Battle Lines Being Drawn: The Politics of Gerrymandering
How does a party with a minority of votes get a majority of seats in a legislature? Is that how democracy is supposed to work? The population is counted every ten years and then states re-draw the lines for voting districts. The trouble begins when the state legislature draws lines that favor one political party over another. This….Read more
[VIDEO] What’s Meant By States’ Rights?
It’s one of those terms that gets thrown around so easily: states’ rights. Across the ideological spectrum, the principle has been invoked by many causes in many places for centuries. Don’t worry, we’ll cut to the historical chase. Government in America is like the layers of a cake. The national government is supreme in its areas of responsibility,….Read more
What Exactly Is a Constitutional Crisis?
In December of 2000, more than a month after the election between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore, America still had no president-elect. The electoral vote was tied so that the outcome hinged on Florida. Voting irregularities in Florida’s arcane system meant that thousands of ballots were unclear. So both parties fought bitterly over how to….Read more
Is It Zinnsanity to Teach “A People’s History?”
Recently, Texas and Arkansas have proposed laws to ban schools from using texts by Howard Zinn, a Boston University history professor who died in 2010. Why is Zinn so dangerous that he should be banned from school curricula? Here’s a sample, a Zinntilla, if you will: When the ancestors of the people of these….Read more
Why Are Babies Born in US Citizens, Anyway?
The origins of birthright citizenship, as it’s called, are surprising. Today, with the uncertain future of American immigration–legal and illegal–we note that the original intent of part of the 14th amendment was actually to shield former slaves. On the eve of the Civil War, the Supreme Court decided that slaves, and descendants of slaves, were not US citizens….Read more
Dunkirk Miracle Made D-Day Possible
Guest post by Adam Black, adjunct history professor at Monmouth University Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk is the stylistic antithesis of what we expect from a World War II film. The film is powerful. It brilliantly captures this critically important battle an entire year before the U.S. joined the fighting. It was spring of 1940. Luftwaffe fighter planes….Read more
Is the “Special Relationship” with Great Britain on the Rocks?
With Brexit on the horizon and Prime Minister Theresa’s May’s invitation to Trump in limbo, we may ask, “What happened to the special relationship between Great Britain and the United States?” Will it survive the Trump administration? After the London terror attack, President Trump tweeted about Mayor Sadiq Khan, causing Khan to oppose the president’s visit, and a petition….Read more
VIDEO: Can’t We Abolish Taxes?
Did you ever hear the phrase: “It’s not about the money, it’s about the principle”? In a nutshell, that was the American revolt against British taxes in colonial times. Americans refused to obey laws that they had no voice in making. After the new federal government launched in 1789, Americans continued to dispute taxation, well before federal….Read more
55 Words that Changed History: Guest Post by Historian Glenn LeBoeuf
by Glenn LeBoeuf When news of the fighting at Concord & Lexington in April 1775 reached Patrick Henry in Virginia, he rose in the House of Burgesses, knowing that many still did not want to break with Great Britain and exclaimed: “Gentlemen cry ‘peace, peace,’ but there is no peace! Our brethren are already in the field! Why….Read more
Who Cares About NATO?
Trump’s administration is hostile to international agreements such as the Paris Climate Accords, NAFTA, NATO and The Trans-Pacific Partnership. America first, he insists. On a recent European trip, the president did not explicitly commit to NATO’s Article V, its mutual aid clause, an affirmation that other NATO members were hoping for in light of his criticisms on the campaign trail. He did jab allies….Read more