compromises the democratic principle (it allows the winner of the popular vote to lose the presidency). But the Republican plan would give its candidates all the electoral votes from states they carry, plus some electoral votes from states they lose. In Washington, too, the Republican minority has flexed its muscles by creating new powers for itself that previous minorities never imagined. 2010 Census Data - 2010 Census.

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Electoral College. Redistricting. Minority Issues.