race

Tom Horne: “Individuals are Primary and Race is Irrelevant”

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Apparently, AZ Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne is determined to spend the next four years whitewashing Arizona schools. According to the Arizona Republic, his office is “crafting a proposal to change the A-F school grading formula to reflect whether schools take part in values-based [CRT in GOP-speak] teaching standards”. Of course, these values-based teaching … Read more

Scott Weinberg is Gone, But the Threat of Purple For Parents Remains

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The political career of Twitter troll and bigot Scott Weinberg ended as abruptly as it began this week, as he announced the end of his candidacy for the Kyrene School District governing board.

You may remember Scott from a post I wrote in January about a contentious board meeting in the Chandler Unified School District where Weinberg and his Purple For Parents compatriots squared off against advocates for equity and LGBTQ+ inclusion. Scott was apparently no fan of that post, as he posted a long thread “fact-checking” my post. Unfortunately, that thread, along with the rest of Scott’s Twitter, is no longer available, for reasons we will get into. But all you really need to know is it began by “fact-checking” my title, “Standing Up for Democracy at the School Board,” by arguing that, well actually, the United States is NOT a democracy, parroting a favorite nonsensical comment section retort pushed by right-wing faux education institutions like Prager U.

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Eight Reasons McSally Lost

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I have been a Republican my entire adult life, I was an active duty military officer and am a combat veteran and I, like many were fooled into believing that the GOP cared about veterans, fiscal stewardship of our military and, yes, I was even fooled into thinking they cared about women and minorities. Fox News and Right-Wing Talk Radio is quite the strong narcotic. But on the night Trump was nominated by the GOP, I had enough, I left the Republican Party the next day, and I never looked back, and I never will. I am a Democrat now, and while this political party is not perfect, it is not the toxic brew of hate bigotry and misogyny that the GOP has morphed into – with zero pushback from virtually all of its members.

When Democrat, Kyrsten Sinema announced she was going to run for Jeff Flake’s Senate seat, I was all in. I immediately volunteered in any way I could. I texted thousands of Arizonans, wrote articles, and helped tell her story to Arizona veterans. As a Tucson native, combat veteran and the spouse of an active duty military member – I wanted the voice of vets like me to be heard. I wanted to help Sinema win this seat and make sure that Martha McSally and her Trumpist rhetoric lost not only her Congressional seat in Tucson, but this coveted Arizona Senate seat as well.

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The whiter shade of pale primaries are now over

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The whiter shade of pale primaries are now over. The overwhelming whiteness of Iowa and New Hampshire, in context. The election results tell us nothing about the greater American electorate, which is far more diverse.

Screenshot from 2016-02-10 13:49:31Iowa and New Hampshire have for far too long enjoyed “first in the nation” status with electorates that are not at all representative of America. They enjoy an outsized influence over our elections which is not merited, and is not healthy for our political process. This should be the last election that these states enjoy “first in the nation” status.

It is long past time that we fix this biased primary system. See Dylan Matthews at Vox.com, I’m from New Hampshire, and the New Hampshire primary has to go:

By putting Iowa and New Hampshire first, the Democratic and Republican parties are effectively saying that disproportionate power and influence should go to a small group of overwhelmingly white people in rural areas and small cities. That influence shouldn’t go to a state or region with a large Hispanic population. It shouldn’t go to a state or region with a large black population. It shouldn’t go to a state with large cities and a strong interest in urban issues. It should go to these people instead.

That does a profound disservice to the millions of Americans living in diverse, densely populated areas. Or, to put it more bluntly, it gives white people outsize power in determining nominees, and disenfranchises black, Hispanic, Asian Americans, and Native Americans relatively speaking.

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On the obsessive focus on poor people’s morality

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Per Gawker:

Ta-Nehisi Coates of the Atlantic and Jonathan Chait of New York have, over the past week, been engaged in something equal parts duel and duet in the pixels of their respective magazine’s websites. Their debate has plumbed the depths of race and racism in America, working out the questions of civic and historical responsibility in a public forum with respect and grace. As readers and citizens we are privileged to bear witness to this dialogue. They’ve also thrown some damn good shade at each other, so let’s look at that.

The Gawker piece provides a quick synopsis of the debate (you should read all the links) and since then Coates (who is the clear winner in my opinion) has followed up with this and this, which I cannot recommend enough.

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