An already turbulent national political environment was rocked by another major development Wednesday afternoon: Justice Anthony Kennedy, the closest thing there is to a swing vote on the Supreme Court, decided to retire. … Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who sees pushing the judiciary to the right as a […] Read more »
Americans Motivated to Take Action On Key Issue Fights
… Hot-button issue fights are stronger motivators than topics that feel settled or too late to change. Specific activism related to key issues is also more likely to motivate progressives than more generic protests. Progressives feel most motivated by issues where there is lively, on-going national debate and a desired […] Read more »
Initial Thoughts in the Aftermath of Crowley’s Defeat
In the biggest surprise of 2018 so far, House Democratic Caucus Chair Joe Crowley (NY-14) lost his primary to 28-year-old former Bernie Sanders organizer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 58 percent to 42 percent. Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic Socialist who favors abolishing ICE, is now a lock to represent the Queens and Bronx seat. […] Read more »
Are Democrats Ready to Make Immigration an Issue in the Midterms?
Nitroglycerine. That’s how one long-time political strategist recently explained the politics of immigration to me. It’s one of those issues, he said, that can just as easily explode in your face as it can blow up the other side. Right now, it looks like the Trump administration is juggling bottles […] Read more »
What Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s victory says about the Democratic Party and 2020
Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s upset of Rep. Joe Crowley in New York’s 14th District’s Democratic primary is sending shockwaves through Washington. A lot of people are asking how she pulled it off. Like many shocking victories, there probably isn’t one cause. But a number of the different factors that likely catapulted […] Read more »
GOP increasingly opposes legal — not just illegal — immigration
The firestorm over the separation of children from their undocumented parents at the border has almost completely overshadowed another milestone in the long-running national immigration debate: Opposition to legal, as well as illegal, migration is hardening into a bedrock principle of the Republican Party. CONT. Ronald Brownstein, CNN Read more »