Whoever ultimately wins, the Presidential election being this close means Trump severely under performed, since the structural factors were all in his favor.
First, he’s an incumbent, which carries massive advantages. Since 1900 the only presidents with a “normal” cycle of winning an election then running for re-election who lost their second term bids were Herbert Hoover (3rd Republican in a row, presided over the great depression), Jimmy Carter, and Bush 41.
Second, it’s still the economy, stupid. Trump came in with a growing economy which grew by ever increasing rates during his term up until the virus hit —…
The news is currently flooded with stories about Belarus, where mass demonstrations have taken place following rigged elections won by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Why are world leaders and the press so invested in this particular bit of oppression out of everything going on in the world? Because Belarus occupies a strategically significant position between Russia and NATO/the EU.
Lukashenko has been President since Belarus’s first post-communist elections in 1994, and is sometimes called “Europe’s last dictator.” Belarus is sandwiched between Russia on one side and Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia on the other. The Russian Oblast (an administrative region similar…
When Fidel Castro died in 2016, California Congresswoman Karen Bass hailed him as “Comandante en Jefe” (a familiar phrase for Cuban refugees), and lamented his death as “a great loss to the people of Cuba.” As a possible Biden VP choice, those remarks have drawn renewed scrutiny. Bass could have pled ignorance of the extent of the regime’s tyranny and apologized. Instead, she simply said she had not realized the difference between how he was perceived in Florida as opposed to California, and that she would use different words if she could do it again.
Mississippi is choosing a new flag, ending the last official usage of the Confederate battle flag by a State. Supporters have long claimed the emblem as a symbol of heritage, a memorial to their ancestors who fought and often died on the Southern side of the civil war. It had also become a general symbol of rebelliousness and opposition to authority, from Hollywood to Italy to northern States that had fought for the Union. Even I felt a pang when the issue became prominent enough that I had to think about it, despite neither I nor my family ever having…
155 years ago today in Galveston, Texas, the last slaves in America were told that they were legally free. Commemorated as Juneteenth, it is the oldest known celebration of the end of slavery, sometimes called Black Independence Day. I have seen this term, and the celebration itself, bother some people. It certainly gave me pause when I first heard it. We already have an Independence Day, after all, and the point of such a national celebration is to unify us. Having two “independence days” is inherently divisive, go the grumbles. Our celebrations of liberty should be unified on July 4th…
This National Review article by Kevin D. Williamson sent me searching for more information on Sohrab Ahmari and Catholic Integralism, leading to articles by the New Yorker and Church Life Journal. Essentially, some California libraries allowed drag queens to read stories to children, prompting Ahmari to launch a public crusade in support of Integralism. Integralism holds that the church should be an integrated part of the government, and that the government should legislate & execute in order to enforce Christian moral law. Ahmari wants the government to prevent drag queen story hours by force, and if that requires amending the…
D.S. Williams
Army vet and practicing Attorney, with a B.A in Political Science.
