Tag / obama
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Demanding A Democratic Response To Neoconservatism
The 2020 election cycle has arrived and the Democrats need a message. With a Republican incumbent (who may be in for a primary challenge), all eyes are on the Democratic field. All Democrats can agree on one thing: at least their nominee won’t be Trump. But such a declaration dismisses the meaningful policy discussions that…
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Sorting, Polarization, And Gridlock: Policy Finds A Way
[su_pullquote align=”right”]Legislative gridlock hasn’t stopped policy from being made, it’s now just being made outside of the normal channels in ways strain our constitutional and political system.[/su_pullquote]American government is broken. Supermajoritarian institutions in the United States, most notably the Senate, have created legislative gridlock and frustrated majorities. The Senate effectively requires 60 votes to pass…
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Dummymandering: How Partisan Gerrymanders Could Backfire In 2018
It is no secret that political parties draw congressional district lines to benefit themselves. However, this November there are two states in which this gerrymandering could backfire on each party. Recent political trends and unexpected demographic shifts have changed the makeup of districts in many states since the district lines were drawn in 2010. This…
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Food Deserts: Where Nutrition Meets Inequality
What is a food desert? The 2008 Farm Bill defines a food desert as an “area in the United States with limited access to affordable and nutritious food, particularly such an area composed of predominantly lower income neighborhoods and communities.” According to the USDA, to qualify as a “low-access community,” at least 500 people and/or…
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Deconstructing the Harvey Experience
I’ll start with a few statistics. Over the course of six days from August 24th to the 30th, Hurricane Harvey dumped an estimated 27 trillion gallons of water onto the area from the tip of Texas to Louisiana. As observed by Vox, that’s approximately 1 million gallons of water for every inhabitant of the state…
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Texas vs. Texas: The Senate That Won’t Stop
Dallas is a divided city. It was divided before President Trump was elected. It was divided before President Obama was elected. It was divided before President Kennedy was assassinated. Dallas is a divided city—that much is obvious. Texas, as a whole, is less fractured. In the sweltering red heat of Republican dominance, only a few…
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Healthcare Partisanship: Where Do We Draw the Line?
In 1986, Ronald Reagan signed the landmark legislation known as EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act) which mandated that hospitals who accepted payments from the federal government (Medicare, Medicaid, etc.) had to provide emergency medical treatment until their condition is stabilized. This widely popular mandate is often cited as a guarantee that every patient…
