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Veteran journalist: Voters the real losers as U.S. gerrymandering wars grow ever more intense
WASHINGTON – Partisan gerrymandering has run so wild and rampant since the 2020 census that, hard to believe, the next Congress promises to be even more sharply polarized and gridlocked than the current Congress, and there’s nothing voters can do about it – unless the courts step in boldly, right away. The media focuses on […]
Legendary journalist: This is how how we preserve and protect our democracy
WASHINGTON – You may have missed a hugely important story recently because the media soft-pedaled it. But Congress has just taken a major step toward hand-cuffing the unchecked presidential abuse of power that was a hallmark of the Trump Presidency. For four years and more, Donald Trump ran roughshod over the guardrails of our republic...
Code red for American democracy
[Editor’s note: The following essay was written by former New York Times Washington, DC bureau chief, frequent NC Policy Watch contributor and all-around legendary journalist, Hedrick Smith. It originally appeared on Smith’s own website, Reclaim the American Dream.] Veteran journalist sums up the current mess and how we got here For all the uproar among […]
Inside the GOP gerrymander for 2022
WASHINGTON – Republicans are rejoicing and Democrats are dismayed that population losses in the Rust Belt and gains in the Sun Belt, recorded by the 2020 census, will add Congressional seats in key Republican states and may tilt the 2022 elections. But don’t bet just yet on a GOP slam dunk. There’s more to this game than immediately meets the eye.
Some simple truths about the taxes corporations pay and Biden’s proposal blow the whistle on them
[Editor’s note: The following essay was written by former New York Times Washington, DC bureau chief, frequent NC Policy Watch contributor and all-around legendary journalist, Hedrick Smith. It originally appeared on Smith’s own website, Reclaim the American Dream.] WASHINGTON – Okay, let’s talk turkey about taxes and their implication for U.S. economic growth and inequality. […]
Can Biden activate the political center?
Veteran national journalist explores the political opportunities and risks for the new administration WASHINGTON – The battle cry “Go Big, Joe! Go Big!” echoed among Democrats after their underdog candidates scored stunning upset victories in Georgia, picking up two vital senate seats earlier this month. And with his $1.9 trillion corona relief plan, Joe Biden has indeed decided to “Go Big.”
People power scores an important win vs. inequality
WASHINGTON – Unless you tuned out Donald Trump on his final frenetic campaign blitz, you remember seeing him barnstorming across Florida, stoking the fears of Latino voters with his nightmare threat that Joe Biden & Company would “turn America into Communist Cuba or Socialist Venezuela.” Fearmongering pure and simple, but it worked with a big […]
Veteran journalist: It’s time to make billionaires pay their fair share
WASHINGTON – While you and I have focused on the economic havoc of job losses and small businesses shutting down because of the pandemic, we missed noticing that the tiny sliver of super-super-rich at the apex of our economy was simultaneously amassing astronomical fortunes, thanks to the pandemic. A surprise perhaps because that scenario runs […]
Veteran journalist explains how 2020 campaign spending went through the roof
WASHINGTON– The flood tide is still rising, but already the Mega-Money tsunami of Election 2020 is going into the record books as the most expensive election in American history with the biggest flow of dark money ever funneled anonymously to candidates – $750 million, up from a minuscule $5 million a decade ago. With final […]
Legendary national journalist: Three hopeful developments in combating political extremism
[Editor’s note: The following essay was written by former New York Times Washington, DC bureau chief, frequent NC Policy Watch contributor and all-around legendary journalist, Hedrick Smith. It originally appeared on Smith’s own website, Reclaim the American Dream.] WASHINGTON– With the election just days away, are you getting tired of the scaremongering and mud-slinging in […]
Veteran national journalist: Trump is angling to deny the 2020 vote count
WASHINGTON – The ominous danger lurking behind Donald Trump’s mindless, factless fear-mongering about by-mail voting is that his real aim is not to banish this method of voting in 2020, but to legitimize in advance his rationale for rejecting the results of the 2020 presidential election if he loses, a prospect that now seems to […]
Veteran journalist: Can we fix the Electoral College?
(Cross-posted from the website Reclaim the American Dream.org) WASHINGTON– The populist revolt against the Electoral College burst into action after Al Gore won the nationwide popular vote for president in 2000 but George W. Bush won the Presidency. It gained new momentum after Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by 3 million votes in 2016, but […]