Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Follow Us:
Top Stories

Castro, Klobuchar put voting rights at forefront of social media efforts

The Washington Post recently released a nifty analysis of the policy issues most often mentioned on social media last month by the candidates seeking or exploring the Democratic presidential nomination.

The Post analyzed more than 5,600 social media posts from 15 candidates, coding keywords under eight broad categories. Policy-centric posts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram that included terms such as "electoral college," "filibuster" or "gerrymandering," for instance, were tagged as posts on "Voting Rights." "Campaign finance," "monopolies" and "lobbyists" fell under "Corporate Power."


Julian Castro, who served as secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Obama administration, topped the list of candidates in the percentage of his policy posts that focused on voting rights (22 percent). Sen. Amy Klobuchar (20 percent) was second. For both candidates, voting rights was their top policy issue on social media, according to the analysis.

Warren was first among candidates in the percentage of policy posts mentioning "corporate power" — 30 percent — although "a significant portion" of those posts were solely on "her plan to break up Amazon, Google and Facebook," the Post explains.

Klobuchar (13 percent), Sen. Bernie Sanders (12 percent) and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (11 percent) were the other candidates whose percentages reached double digits on the issue of "corporate power."


Read More

United States' Constitution and Declaration of Independence on a flag background

The Constitution didn't create American prosperity — geography, immigration, and historical luck did. Here's why that matters for reform debates.

miflippo/Getty Images

The Constitution Did Not Make America Rich

Americans are taught a reassuring story about their country’s success. The United States became prosperous, powerful, and free because the framers wrote an exceptional Constitution. The miracle of Philadelphia produced the miracle of America.

The story appears in classrooms, campaign speeches, judicial opinions, and serious scholarly works. Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson have argued that institutions securing property and constraining expropriation help separate rich nations from poor ones. But the popular American version takes that insight and turns it into something much stronger – and misguided: that our prosperity flowed from our particular constitutional design, and that altering it would put the wealth at risk.

Keep ReadingShow less
Silhouetted People with American Flag Neon Sign

An examination of how gun rights, taxes, business regulation & public health all reflect the same core principle: rights come with responsibilities to society.

Joseph Sohm/Getty Images

With Rights Come Responsibilities - That's the American Way

People on the Right/MAGA are always talking about their rights and how the government is taking away their rights. Whether it’s the issue of gun ownership, running a business, or restrictions on movement during the pandemic, people on the Right don’t seem to understand what it means to be a citizen. Yes, we have rights. But with rights come responsibilities. Not even the right of free speech, let alone the right to gun ownership, is absolute.

Man is by nature concerned mainly with his and his family’s interests. That is his biological imperative. Socially, however, man has evolved into being a member—a citizen—of a larger society. And so, from the most primitive communities to contemporary societies, that driving instinct has been reigned in for the greater good of the community.

Keep ReadingShow less
An Independent Just Broke Through in Alaska — As Republicans Try to Kill the System That Made It Possible

Bill Hill

Bill Hill Facebook

An Independent Just Broke Through in Alaska — As Republicans Try to Kill the System That Made It Possible

Independent Bill Hill is heading to the November ballot after finishing second in Alaska's Aug. 18 top-four open primary, setting up a race against Republican incumbent Rep. Nick Begich III for the state's at-large US House seat. With 396 out of 403 precincts reporting, Begich led with roughly 46.12% of the vote to Hill's 30.89%.

In Alaska's system, all candidates run in a single primary. The four candidates with the highest vote totals are then placed on the November general election ballot. Voters use ranked choice voting to rank those four candidates based on their preferences.

Keep ReadingShow less