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Supreme Court

The Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act Decision Will Fuel the “Disuniting” of the United States and the Unraveling of American Democracy

Trump’s Denaturalization Push and the Erosion of Legal Immigration

Trump’s Denaturalization Push and the Erosion of Legal Immigration

Some MAGA loyalists have turned on Trump. Why the rest haven’t

Some MAGA loyalists have turned on Trump. Why the rest haven’t

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The Trump Administration Has a Mommy Problem

Judicial Courage?

Judicial Courage?

Eight members of Congress cited for doing the legislative branch proud

Rep. Donna Shalala, winner of a Congressional Management Foundation awared

Rep. Donna Shalala was one of two lawmakers recognized by the Congressional Management Foundation for fostering a healthy workplace environment.

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The Fulcrum
By The FulcrumOct 06, 2020
The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum staff.
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Four lawmakers from each party were honored Tuesday for being good members of Congress. But they were cited for behavior that has nothing to do with their ideologies, legislative skill or rhetorical flair. Instead, they were singled out for running decent modern workplaces and taking care of their constituents.

The awards were the third annual set handed out by the Congressional Management Foundation, one of the most prominent nonprofits advocating the view that a more smoothly operating legislative branch is one of the main cures for democracy's ills.

The winners were culled from a roster of 26 finalistsunveiled in the spring that was notable for the disproportionate share of women (seven) and first-term lawmakers (nine). In the end, three women were honored, two of them Democratic newcomers to the House: Donna Shalala of Miami, who was Health and Human Services secretary in the Clinton administration, and Chrissy Houlahan of suburban Philadelphia, a former Air Force captain.

"Americans usually only hear about Congress when something goes wrong," noted the group's CEO, Brad Fitch, and it's important to "shine a light on Congress when it does something right."

Shalala and GOP Rep. Adrian Smith of Nebraska were cited for fostering a healthy workplace environment. Houlahan and GOP Rep. Michael Burgess of Texas got awards for running a transparent and accountable office.

For constituent service, the awardees were Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts. Singled out for their innovative and modernized operations were Republican Rep. Kay Granger of Texas and Democratic Rep. Mark Takano of California.


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I’m Not Optimistic About America at 250. I’m Still Hopeful.

I grew up in a place called Freedom.

Freedom, Pennsylvania, to be exact. In the borough of Economy. My high school is in a town named after the American Bridge Company. The son of an Army veteran and a nurse. A literal white picket fence. Family of five. A dog. The American Dream by many measures.

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Trump Is Protecting Insurrectionists But Not Your Kids

Last Monday, two teenage gunmen opened fire outside the Islamic Center of San Diego, murdering three Muslim men. Unfortunately, this is the type of horror Americans have been conditioned to expect. After years of political stagnation on gun safety and ongoing hateful acts of violence, our president has signaled once again to children, to the Muslim community, and to everyone else: he does not care if you get shot.

Gun violence has been on the rise in the United States for too long. Perhaps the most harrowing consequence is that gun violence is now the leading cause of death among children. Whether from school shootings, homicides, suicides, or accidents, the gun-death rate for children is nearly five in every 100,000. In fact, the number of domestic deaths due to gun violence is about as many as U.S. military deaths in every war since World War I combined. More children have been lost to gun violence since 2020 than troops lost since 9/11. Yet even with such a striking death toll—and one affecting children no less—happening on our own soil, Vice President J.D. Vance calls it a “fact of life.”

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May is Mental Health Awareness Month, but awareness alone cannot save us. Men of color are already painfully aware that something is wrong. We feel it in our sleeplessness. In our blood pressure. In the marriages that strain under emotional distance. In the fathers who never learned how to say “I’m not okay.” In the sons trying to inherit manhood from men who never permitted tenderness.

The crisis is not merely psychological. It is cultural, historical, spiritual, and physiological all at once. African Americans, particularly men, occupy one of the most paradoxical spaces in American life. We are hyper-visible in sports and entertainment. We are present in politics and public discourse. Yet we are emotionally invisible in matters of vulnerability, grief, anxiety, and depression. We are celebrated for resilience, but denied rest. Our toughness is admirable, while we are punished for transparency.

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How Anti-Black Racism is Fueling the Widespread Cruelty Against Kevin González and Other Latinos

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Telemundo Chicago

How Anti-Black Racism is Fueling the Widespread Cruelty Against Kevin González and Other Latinos

When something is cruelly racist, the average American wants to pin it on the prejudiced feelings of individual actors. Here, a few “bad apples” are responsible for the gut-wrenching fate of Kevin González – an American teen who recently died from cancer after briefly reuniting with his deported parents in México. But the real force behind this cruelty against Mr. González and other Latinos is driven by something more sinister and less recognizable than a bad batch of fruit. The literal violence raining down on Latinos is being caused by an unstable racial hierarchy – a long-standing system rooted in using Black people as a yardstick for how Americans judge the worth of other people of color, including Latinos.

This hierarchy has no feelings. It simply follows an internal logic aimed at preserving White Americans’ political clout, economic power, and distinctiveness from people of color. This system considers Whites the most superior and American group, reflected in their collective advantages in politics and society (figure 1). Moreover, although this system casts Asian people as foreigners, it also treats them as superior to Latinos and Blacks, justified by stereotyping all Asians as well-to-do and less impertinent than other racial “minorities.” And Latinos? Well, they are not confused for being White, but many of them are deemed too much like Black people –which matters for how the hierarchy handles Latinos like Kevin González. The average Latino in the U.S. is Mexican, native-born with immigrant parents, bilingual, votes Democratic, and wants economic mobility without forfeiting their culture. This combo of cultural difference and left-of-center politics is what the racial order finds most threatening now.

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