This Week's Political Pulse: Overlooked Headlines and Important Reflections
Some of the under-appreciated newsworthy scoops of this past week.
Time for another weekly review:
First, read the latest Salzillo’s Two Cents post on Rhode Island civil rights icon Ray Rickman’s and his team’s special swimming program, which helps to address America’s racial swimming disparity. It gives some very interesting historical background on the issue, so hit that subscribe button if you like Salzillo’s Two Cents’ latest offering.
We just saw a big education development this week with President Biden’s unveiling of the SAVE Program. The student loan crisis, though, is no easy fix. More needs to be done to promote higher education opportunities, whether that be from community college or vocational training. But we cannot ignore a student debt crisis that crushes the lives of many college students. Choices have had to be made between buying a car or a house vs. paying back student loans. While higher education costs are still way too high, this student loan relief is a big step in the right direction for low-income borrowers, and those cheated by private predatory lenders. Especially the types of lenders that would produce scams like Trump University.
The Supreme Court has some fishy business coming up with fishery regulations. Will the the conservative supermajority Roberts Court use the ongoing fight over these regulations to drastically limit the powers of government agencies overall? And how would that effect our government’s ability to protect the environment, or even do so many of the things we often take for granted in our day-to-day life?
On a related note, are state courts in dire need of reform? For example, they probably should not be elected statewide offices (think North Carolina).
Steve Garvey, Ron Johnson, Dr. Oz, Bernie Moreno, Trudy Busch Valentine, Helena Foulkes, Michael Bloomberg, Jim Justice, etc. Lately, whether it’s right here in Rhode Island or even on the national stage, elections have become feeding-grounds for celebrity candidates, business elites, self-funders, and party insiders. And let’s not forget the wealthy special interests that try to cover both sides (Republicans mostly, but also Manchin and Sinema Democrats). Are these the people you want to send to the halls of government? Isn’t 2024 the time to send new voices and true representatives of the people to be your voice? Now is the time to liberate this country from special interests and dark money with a grassroots movement resurgence.
A big Florida state legislative contest was decided this past Tuesday. After last year’s Jacksonville mayoral election and after several special elections all across the country, many wondered whether Democrats still had momentum heading into 2024. It turns out so, with a Democratic pickup chipping away at the GOP supermajority in the Florida House of Representatives via a win in the Orlando area. The House district voted in Democrat Tom Keen after the previous GOP incumbent won in 2022 by 10 points, riding on Ron DeSantis’s coattails.
On a larger scale, in spite of the approval numbers listed for President Biden, Democrats continue to outperform electoral expectations—including in races not initially considered to be competitive (like Mississippi’s past gubernatorial race). The fact that Republicans have been placed on the defensive recently highlight a slim possibility that Democrats can compete in certain parts of Trump Country—places that had previous voted Democratic but feel they have been taken for granted by both party elites (including, most notably, Hillary Clinton, whose “basket of deplorables” comments among many other things alienated these voters). Especially in the Midwest.
President Joe Biden can make a special case from the heart to areas across the country using the struggles he has faced throughout his life. From his past of overcoming childhood stuttering, to adapting to a changing economy in Scranton and Wilmington, to dealing with multiple family tragedies and losses over the decades, to seeing the consequences of drug addiction with his own eyes, and to learning from past mistakes along the way. A much more compelling story than that of the golden escalators of Trump Tower and the many failed Trump University-style experiments. A sincere message can go a long way to meeting people in places, even like Iowa, and addressing the issues relevant to them. Particularly because Trump frankly forgot them when he was in the Oval Office.
Remember what Andy Beshear did in Kentucky. Go for the 50-State Strategy.
Here are some cases to watch on Jim Crow-style racial gerrymandering, election boards, and 2024 voting restrictions in the South. A legacy of Trump’s election denialism and Tea Party hardball revealed years back in the Hofeller Files. This is all very much ongoing. The White House should be much more public about what is really a decades-in-the-making attempt by a now clearly antidemocratic Republican Party to hold onto power by “cracking down on fraud.”
Is Nikki Haley really a moderate? A conservative? Or just a constant flip-flopper? Her record in South Carolina offers important perspective for voters across the country as she asks for their votes in the primaries. Needless to say, the voters clearly did not receive her tenure well as governor. Ask the GOP’s own Tim Scott, who endorsed Trump for President despite being appointed to his seat by then-Governor Haley (and that was before DeSantis’s own dropout announcement today).
Here is some of what a 2nd Trump term would look like if he is elected in 2024.
State legislatures are often first benches for rising political stars in both parties—and they showcase the priorities of both Democrats and Republicans alike. For Republicans: here are Kentucky’s Nick Wilson and Oklahoma’s JJ Humphrey. One wants to bring back a little incest, and the other wants to crack down on furries in schools. Okay, moving on…
More controversy in the U.S. Commerce Department on CHIPS Act expenditures getting in the hands of Wall Street private financiers. Not to mention the problem of Panama Canal backlogs, which the Commerce Secretary refuses to publicly acknowledge as a problem. There is no Cabinet agency in need of greater public scrutiny in the Beltway than the Commerce Department, given previous concerns around the very active Big Tech revolving doors and the Commerce Secretary’s own family ties to several AI companies.
More to the mystery of RI’s own Nicholas Alahverdian—a con man now being tried in the Utah courts for rape and sexual assault.
Some worthy advice from scientist Jane Goodall on the role of nature in our lives in her latest interview on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria’s GPS.
Here are some interesting campaigns on Change.org and MoveOn regarding Middle Eastern peace for Bibi Netanyahu critics in the US and abroad.
The decline of local newspapers, TV stations, and prominent newspapers (even something like Sports Illustrated) is a very concerning trend. It is also one which threatens the prosperity of our democratic experiment. With internet misinformation taking up a bigger and bigger share of our attention, we need local journalists and objective journalistic standards now more than ever. But to close off on a hopefully much more positive note, this relatively new blog is now nearing 3,000 subscribers.
