Month: March 2016

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The Trouble with Donald

  By 2016 Presidential race

The Republican establishment is still so upper-class WASP. They’ve been happy to run on racism and sexism and militarism for years. But they insisted on being polite about it, using the appropriate code words and deniable symbols like Willie Horton. Their problem with Trump is not his racism and sexism and militarism. It’s his vulgarity and bad manners. He doesn’t know which fork and knife to use when he’s skewering Black people to secure the votes of white working people for the corporate elite. Continue reading

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How Low Will They Go?

  By Education, PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Budget

Originally published Third and State Blog, March 4, 2016 The majority of Pennsylvanians believe that every child in Pennsylvania deserves a high quality education. We believe that the best education for everyone is central to creating economic opportunity for individuals. And we believe that economic growth is only possible with a highly educated work force. And we know both of these aims can only be attained if we provide adequate and equitable funding to each of our schools. So when legislators or advocates on the right challenge the demand for adequate and equatibale funding we sometimes find it hard to understand what they want. How little funding are they prepared to give students in poor communities Pennsylvania before they will say it’s too low? How low will they go? A recent op-ed by the Commonwealth Foundation gives us the beginning of an answer. And it’s extremely disturbing. To judge by… Continue reading

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The (Right) Choice We Made

  By Politics, Progressive Politics

What many of Bernie’s supporters don’t understand about our politics is that there are other forms of oppression besides economic inequality and that fighting for civil rights, women’s rights, and the rights of the LGBT community is the main reason that Democrats lost control of Congress, and that it is the loss of control of Congress, far more than corporate influence on Democrats, that is responsible for the inability of the US to reduce economic inequality. I wouldn’t trade the Civil Right Acts or Roe or Obergefell for a $15.00 minimum wage today. And, that’s exactly the deal Democrats of my father’s generation and my own made. History will look back and say we were right to do so. And Bernie is right that economic inequality is a core issue we must focus on today (even if it is isn’t the only one.) Continue reading