Politics | Voter.org

Attending an HBCU Has Always Been an Act of Courage

February 7, 2022 attending, HBCU, courage, been, Always0 comment

On Monday, campus life at at least seven historically Black colleges and universities was interrupted by bomb threats. School leaders alerted students, faculty, and staff. Law-enforcement officers swept the grounds. By midday, some campuses had issued an all-clear while others continued assessing the situation. This was the second time in January that several HBCUs—most of which were created after the Civil War to educate Black students, while the rest of the higher-education establishment refused to—received such threats. A day later, in the predawn hours of the first day of Black…

Does Biden Have a Second Act?

February 3, 2022 Biden, second0 comment

Ronald Reagan did it. So did Bill Clinton. Barack Obama did as well. Can Joe Biden do it too? After a difficult first two years in the White House, Reagan, Clinton, and Obama each rebuilt enough public support to win a second term—not long after many observers had labeled them fatally damaged by their early setbacks. Although the specific environment and challenges confronting those three presidents diverged in many ways, the trajectory of each man’s first term followed the same broad arc. Each was elected at a moment of great…

The Bill That Congress Might Be Embarrassed Enough to Pass

January 30, 2022 pass, might, enough, Embarrassed, Congress, Bill0 comment

In secret meetings two years ago this month, members of Congress were briefed on what the rest of America would soon learn: A deadly virus was spreading rapidly overseas and headed for the United States. Some lawmakers acted immediately—not in the public’s interest, but in their own. They sold stocks weeks before markets crashed, when the scale of the threat posed by the novel coronavirus became broadly known. A global pandemic was unfolding, and these lawmakers were fretting as much about the health of their financial portfolios as about the…

The Voting-Rights Debate Democrats Don’t Want to Have

January 19, 2022 Democrats, debate, want, don't, VotingRights0 comment

Last week was a momentous one for voting rights in America, and not just because of President Joe Biden’s urgent (if unsuccessful) plea for Congress to pass legislation protecting access to the ballot. More than 800,000 people in New York City gained the right to vote with the enactment of a new law allowing legal noncitizens to participate in municipal elections. The law represents one of the biggest single expansions of voting rights in recent years, as well as an enormous victory for immigrants in the nation’s largest city. But…

Trump Soft-Launches His 2024 Campaign

January 16, 2022 SoftLaunches, Campaign, Trump, 20240 comment

FLORENCE, Ariz.—Tonight, deep in the Arizona desert, thousands of people chanted for Donald Trump. They had braved the wind for hours—some waited the entire day—just to get a glimpse of the defeated former president. And when he finally appeared on stage, as Lee Greenwood played from the loudspeakers, the crowd roared as though Trump were still the commander-in-chief. To many of them, he is. “I ran twice and we won twice,” Trump told his fans. “This crowd is a massive symbol of what took place, because people are hungry for…

The Bold Economic Move Joe Biden Refuses to Make

January 12, 2022 economic, Biden, Move, Refuses, Bold0 comment

As Senator Elizabeth Warren sees it, President Joe Biden can solve a lot of problems—for millions of Americans financially, and for himself politically—with a single move that neither Senator Joe Manchin nor any Republican in Congress could veto. The president, she says, should unilaterally wipe out up to $ 50,000 in student-loan debt for every federal borrower in the country. Warren has been beating this drum for just about two years, ever since she unveiled the proposal in a bid to outflank her rivals—including Biden—in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.…