At least rich, white, male, straight, religious, private sector America — “I’ll warn you; this plan is not for the faint of heart.” With the words above, perhaps the greatest understatement of 2022 to date, Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) Chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee introduced readers to a newly released document called “An 11 Point Plan to Rescue America.” …

They may have an Achilles Heel in common — Perhaps Al Capone’s story is a cautionary tale for former President Trump. If the corruption, sexual assault, tax fraud, bank fraud, obstruction of justice, election interference and sedition don’t get you, bad recordkeeping might. Capone was the head of an organized crime family in Chicago known as the “Outfit.” It…

We’re reaching the lowest rung of self-government — What former President Trump and some Republicans understand is that you can’t make them do anything with words. Unless they are physically forced to do something they can simply refuse. The corollary to that is that they cannot be prevented from doing something with just words. Unless they are physically…

But, unfortunately, it’s deadly serious — In the wake of his primary election defeat this past week, North Carolina’s freshman Republican representative Madison Cawthorn gave a gracious concession speech for which he was praised on social media. The comity didn’t last long. Two days later Cawthorn posted a statement that could’ve come straight from the origin…

The one concept that ties all of politics together — I had an old boss who, when we tied ourselves in knots trying to solve a complex business problem, would say, “Everything is connected to everything.” However, when we looked deeper, we found that returning to core principles usually helped us find the answers we were looking for. I try…

A tale of dopamine withdrawal — “You want me to what?” “Don’t check your stats on Medium. It’s about the writing right? At least that’s what you said.” “Uhhh…..yeah. I guess so.” This snippet of a conversation between me and my brother marked the start of an experiment. I was going to stop looking at my…

The benign term is being used as a vehicle for a very disturbing message — I’ve heard the refrain before from conservatives on social media. In response to calling their obviously anti-democratic tactics a threat to democracy, they respond “we’re not a democracy, we’re a constitutional republic.” To a political science major like me, this phrase is like fingernails on a chalkboard. But beyond my…

Eastman provides the path and the math; foreshadowing 2024 — The assertion that the 2020 election was somehow stolen from former President Trump, commonly known as the “Big Lie”, has a number of modalities. Ballots from dead, living out of state, or otherwise ineligible voters Mysterious late-night jumps in vote totals Embedded instructions in voting machine software (of sketchy communist…