Democracy, Electoral Reforms, Voting Rights (Also see Political Parties and Elections)

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Trump’s latest scheme to use the 2020 Census to hurt immigrants and Democrats

July 30, 2020 GlenAnderson 0

The U.S. Constitution REQUIRES a Census — and explicitly EQUIRES counting all “persons.”  It does NOT say “citizens.”  Trump tried before — and he is trying again — to ABUSE the 2020 Census in order to hurt immigrants, hurt the communities where they live, and hurt Democrats.  Trump’s abuses are VIOLATING the Constitution.  But the Democratic Party refuses to impeach him about this.   Previously I had posted information to this blog about how Trump was trying to abuse the 2020 Census for his racist, political advantage.  See those posts.  SEE THIS for a collection of background articles: http://parallaxperspectives.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=2377&action=edit   NOW […]

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Trump’s re-election goal is to keep the pandemic danger high and prevent voting by mail. Then sensible people STAY HOME and his loyal cult followers will turn out and vote.

June 30, 2020 GlenAnderson 0

Put these few facts together: Democratic candidates are more likely to win when large numbers of people vote. In a number of states ruled by Republicans, those states do several things to reduce voter turnout — and to make it hard for racial minorities, young people, and poor people to vote, because those people tend to vote for Democrats. Voting by mail significantly increases voter turnout.  Trump and Republicans strongly oppose this, because they want to SUPPRESS voter turnout. The Coronavirus pandemic makes it dangerous to vote in person (in the 45 states that do not have voting by mail). […]

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What Erich Fromm wrote about Fascism in 1941 pertains to the U.S. under Trumpism now.

June 28, 2020 GlenAnderson 0

In 1941 Erich Fromm wrote this about the Fascism that had emerged in Europe: “When Fascism came into power, most people were unprepared, both theoretically and practically. They were unable to believe that man could exhibit such propensities to evil, such lust for power, such disregard for the rights of the weak, or such yearning for submission.” Fromm wrote this about the Fascism that had emerged in Europe by 1941. He could scarcely have imagined that Trumpism would repeat those evils in the U.S.A. with the 2016 election. See this blog’s section on “Trump and Trumpism.”  

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Voters are much more progressive than the institutional Democratic Party and its timid Joe Biden.

June 23, 2020 GlenAnderson 0

Public opinion polling shows majorities of the public — especially Democrats but also large numbers of Independents and Republicans — urging VERY BOLD public policies, such as: Getting big money out of political campaigns Providing a nationwide system of good quality health care for every person Strong actions to protect the climate Protecting ordinary people from big business’s abuses Sharply reducing police violence And much more … During the 2020 primary election season, Bernie Sanders campaigned on boldly progressive issues, and he won huge numbers of votes from many kinds of people, including the working class, minorities, and other segments […]

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These interesting items show that the U.S.’s democracy and government are NOT functioning adequately.

June 23, 2020 GlenAnderson 0

The U.S.’s government and democracy are SERIOUSLY DYSFUNCTIONAL in several ways. Ordinary people need to understand the problems and organize from the grassroots up to solve these SYSTEMIC PROBLEMS. Both political parties have been negligent and have caused the problems, and neither political party is solving them.     See this information about problems with the U.S.’s democracy, and how to solve them: See this article — https://thefulcrum.us/big-picture/american-academy-of-arts-and-sciences — and see this thorough 84-page report:  https://www.amacad.org/ourcommonpurpose/report     Instead of “checks and balances” — and instead of accountability — Trump is FIRING THE WATCHDOGS that we need in order to […]

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Trump’s seriously dysfunctional psychology keeps getting worse — with VERY DANGEROUS implications.

June 16, 2020 GlenAnderson 0

I keep seeing more and more information about Trump’s serious psychological problems.  Trump’s bizarre, reckless, hate-filled rhetoric and behavior are alarming — and DANGEROUS for our nation and for the world.  Also, many psychologists and psychologists keep writing and speaking about his psychological disabilities and dangers. He is absolutely obsessed with bragging about himself and what an excellent job he is doing as President.  He said his performance regarding Coronavirus would rate 10 on a 10-point scale.  Even when he is supposed to be honoring somebody else, he exploits that occasion and focuses largely on praising himself.  He wasted taxpayers’ […]

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Locally and nationwide, we must CHANGE THE POLITICAL CULTURE. Sign up for these practical workshops.

June 15, 2020 GlenAnderson 0

Governments are the LAST to figure things out. (Mainstream news media are the next-to-last.) They will do what we want ONLY WHEN a strong nonviolent grassroots movement forces them to do what is needed. Recent history has proved this a number of times. (In the 1960s Congress passed civil rights legislation only because the Civil Rights Movement forced them to. President Obama opposed LGBTQ rights to marriage until the grassroots movement forced him to support equal rights. The list goes on and on.) Our local community includes a number of people who want to protect the environment – and protect […]

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Trump and Republicans are hell-bent to PREVENT government from solving problems!

June 12, 2020 GlenAnderson 0

Our nation, our people, our environment, our health — EVERYTHING — is suffering under the weight of a HUGE NUMBER OF PROBLEMS! But Trump and the Republicans are HELL-BENT TO PREVENT GOVERNMENT FROM SOLVING the problems! A while ago I wrote a thorough article that examines and criticizes the worldview of the conservatives that has been hurting us in many ways.  The article is long but full of insights.  I encourage people to read it here:  This Currently Dominant Worldview Hurts Us in Many Ways — and PREVENTS Governments from Solving Problems The Coronavirus pandemic, massive unemployment, racial injustices, police […]

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Trump keeps committing MORE and MORE impeachable offenses!

May 24, 2020 GlenAnderson 0

Trump took office in January 2017.  He has CONTINUOUSLY been BREAKING LAWS and VIOLATING THE CONSTITUTION in many, many ways.  The U.S. Constitution provides a remedy for that:  IMPEACHMENT. The Constitution provides that the U.S. House of Representatives is responsible for starting the impeachment process.  Trump committed MANY, MANY impeachable offenses, but the Democrats who have been running the House KEPT REFUSING to take the action that was necessary in order to protect honest, constitutional democracy from Trump’s repeated abuses.  Finally, the ONLY thing that upset the House Democrats was when Trump bullied Ukraine’s government to say it was digging […]

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U.S.’s democracy and social justice are worse than many nations. U.S.’s corruption is very high.

May 19, 2020 GlenAnderson 0

Americans — especially politicians — brag that the U.S. is the best nation in the world.  They brag that our democracy is a shining beacon of liberty for the rest of the world to emulate.  The truth is VERY DIFFERENT from that propaganda.   This article documents the facts that the U.S. ranks low in worldwide assessments in democracy – and high in corruption: https://thefulcrum.us/big-picture/american-democracy-corruption   Social Justice Index ranks U.S. 36th out of 41 developed nations: The five Nordic countries (Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland) ranked ahead of all other nations. The U.S. ranked 36th out of 41 […]

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“The Lawbreaker-in-Chief”

May 16, 2020 GlenAnderson 0

A recent issue of The Progressive magazine (www.progressive.org) (I didn’t write down which month in late 2019 or early 2020) reported this during the timer when Trump’s impeachment was underway: “Donald Trump and his allies like to throw around terms like ‘witch-hunt’ when talking about the ongoing impeachment probe. In fact, there are innumerable instances in which the President appears to have actually broken existing laws. Here are some of them:   U.S. Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause: It is illegal for any U.S. federal office-holder to accept anything of value from any foreign official or government: Trump, who calls this […]

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Trump acts like a neo-fascist dictator. Here are a few articles from April and early May 2020.

May 13, 2020 GlenAnderson 0

Everybody knows the old story about putting a frog in water and warming it slowly enough that the frog won’t notice the change from one moment to the next, so it won’t jump out of the water, but after a while the frog has been cooked to death. That familiar story seems to pertain to the U.S. under Trump and his loyal supporters in the Executive Branch and Congress.  Here are some alarming stories about what Trump and Trumpism are doing to our nation:   How Trump is turning the American presidency into a dictatorship: https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-power/donald-trump-dictator   The U.S. is […]

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What Happens If Trump and Biden Both Claim Victory? Legal Scholars Fret Over Plausible Scenarios

May 12, 2020 GlenAnderson 0

In the past few years all of us have seen how Trump and Republicans and the right wing have been threatening democracy.  We’ve even seen constitutional crises based on Trumpism and related power grabs. Now here is a new, related worry.  Legal scholars discussed the real possibility that Trump and Republican-dominated states might screw around with the November 2020 presidential election in ways that could result in them claiming victory even if the Democrats have legitimate grounds for claiming victory. See this long, but interesting article: https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/265025541/what-happens-if-bush-gore-result-happens-again-with-trump-biden            

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MOST members of Congress are millionaires. Some have serious conflicts of interest.

May 12, 2020 GlenAnderson 0

MOST members of Congress are millionaires: The Center for Responsive Politics (www.OpenSecrets.org) is a smart, effective watchdog that works largely through their award-winning website, www.OpenSecrets.org, which is the most comprehensive resource for federal campaign contributions, lobbying data and analysis available anywhere.  I subscribe to their e-mail list. Their e-mail on April 24, 2020, they reported that MOST members of the current (116th) Congress are millionaires.  Their e-mail stated:  “Much of the wealth in Congress is concentrated at the top. The top 10 percent of wealthiest lawmakers have three times more wealth than the bottom 90 percent.” Read more at this […]