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Video: Bipartisan lunch with lawmakers: Making elections work better in PA

Video: Bipartisan lunch with lawmakers: Making elections work better in PA

Building on a series of bipartisan dialogues, join BFA Pennsylvania for the first in our series of “Lunch with Lawmakers” which bring together different perspectives at the intersection of business and politics.

Two of the Pennsylvania House’s most knowledgeable members discuss needed reforms to the way the state conducts its elections. The 2023–24 legislative session in Harrisburg will consider a range of proposals aimed at changing how citizens vote and how election officials tally and report the results. With a new governor, secretary of state, and House speaker governing as an Independent, changes are certain. To shed light on these developments, State Representatives Jared Solomon (D - 202) and Jesse Topper (R - 78) will discuss issues such as voter ID, pre-canvassing absentee ballots, protecting election workers, standardizing the procedures counties use to run elections, clarifying the rules concerning mail-in ballots, and ensuring election integrity.

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What would it mean if President-elect Trump dismantled the US Department of Education?
Flickr

What would it mean if President-elect Trump dismantled the Department of Education?

In her role as former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, Linda McMahon oversaw an enterprise that popularized the “takedown” for millions of wrestling fans. But as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of education, the Trump loyalist may be tasked with taking down the very department Trump has asked her to lead.

If Trump does dismantle the Department of Education as he has promised to do, he will have succeeded at something that President Ronald Reagan vowed to do in 1980. Just like Trump, Reagan campaigned on abolishing the department, which at the time was only a year old. Since then, the Republican Party platform has repeatedly called for eliminating the Education Department, which oversees a range of programs and initiatives. These include special funding for schools in low-income communities – known as Title I – and safeguarding the rights of students with disabilities.

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Hand-drawn Pilgrim hat with the words "Happy Thanksgiving"
mushroomstore/Getty Images

This Thanksgiving, it's not only OK but necessary to talk politics

This Thanksgiving, do not follow the old maxim that we should never discuss politics at the dinner table.

Many people's emotions are running high right now. Elections often bring out a wide range of feelings, whether pride and optimism for those who are pleased with the results or disappointment and frustration from those who aren’t. After a long and grueling election season, we need to connect with and not avoid one another.

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Happy family raising toast while sitting together at dining table during Thanksgiving
The Good Brigade

Forget the survival guides: Politics is rarely an issue at Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is often portrayed as a minefield of political debates, with an annual surge of guides offering tips to "survive" political conversations at the dinner table. But how useful are these guides?

Research actually shows that most Americans neither want nor need the abundance of advice. While the vast majority of Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, relatively few want to talk about politics over the holiday. A 2022 Axios/Ipsos poll found that 77 percent of Americans believe Thanksgiving is not the right time for political discussions. Somewhat similarly, a 2023 Quinnipiac poll found only 29 percent of Americans say they are looking forward to discussing politics at Thanksgiving, less than half the number who say they are hoping to avoid discussing it.

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