Highbrow Magazine - joe biden https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/joe-biden en Profiles in Cowardice in the Trump Era https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/12480-profiles-cowardice-trump-era <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 08/23/2021 - 11:24</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2mikepence_gageskidmore-flickr.jpg?itok=-IGavuOL"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2mikepence_gageskidmore-flickr.jpg?itok=-IGavuOL" width="480" height="320" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities </em> – Voltaire</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Chapter 1: Vice President Mike Pence</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">After his near-death experience at the hands of a pro-Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and was seeking to hang him, Vice President Mike Pence would be the last person you would expect to take the lead in perpetuating the dangerously false myth that the 2020 election was stolen by President Joe Biden and his Democratic allies. And yet, on March 3, 2021, Pence broke his silence by writing an op-ed piece for the <em>Daily Signal</em>. The piece opposed HR 1, the voting rights bill backed by House Democrats, which proposed what Republicans believed was the radical and dangerous concept that American voters should be encouraged to vote and that the procedures should make it as easy as possible to do so. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Pence’s op-ed started out by stating: “After an election marked by significant voting irregularities and numerous instances of officials setting aside state election law, I share the concerns of millions of Americans about the integrity of the 2020 election.” This remarkable (and totally false) reference to “significant voting irregularities” put Pence exactly where he decided he wanted to be if he expected to have any future in the Republican Party, which was now the 100 percent anti-democratic party seeking to cling to what remaining power it could through voter suppression efforts. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Simply stated, Pence and the entire Republican Party leadership realized that the only way their party could avoid becoming a permanent minority party of right-wing conspiracy theorists, white nationalists, and xenophobic populists was if the states sharply restricted voting rights. This meant requiring photo ID, signature verifications, restrictions on mail-in and absentee voting, and other Jim Crow-type laws that discouraged or prevented voters who aren’t white from exercising their voting franchise. In order to justify these restrictions, they first had to promulgate and perpetuate Trump’s Big Lie, which was that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen from Trump through massive election fraud. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Across the country, Republican state legislators proposed hundreds of bills to do things such as scale back voting by mail, despite no evidence of substantial fraud with regard to mail-in voting or any other form of voting, and these voter suppression efforts became the number-one priority for Republican-controlled legislatures in several key swing states.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">If former Vice President Pence had just restrained himself from jumping on the election fraud and companion voter suppression Republican bandwagon after Trump lost the 2020 election, he would have gone down in history as one of the preeminent examples of profiles in courage during the Trump era. After all, he had resisted extreme pressure from Trump to invalidate enough state electoral slates to swing the election results away from Biden and to Trump on January 6, 2021. But Pence, to his credit, performed his constitutional responsibility on January 6 by correctly certifying the actual election result, not the fictitious one that Trump was angling for. Pence then paid the price for it by being vilified by Trump and being hunted down inside the Capitol on January 6 by a mob shouting, “Hang Mike Pence!”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Before the fleeting courage he displayed during the counting of the electoral votes in Congress on January 6, there had been nothing particularly extraordinary about Mike Pence’s tenure as vice president. He displayed a seemingly limitless ability to quietly sit on the sidelines as President Trump wildly careened from one crisis to another, usually of his own making. Pence remained silent even as his boss insisted on picking fights with our country’s friends in NATO and elsewhere around the globe while, at the same time, cozying up to President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un of North Korea, and other despots that he clearly admired and wished to emulate. Pence’s dedication to the president seemed limitless, and no controversy—not the <em>Access Hollywood </em>tape, the Ukraine scandal, nor the St. John’s church photo op with an upside-down Bible—ever caused Pence to break with Trump or even try to put a little daylight between them. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1trumppence_gage_skidmore-flickr.jpg" style="height:400px; width:600px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">For four long years, Pence watched this disastrous combination of White House soap opera and reality TV show with perfect equanimity. No matter how outrageous the president’s words or actions, he stood by his man with a smile permanently affixed to his face and never a single hair on his perfectly coiffed head out of place. His legendary equanimity was forever memorialized when a large fly landed on his head for a full two minutes during a televised debate with now Vice President Kamala Harris. Pence never flinched, causing the fly to eventually give up from boredom, flying off in search of a more interesting venue. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Pence came direct from central casting for his role as vice president, displaying all of the qualities that we would expect of someone playing the part of second fiddle to the leader of the free world. He was disciplined, always on message, and loyal to a fault. But then, through no fault of his own, all of the goodwill that he built up with the president and his supporters over a long and stressful four years was put into jeopardy on one fateful day: January 6, 2021. The vice president, as we all know by now, does not generally have any real responsibilities other than to stay alive and be available to step up in the event that the president dies or is disabled. Thus, the vice president is literally “only one heartbeat away from the presidency.” However, the office has been less generously described by John Nance “Cactus Jack” Garner, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s running mate in 1932, as “not worth a bucket of warm spit.” </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">While Garner’s description is memorable, it is not entirely accurate. The vice president also serves as president of the Senate, which requires him or her to do two things. First of all, he or she has to break any tie vote in the Senate with the deciding vote. Secondly, every four years, on the sixth day of January of the year following a presidential election, the vice president must preside over a pro forma certification of the Electoral College vote and formally announce who will be the next president to be sworn in on January 20. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">As you may guess, this is a job any sixth-grader could handle, since it only requires the ability to add up the number of state electors for one of the candidates (in this case, President Trump), add up the number of electors for the opposing candidate (in this case, Joe Biden), and then declare the one with 270 or more electoral votes to be the winner of the presidential election. Sounds simple, right? The answer is “yes”—usually. But the 2020 election in the Trump era was anything but usual. After losing to Biden, Trump clung to the fantasy that he could retain power and continue to occupy the White House by alleging, without any basis in fact, that there had been widespread voter fraud and that the election had been stolen from him. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Trump’s scheme to overturn the 2020 election results failed to win the support of Republican state election officials and governors in key states. Even the Republican-controlled legislatures would not help him in dumping the Biden electoral slates and replacing them with Trump electors. Trump was quickly running out of time and options. The 60 or so election challenges brought by Rudy Giuliani and the rest of his legal gang-that-couldn’t- shoot-straight failed miserably in one after another state and federal court. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">These election challenges failed even in courts where Republican elected or appointed judges presided. These state and federal judges almost uniformly refused to reverse the election results in states where Biden had won narrow victories. This was not especially surprising, since judges are sworn to make decisions based upon the facts presented and the applicable law, and the Trump campaign and pro-Trump lawyers failed miserably in presenting any evidence of widespread fraud in support of their specious claims of voting irregularities. As long as they were not biased and uninfluenced by political consideration, even these Republican appointed or elected judges could not rule in favor of the Trump team while, at the same time, upholding the rule of law and their oaths to act impartially. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1congress_1.jpg" style="height:417px; width:626px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">This left Trump with only one last line of defense before he had to suffer the shame and ignominy of vacating the White House. The label that Trump always liked to pin on any adversary or critic was “Loser,” and he could not bear the thought that such a label would finally, at long last, be applied to him as well. Only Vice President Mike Pence and the Republican members of Congress who were willing to usurp the Constitution and overturn the election results could snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. All Pence had to do was violate his oath of office and do something that the Constitution did not permit him to do, which was to discard the Biden slates of electors submitted to Congress by Arizona and Pennsylvania and perhaps other states. Then Pence, as the president of the Senate, would recognize Trump’s bogus slates of electors for those states and declare Donald J. Trump as the once and future president of the United States. That, anyway, was the plan. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">This was Vice President Pence’s ultimate loyalty test: Either back Trump and overturn the election results or incur the wrath of Trump and his increasingly agitated supporters by ratifying the victory of Joe Biden as required by the Constitution and federal law. Trump felt he could count on Pence this one last time and with good reason: Pence had done his bidding up to that point, so why would he dare cross Trump this time? </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The first signs of trouble for Trump from his erstwhile loyal factotum and vice president came when a federal lawsuit was filed against Pence in late December 2020 by Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert and 11 other Arizona Republicans who would have become presidential electors had Trump actually won that state. The plaintiffs sought to give the vice president the power to reject state-certified presidential electors in favor of “competing slates of electors” so that Biden’s victory over Trump could be overturned. The U.S. Department of Justice represented Pence in this case, and in arguing for its dismissal stated that the lawsuit was a “walking legal contradiction” because it sought to grant powers to the vice president not found in the Constitution while, at the same time, suing the vice president. Within a week, the lawsuit was dismissed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, and the appeal was rejected by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit panel. Both courts held that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue Pence. Gohmert then appealed to the Supreme Court, which on January 7 summarily denied his petition.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In the days preceding the Joint Session of Congress that the vice president would be presiding over on January 6, Trump ratcheted up the pressure on Pence to go along with the plot to overturn the election results and prevent the Biden-Harris team from being certified. Trump publicly stated that he expected Pence to use his position to overturn the election results in swing states and declare Trump-Pence the winners of the election. Pence told Trump that the relevant portions of the Constitution and federal law did not give him that power. Trump ignored him, publicly insisting: “The Vice President and I are in total agreement that the Vice President has the power to act.” </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Before the start of the Joint Session, however, Pence stated in a letter to Congress that the Constitution prevented him from deciding which electoral votes should be counted and which should not, writing that “vesting the Vice President with unilateral authority to decide presidential contests would be entirely antithetical to” the system of checks and balances between branches of the government designed by the framers of the Constitution. He concluded: </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">“The Presidency belongs to the American people, and to them alone.” Trump must have thought he was bluffing, and that when push came to shove, Pence would fold like a rusty lawn chair and go along with the program carefully orchestrated by Trump loyalists in the Senate and in the House. After all, Pence had gone along with Trump on everything up until then. Trump would tell his vice president to jump, and Pence would ask, “How high?” This was just one more bridge for them to cross together. Much to Trump’s dismay, however, this one was a bridge too far for Pence. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">On the morning of January 6, the day on which a joint session of Congress met to count and certify the results of the electoral college for the 2020 presidential election, Trump held a rally near the White House at which he urged his assembled army of supporters to march on the Capitol, repeatedly expressing the expectation that Pence would “do the right thing.”  His MAGA troops then marched to the Capitol at the president’s direction and stormed it. Some rioters were overheard saying they wanted to seize Pence and lynch him, with many others loudly shouting that he should be executed. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3mikepencekarenpence_gage_skidmore-wikipedia.jpg" style="height:368px; width:600px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The bloodthirsty mob of rioters searching the U.S. Capitol for Pence missed him by only a matter of seconds. <em>The Washington Post </em>reported on January 15 that Pence came “dangerously close” to the rioters during their occupation of the Capitol. He was not evacuated from the Senate chambers until 14 minutes after the initial breach of the Capitol was reported. He and his family were eventually ushered from the Senate chambers into a second-floor hideaway, but only in the nick of time. One minute later, the mob rushed onto a stair landing only 100 feet away, from which they could have seen him enter the room if they had arrived a minute earlier. Pence later approved the deployment of the National Guard after Trump delayed taking that action and after frantic calls to the White House informing Trump’s staff that many of the members of Congress were trapped in various rooms and could not leave until relief forces arrived.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">This January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, and the plot to prevent the certification of the election results that day, were without precedent in American history. The closest equivalent was the 1860 presidential election, after which seven Southern states seceded because they objected to the election of President Abraham Lincoln. After Lincoln’s inauguration, four more states joined the newly formed Confederate States of America, and two others partially seceded. And yet none of the seceding states or their elected representative in Congress claimed that Lincoln’s victory was illegitimate or stolen. Nor did anyone ever argue that Lincoln’s predecessor, the pro-slavery James Buchanan, should remain in office after the election. Until Trump, there had never been a sitting president who encouraged his supporters to forcibly stop the certification of a presidential election so he could stay in office. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Fortuitously, neither the vice president nor any of the members of Congress were seized by the mob, and none were physically injured. While still holed up in a secure room in the Capitol, Pence defiantly tweeted that “The violence and destruction taking place at the US Capitol Must Stop and it Must Stop Now. Anyone involved must respect Law Enforcement officers and immediately leave the building.” Trump was in his radio silence mode at that point, waiting to see which way the pendulum would swing. If the insurrection succeeded, he would be the beneficiary of it. If it failed, he would deny responsibility. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">While his vice president was still in peril of being captured and killed by the pro-Trump mob ransacking the Capitol, Trump unleashed a torrent of invective, attacking Pence for not doing his utmost to illegally overturn the results of the election. “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!” Trump tweeted. L. Lin Wood, a Georgia lawyer associated with Trump, was more explicit as to what should happen to the vice president, calling for Pence to be “executed” by “firing squad.” A gallows and a noose was actually erected just outside the Capitol. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In spite of the mortal danger that Pence was in, Trump never contacted him during the siege of the Capitol to inquire as to his well-being or that of his family members who were with him. It appeared to knowledgeable observers that Pence was being set up as a scapegoat for Trump’s failure to overturn the results of the election. Pence was understandably angry with Trump, but still held his tongue.  What he did do was more important than what he said, anyway. After the Capitol was cleared and Congress reconvened on the evening of January 6, Pence declared Biden and Harris the winners after Republican objections were voted down.” He also bluntly told the rioters: “You did not win.” Trump probably wishes in retrospect that he had chosen a vice president even more compliant than Mike Pence. It is likely that he will forever blame Pence for letting him down. Just when the Trump-incited insurrection was on the brink of success and needed him the most, Pence hesitated to jump on board, using the excuse that what Trump was asking for was not permitted by the Constitution. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">For the rest of us, however, Pence’s decision to do his constitutional duty on January 6, 2021, was a historic moment of truth for the country. When Vice President Pence certified the actual 2020 election results (rather than the phony ones that Trump was looking for), all Americans grounded in reality and in favor of the continuation of our noble democratic experiment breathed a collective sigh of relief. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1u.s.capitol_noclip-wikipedia.jpg" style="height:257px; width:600px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Vice President Pence and Second Lady Karen Pence then stood by at the inaugural ceremony for President-elect Joe Biden on January 20, from which outgoing President Trump was noticeably absent. Although these were courageous acts, Pence incurred the wrath of both Trump and his diehard base. As Trump re-emerged as the odds-on favorite to be the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, there was talk circulating that Trump would dump Pence as his vice-presidential candidate, since Pence had shown himself to be disloyal to Trump by refusing to violate his oath of office and constitutional responsibilities. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Pence squandered his opportunity to be remembered for all time as a great American hero, however, by cravenly falling back into lockstep with the other Republican Trumpists who felt it was necessary for their own political survival to reaffirm their allegiance to the Big Lie that there was rampant election fraud in the country and that sharply restrictive voting laws needed to be urgently enacted to combat this fictitious scourge upon our nation. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Excerpted with permission from the publisher, Bryant Park Press, from <em>Profiles in Cowardice </em>and<em> Profiles in Courage</em> by Kenneth Foard McCallion.  (Copyright 2021 by Kenneth Foard McCallion.  Bryant Park Press is an imprint of HHI Media Inc.)</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>KENNETH FOARD MCCALLION</strong> <strong>is author of the new books, <em>Profiles in Courage in the Trump Era </em>and P<em>rofiles in Cowardice in the Trump Era</em>.  He is also the author of the forthcoming<em> Saving The World One Case At a Time</em>. He has appeared on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” “Cuomo Prime Time,” and Netflix, and his expertise has been published by dozens of major news outlets including<em> The New York Times, MarketWatch, Salon,</em> and <em>USA Today</em>. He previously worked as a prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice, the New York State Attorney General’s Office, and the New York State Special Prosecutor for Nursing Homes (now Medicaid Fraud Control Unit). His legal practice involves environmental health, hospitals, nursing homes, and other medically related issues, and he previously worked for the New York City Department of Health. He is a graduate of Yale University and Fordham Law School and is the author of <em>COVID-19: The Virus That Changed America and The World</em> (2020), <em>Treason &amp; Betrayal: The Rise and Fall of Individual-1</em> (2019), <em>The Essential Guide to Donald Trump</em> (2016), and <em>Shoreham and the Rise and Fall of the Nuclear Power Industry </em>(1995). Ken is also an Adjunct Professor at Cardozo Law School in Manhattan and has lectured at Fairfield University in Connecticut.</strong> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Image Sources:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Gage Skidmore (</em><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/22007612@N05/29270338142" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Flickr</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Gage Skidmore (</em><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/22007612@N05/29302369541" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Flickr</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Noclip (</em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Capitol_Building_Full_View.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Wikipedia</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Lawrence Jackson (WhiteHouse.gov, </em><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Obama_Health_Care_Speech_to_Joint_Session_of_Congress.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Wikimedia</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Gage Skidmore (</em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mike_Pence_%26_Karen_Pence_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Wikipedia</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/kenneth-foard-mccallion" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Kenneth Foard McCallion</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mike-pence" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">mike pence</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/january-6" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">january 6</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/capitol-riots" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">capitol riots</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/vice-president" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">vice president</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/trump-administration" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">trump administration</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/democrats" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Democrats</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/republicans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Republicans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/joe-biden" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">joe biden</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/voting-rights-bill" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">voting rights bill</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cowards" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cowards</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cowardice" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cowardice</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Kenneth Foard McCallion</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 23 Aug 2021 15:24:04 +0000 tara 10582 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/12480-profiles-cowardice-trump-era#comments President Biden Promises More Successful Diplomacy and Foreign Policy https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/12450-president-biden-promises-more-successful-diplomacy-and-foreign-policy <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 08/03/2021 - 13:46</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1joejillbiden_adam_schultz_bidenforpresident.jpg?itok=ULwrYFF8"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1joejillbiden_adam_schultz_bidenforpresident.jpg?itok=ULwrYFF8" width="480" height="320" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Following the tragedy of World War II, the United States took on a world leadership role, doing everything possible to guard against future tyranny and human misery. We did not do this alone. Until recently, the U.S. has always sought to create and support enduring alliances, to form partnerships of common interest against threats to our security, our hope of prosperity, and the health of our planet.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">After four years of a narrow, isolationist foreign policy, combined with a reluctance to push back on Vladimir Putin and other autocratic regimes, the international community is hoping for a re-engaged United States—one that is willing to be an international leader once again.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/kellyhymanbook.jpg" style="height:584px; width:390px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Promises</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Biden has promised to lead with diplomacy once again and to repair relationships with U.S. allies, particularly the NATO alliance. After four years of Trump’s erratic foreign policies, European leaders are confident in President Biden’s leadership but also believe that the U.S. political system needs to undergo major changes or be reformed altogether.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Biden has maintained that the restoration of America’s reputation is to lead by example, both domestically and in concert with our allies. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">“The United States must lead not just with the example of power, but the power of our example,” he said. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan also said, “The most profound national security challenge facing the United States is getting our own house in order, is domestic renewal.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">For Biden and his team, the ultimate purpose of foreign policy is to make life better for our own citizens and to respect the rights of other countries to do the same. What he rejects is Trump’s nationalism and isolationism when it comes to international trade and the give-and-take of global alliances.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">What this means is that to rebuild American global power, the United States must start by getting the pandemic under control, which means recognizing its international nature and strengthening the crushed U.S. economy with investments in technology and infrastructure. This, coupled with a substantive recommitment to traditional allies and a firm-but-fair stance with our adversaries, will help the world believe that we still deserve the title of superpower.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1joebidenandkamalaharris_whitehouse.jpg" style="height:450px; width:600px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Accomplishments</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Biden’s first one hundred days have been dominated by the COVID-19 crisis and the push to restore American infrastructure. That said, he has sent a strong signal—strengthening old alliances and taking tougher stances on aggressor nations—by appointing a seasoned diplomat, Anthony Blinken, to head the State Department.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">To underscore his focus on re-establishing alliances, Biden’s first announced overseas trip will be the G7 summit in Cornwall, England. There has been some anxiety in the U.K. over Biden’s Irish heritage and whose “side” he is likely to favor in the Brexit debacle, but Biden’s peacemaking efforts during the Reagan administration tell a different story. Many expect him to lead by diplomacy although he has taken some tough stances internationally. With advance notice to Turkish President Edrogan, Biden officially acknowledged that the 1915 killings of Armenians in Turkey was, in fact, genocide, a move that no previous president had been willing to make.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Some of Biden’s “tough but fair” moves have involved U.S. adversaries, notably the Russian Federation. In April 2021, he ordered new economic sanctions on Russia in response to its election interference, aggression against Ukraine, offering bounties on U.S. troops, and their cyberattacks on U.S. government networks.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Regarding China, Biden described his relationship with President Xi Jinping as “cordial” but acknowledged concerns over rights abuses and expects to compete with China on multiple levels such as trade, technology, and military power. He has also addressed China’s growing dominance in Iran, warning the Xi government that the U.S. will enforce Trump administration sanctions on Iranian oil—which China is increasingly buying. While Biden expects no changes in Xi, he strongly believes that to confront China internationally, we must first fix our own country and call on our allies more often.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Under Biden, American policy toward North Korea will focus on working with allies to pressure the Kim Jong Un government toward denuclearization. Although Biden considers North Korea a major foreign policy issue, he also said he would not pursue “personal diplomacy” with Kim. Such an approach should only happen if it was part of an actual strategy that advanced the prospects for denuclearization.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The Middle East presents a long list of complex challenges, beginning with Iran and its nuclear and regional ambitions. Early on, Biden declared he wants to find a way to bring Iran back to the bargaining table, but it will be a hard sell politically and will make Israel nervous. However, Biden has also shown his willingness to respond to Iranian aggression by authorizing surgical strikes against Iranian-backed militias in Syria. So we can expect continuing low-level conflict as the U.S. and Iran compete for influence while trying to find a nuclear solution that would benefit both.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Challenges in Middle East policy will persist long after Biden’s first one hundred days, but he has already taken initiatives that his predecessors would not. On April 14, he announced that, in conjunction with NATO forces, the United States would withdraw its forces from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021. He has also signaled to traditional Middle Eastern allies that they can still be friends with the U.S., but that such dealings will require more concessions to American interests—and more accountability for their behavior on human rights.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>This is an excerpt from Kelly Hyman’s new book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Build-Back-Better-Administration-Beyond/dp/1637550898/ref=sr_1_9?dchild=1&amp;keywords=build+back+better&amp;qid=1624297685&amp;sr=8-9" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Build Back Better: The First 100 Days of the Biden Administration, and Beyond</a> (Amplify Publishing). It’s published here with permission.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Kelly Hyman is an attorney, television commentator, legal analyst, and Democratic strategist. She has appeared on BBC, ABC, NBC LX,  CBS, NBC,  Law &amp; Crime, CourtTV, Sky News, I24News, Fox News, and numerous local affiliates.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Hyman was born in Miami Beach. She was raised by a single mother in New York City and in Southern California. There, she became a child actor, a voice actor, and later appeared in television shows, The Young and the Restless and Getting There, as well as off-Broadway in New York and in a movie with Batman star Adam West.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>After earning her law degree from the University of Florida College of Law, Kelly served as president of the Federal Bar, Palm Beach Chapter, volunteered for President Obama’s election and reelection, and served as a poll watcher to protect voter rights during the presidential election. </em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Image Sources:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--WhiteHouse.gov (<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joe_Biden,_Kamala_Harris_(collage).jpg" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Wikimedia.org</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Adam Schultz (Biden For President, <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/183493676@N07/50225852586" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Flickr</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Amplify Publishing</em></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/joe-biden" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">joe biden</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/kamala-harris" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">kamala harris</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/anthony-blinken" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">anthony blinken</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/us-foreign-policy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">U.S. foreign policy</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/diplomacy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">diplomacy</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/state-department" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">State Department</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/european-allies" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">european allies</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/russia" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Russia</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/vladimir-putin" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">vladimir putin</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/china" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">China</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/xi-ping" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">xi ping</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/president-biden" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">president biden</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Kelly Hyman</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 03 Aug 2021 17:46:21 +0000 tara 10550 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/12450-president-biden-promises-more-successful-diplomacy-and-foreign-policy#comments The Modern Presidency: Wherefore Art Thou, American Legislature? https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/11253-modern-presidency-wherefore-art-thou-american-legislature <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 02/09/2021 - 10:35</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1congress.jpg?itok=kc61thYp"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1congress.jpg?itok=kc61thYp" width="480" height="320" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>Opinion:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>One of the important takeaways from this presidential election and its aftermath, more than the win or loss and explanations of why, has to do with the perception of the top office's importance and the gravity of the executive office.</p> <p> </p> <p>In one sense, it's easy to see voters caring about the down-ballot races. The number of undervoted ballots, where only the top race is voted, actually <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/nov/20/sidney-powell/sidney-powell-claim-450000-votes-were-only-biden-k/" style="color:navy; text-decoration:underline">declined</a> in several key swing states. It's an easy measure of voters viewing the office of the presidency as more important than everything else on the ballot.</p> <p> </p> <p>Even though these numbers have dropped, we see other areas in which concern over the scale and scope of the presidency lurks behind charged partisan rhetoric. Be it Glenn Beck's nonsensical concerns of a dictatorship arising from the nascent Obama administration in 2008; the fears of Donald Trump crashing through norms that seemed, for much of 2017 and 2018, to hit the pages of <em>The Washington Post </em>weekly; or the most recent claim, by Scott Adams, that the Republican Party will never win another presidential election because of its recent loss, the consequences of a change in the inhabitant of the Oval Office have been regularly overstated by the media. A fever pitch is reached by one media group, loosely affiliated with partisans of one side, when the other's candidate of choice wins.</p> <p> </p> <p>What's missing is a reflective look at what causes this fever pitch -- in extreme and dangerous tones with potentially real consequences.</p> <p> </p> <p>A flashpoint of this contention has been the executive order. Most notably, President Obama's <a href="https://www.npr.org/2014/01/20/263766043/wielding-a-pen-and-a-phone-obama-goes-it-alone" style="color:navy; text-decoration:underline">statement</a> that “I've got a pen and I've got a phone,” which covered more than actions requiring the secrecy and dispatch that other areas in which the presidency is accorded a freer hand, namely foreign policy: “Helping to make sure our kids are getting the best education possible, making sure that our businesses are getting the kind of support and help they need to grow and advance, to make sure that people are getting the skills that they need to get those jobs that our businesses are creating.”</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1obama_obamawhitehousearchives.jpg" style="height:400px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Reader, please note: All these require definition, as explained in Harold Lasswell’s book, <em>Politics: Who Gets What, When, How</em>. What is the best education? What environments require what kind of support? If you're wondering where the legislature comes into the picture, this is exactly where it ought to: these are choices regarding who gets what, when, and how, typically seen as the province of the political — and, as such, a question to be deliberated in the legislature.</p> <p> </p> <p>It's easy to critique President Obama for this. We know what comes next. But even when Donald Trump did become president, no major effort was made to curtail executive power via the legislature. For obvious reasons, the Republicans made no effort; on the other side of the aisle, the efforts took a more litigious form. The political branches brought problems to the third branch, the federal courts.</p> <p> </p> <p>At their least effective, lawsuits used Trump's motivation to act as a vector for the travel ban; they also appeared to offer complications only when moving in one direction on DACA. No efforts were made to lower the stakes of a change in executive orders through legislation, nor were any major deals made.</p> <p> </p> <p>It's possible to say nobody has been good at wheeling and dealing since John Boehner was all but chased off Capitol Hill by his own caucus. Instead, the public was treated to the spectacle of political branches attempting to rope the courts into their quests.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/trumpillustration_michael_bechetti_0.jpg" style="height:526px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Pen-and-phone constitutionalism has a sort of addictive quality to it. Despite having a majority in the House and a tiebreaking potential in the Senate, we still witness <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/6-state-attorneys-general-warn-biden-over-potential-presidential-overreach_3674617.html" style="color:navy; text-decoration:underline">President Biden taking actions</a> on his own initiative, rather than attempting a more durable change through coaxing the legislature into action.</p> <p> </p> <p>Some might claim such an effort is necessary to avoid obstruction in the legislature, particularly the Senate, but this strikes at a fundamental problem: an inability to negotiate and bargain, perhaps a lack of prioritization of platform planks.</p> <p> </p> <p>The “missing-in-action” legislature is a late disappointment in American politics, especially considering its original design. Successfully lowering the stakes of presidential races will require more input from the legislative branch, particularly a more active, detail-oriented role in making the rules and regulations that affect Americans’ day-to-day lives.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Adam Gravano is a contributing writer at</em> Highbrow Magazine.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Image Sources:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><em>Lawrence Jackson (Whitehouse.gov, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Obama_Health_Care_Speech_to_Joint_Session_of_Congress.jpg" style="color:navy; text-decoration:underline">Wikimedia</a>, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><em>Sonya N. Hebert (Obama White House Archives, <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2013/01/21/second-inauguration-barack-obama" style="color:navy; text-decoration:underline">Creative Commons</a>)</em></p> <p><em>Illustration by Michael Bechetti for Highbrow Magazine</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/congress" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">congress</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/congress-persons" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">congress persons</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/politicians" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">politicians</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/american-legislature" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">american legislature</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/american-government" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">american government</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Obama</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/joe-biden" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">joe biden</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/diplomacy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">diplomacy</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/executive-orders" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">executive orders</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Adam Gravano</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 09 Feb 2021 15:35:05 +0000 tara 10154 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/11253-modern-presidency-wherefore-art-thou-american-legislature#comments Joe Biden and John Kerry Can Rebuild U.S. Global Climate Leadership https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/11083-joe-biden-and-john-kerry-can-rebuild-us-global-climate-leadership <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 12/08/2020 - 10:50</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1joebidenandjohnkerry_statedept.jpg?itok=G7YsXDRK"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1joebidenandjohnkerry_statedept.jpg?itok=G7YsXDRK" width="480" height="319" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong><em>This article was originally published in </em></strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-biden-and-kerry-could-rebuild-americas-global-climate-leadership-150120" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><strong><em>The Conversation</em></strong></a><strong><em>. It’s republished here with permission under a Creative Commons license.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p>John Kerry helped bring the world into the Paris climate agreement and expanded America’s reputation as a climate leader. That reputation is now in tatters, and President-elect Joe Biden is asking Kerry to rebuild it again – this time as climate envoy, a position Biden plans to include in the National Security Council.</p> <p> </p> <p>It won’t be easy, but Kerry’s decades of experience and the international relationships he developed as a senator and secretary of state may give him a chance of making real progress, especially if that work is conducted in the spirit of mending relationships rather than “naming and shaming” other countries.</p> <p> </p> <p>Over the past four years, the Trump administration pulled the U.S. out of the international Paris Agreement on climate change, rolled back policies that were designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and tried to prevent any discussion of climate change at international gatherings like the G-7 and G-20 summits.</p> <p> </p> <p>The international community, meanwhile, largely moved forward. Many countries and regions have pledged to move their economies toward “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of the century, including China, the European Union, South Korea, and Japan. An increasing number of cities and states have set similar goals. Trump’s hardline stance may have actually emboldened some, notably China, to make such announcements.</p> <p> </p> <p>Getting those pledges implemented is what matters now, and that will require leadership, detailed planning, and careful diplomacy. The U.N. climate conference in November 2021 will be special. It will be the first time countries will evaluate their progress on the Paris Agreement, and they will be expected to strengthen their commitments. Biden has already signaled that he will bring the U.S. back into the agreement as soon as he takes office.</p> <p> </p> <p>As energy policy experts who have been involved in international climate policy for over two decades, we have watched how countries responded to U.S. involvement, and how their views of America’s ability to lead the world dimmed over the past four years.</p> <p> </p> <p>The U.S. is the second-largest greenhouse gas emitter worldwide after China. It is also the largest emitter historically. Concrete domestic action to reduce those emissions will be critical to regaining trust and standing on the global stage.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4climatechange_tumisu-pixabay.jpg" style="height:406px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Energy is at the center of the climate challenge</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>The effects of climate change are already evident across the globe, from extreme heat waves to sea level rise. But while the challenge is daunting, there is hope. Solar and wind power have become the cheapest forms of power generation globally, and technology progress and innovation continue apace to support a transition to clean energy.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the U.S. under a Biden administration, long-term national climate legislation will depend on who controls the Senate, and that won’t be clear until after two run-off elections in Georgia in January.</p> <p> </p> <p>But there is no shortage of ideas for ways Biden could still take action even if his proposals are blocked in Congress. For example, he could use executive orders and direct government agencies to tighten regulations on greenhouse gas emissions; increase research and development in clean energy technologies; and empower states to exceed national standards, as California did in the past with auto emission standards. A focus on a just and equitable transition for communities and people affected by the decline of fossil fuels will also be key to creating a sustainable transition.</p> <p> </p> <p>The U.S. position as the world’s largest oil and gas producer and consumer creates political challenges for any administration. U.S. forays into European energy security are often treated with suspicion. Recently, France blocked a multi-billion-dollar contract to buy U.S. liquefied natural gas because of concerns about limited emissions regulations in Texas.</p> <p> </p> <p>Strengthening cooperation and partnerships with like-minded countries will be critical to bring about a transition to cleaner energy as well as sustainability in agriculture, forestry, water, and other sectors of the global economy.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2johnkerry_statedept.jpg" style="height:314px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Creating a global sustainable transition</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>How the world recovers from COVID-19’s economic damage could help drive a lasting shift in the global energy mix.</p> <p> </p> <p>Nearly one-third of Europe’s US$2 trillion economic relief package involves investments that are also good for the climate. The European Union is also strengthening its 2030 climate targets, although each country’s energy and climate plans will be critical for successfully implementing them. The Biden plan – including a $2 trillion commitment to developing sustainable energy and infrastructure – is aligned with a global energy transition, but its implementation is also uncertain.</p> <p> </p> <p>Once Biden takes office, Kerry will be joining ongoing high-level discussions on the energy transition at the U.N. General Assembly and other gatherings of international leaders. With the U.S. no longer obstructing work on climate issues, the G-7 and G-20 have more potential for progress on energy and climate.</p> <p> </p> <p>Lots of technical details still need to be worked out, including international trade frameworks and standards that can help countries lower greenhouse gas emissions enough to keep global warming in check. Carbon pricing and carbon border adjustment taxes, which create incentives for companies to reduce emissions, may be part of it. A consistent and comprehensive set of national energy transition plans will also be needed.</p> <p> </p> <p>The global shift to clean energy will also have geopolitical implications for countries and regions, and this will have a profound impact on wider international relations. Kerry, with his experience as secretary of state in the Obama administration, and Biden’s plan to make the climate envoy position part of the National Security Council, may help mend these relations. In doing so, the U.S. may again join the wider community of countries willing to lead.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bios:</strong></p> <p><strong><em>Dolf Gielen is the </em></strong><strong><em>Payne Institute Fellow at the Colorado School of Mines.</em></strong></p> <p><strong><em>Morgan Bazilian is </em></strong><strong><em>Professor of Public Policy and Director, Payne Institute, at the Colorado School of Mines.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>This article was originally published in </em></strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-biden-and-kerry-could-rebuild-americas-global-climate-leadership-150120" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><strong><em>The Conversation</em></strong></a><strong><em>. It’s republished here with permission under a Creative Commons license.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Image Sources:</strong></p> <p><em>--Tumisu (<a href="https://pixabay.com/illustrations/climate-change-global-warming-2063240/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Pixabay</a>, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><em>--U.S. State Department (</em><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vice_President_Biden_Swears_In_Secretary_Kerry_(1).jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Wikimedia</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)                    </em></p> <p><em>--U.S. State Department (</em><a href="https://2009-2017.state.gov/e/oes/climate/cop22/index.htm" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Creative Commons</em></a><em>)</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/joe-biden" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">joe biden</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/john-kerry" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">john kerry</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/climate-change" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/paris-climate-agreement" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Paris Climate Agreement</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/fossil-fuels" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">fossil fuels</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/global-warming" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">global warming</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/biden-administration" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Biden administration</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Dolf Gielen and Morgan Bazilian </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 08 Dec 2020 15:50:04 +0000 tara 10037 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/11083-joe-biden-and-john-kerry-can-rebuild-us-global-climate-leadership#comments Why Was Someone Like Donald Trump Even Elected? https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/11066-why-was-someone-donald-trump-even-elected <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 11/25/2020 - 12:16</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/trumpillustration_michael_bechetti.jpg?itok=fcOMkMHp"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/trumpillustration_michael_bechetti.jpg?itok=fcOMkMHp" width="480" height="421" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>This is an excerpt from </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Patriots-Two-Nations-Inevitable-Happens-ebook/dp/B087BKWGH5" style="color:black; text-decoration:none"><strong><em>Patriots of Two Nations: Why Trump Was Inevitable and What Happens Next</em></strong></a><strong> (McDavid Media) by Spencer Critchley, a former adviser to President Obama. Printed with permission.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Election Night (2016)</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>On Nov. 8, 2016, I was at a hotel in Phoenix, Arizona, at a party I had helped organize for the Hillary Clinton campaign. Like everyone else there and at similar gatherings across the country, I assumed we were about to celebrate Hillary’s election as the next President of the United States.</p> <p> </p> <p>It wasn’t that Hillary had run a great campaign — far from it. That’s why I was there. I had flown to Phoenix just eight days before to help with media relations, social media, photography, and anything else I could contribute, including setting up the stage and wrangling reporters at this party.</p> <p> </p> <p>Like many people who had worked on previous Democratic presidential campaigns, I had planned to sit this one out, figuring I wouldn’t be needed. On paper if not on the stump, Hillary was one of the most qualified candidates in history. Her opponent looked to us like one of the <em>leas</em>t qualified in history — and he himself seemed to assume Hillary would win.</p> <p> </p> <p>Donald Trump was a real estate promoter and TV personality with a bad reputation in his home city of New York and no experience in government. He had built his political profile by exploiting a racist conspiracy theory about Barack Obama’s birth certificate. He had campaigned on xenophobia and an evident contempt for democratic norms and institutions. He had invested little money or effort in his run and appeared to see it as a brand-building exercise.</p> <p> </p> <p>But as Election Day had approached, I had started to get nervous, and so had others like me. We called up friends on the campaign, asking, “Can I help?”</p> <p> </p> <p>The answer should have been, “Nah, we got this.” It wasn’t.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Yes, can you come now?”</p> <p> </p> <p>And so here I was, volunteering alongside veterans with experience going back to Bill Clinton’s campaigns.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3trumpandhillary_0.jpg" style="height:413px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Still, she <em>had </em>to win, right? How could she not? That didn’t make any sense.</p> <p> </p> <p>And then Ohio was called for Trump. And then Florida. And then the world turned upside down.</p> <p> </p> <p>On Election Night 2008, at an Obama campaign party, I had cried tears of joy. It wasn’t just because my side had won. It was because I believed the whole country had won, no matter how they had voted, because of the inspiring values Obama stood for and — as his campaign staff knew well — lived by.</p> <p> </p> <p>I cried in 2016 too, for very different reasons. But across the street, the Arizona Republicans were holding <em>their</em> election night party. From there, I heard a rising roar of exultation.</p> <p> </p> <p>On my side of the street, it was close to silent. Almost no one felt up to talking to the media. I happened to take a call from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. I couldn’t begin to explain what had just happened — how had the same country that had elected an Obama now elected a demagogue?</p> <p> </p> <p>A few days later, I tried again, by writing a piece for the Huffington Post (now HuffPost) called “A Letter to a Friend Who Voted for Trump.” In it, I addressed, anonymously, a person I knew to be good, honest, and patriotic, asking him to help me understand what could lead him, like millions of others, to make this choice.</p> <p> </p> <p>I’ve been working on understanding that every day, ever since. Along the way I’ve studied not just where we are now, but how we got here, going back to the founding of the United States.</p> <p> </p> <p>This book is the result.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1critchleybook.jpg" style="height:600px; width:400px" /></p> <p>I believe I now do understand what happened. What led us to 2016 was bigger, and had deeper roots, than any of us realized, or than has been reported elsewhere.</p> <p> </p> <p>The election of Donald Trump should not have been a shock. Whether he came along in 2016 or a little later, Trump, or someone like him, was inevitable.</p> <p> </p> <p>And yet most of us were blindsided by his victory, and few yet see the full scope of what it means. Understanding how and why Trump won — including how <em>all of us</em> helped make it happen — is critical to our future as a democracy.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>This is an excerpt from </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Patriots-Two-Nations-Inevitable-Happens-ebook/dp/B087BKWGH5" style="color:black; text-decoration:none"><strong><em>Patriots of Two Nations: Why Trump Was Inevitable and What Happens Next</em></strong></a><strong> (McDavid Media) by Spencer Critchley, a former adviser to President Obama. Printed with permission.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Image Sources:</strong></p> <p><em>--McDavid Media</em></p> <p><em>--Gage Skidmore (<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trump_%26_Clinton.jpg" style="color:black; text-decoration:none">Wikimedia</a>, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><em>--Donald Trump illustration by Michael Bechetti</em></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/spencer-critchley" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Spencer Critchley</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/patriots-two-nations" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Patriots of Two Nations</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hillary-clinton" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Hillary Clinton</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/2016-election" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">2016 election</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/political-books" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">political books</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-books" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new books</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/president-obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">President Obama</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/joe-biden" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">joe biden</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/democrats" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Democrats</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/republicans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Republicans</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Spencer Critchley</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 25 Nov 2020 17:16:12 +0000 tara 10009 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/11066-why-was-someone-donald-trump-even-elected#comments Steve Bannon, the Right-Wing Prince of Darkness, on Politics and Fate https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/11006-steve-bannon-right-wing-prince-darkness-politics-and-fate <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 11/02/2020 - 10:46</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1stevebannonfilm.jpg?itok=B19koOqq"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1stevebannonfilm.jpg?itok=B19koOqq" width="320" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>For a few years, few figures in American politics could match the controversial mystique of Steve Bannon while also gladly playing the heel. He appeared as a man who had accomplished the impossible, who had cheated reality, and won by herding a political neophyte into the top elected office in the free world.</p> <p> </p> <p>That mystique -- and controversy -- still cling to the movie producer, investor, and political adviser. With his one-time employer Donald Trump now in the fight for his electoral life, and Bannon embroiled not only in a fraud case but the uproar of the discovery of a computer alleged to be Hunter Biden’s, now is an opportune time to revisit Bannon and look for that vital spark imparted on the 2016 Trump candidacy through the lens of Errol Morris's documentary <a href="https://watch.topic.com/movies/AXTle2uO4r0T_3NQjTxA?display=still"><em>American Dharma</em> (available on topic).</a></p> <p> </p> <p>Morris’s interview with Bannon starts out with a discussion of <em>Twelve O'Clock High</em> starring Gregory Peck, which proceeds into a discussion of dharma. For Bannon, “Dharma is the combination of duty, fate, and destiny. For me to fulfill my Dharma, I have to fulfill my duty.” This push to destiny could even mean one's ultimate destruction, giving one a window into how Bannon coped with a rough break with the president. Despite Bannon's initial statements that a certain “touchy-feely” bearing of man prevents this <em>amor fati</em>, the viewer is later confronted with a tale of how Bannon was raised in a community that sent many of its young to die in the Vietnam War only to witness, decades later, the same country where his daughter's West Point Volleyball uniform was made.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2stevebannonfilm.jpg" style="height:338px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>If this almost schizoid split between the embrace of emotion while pushing for a stolid embrace of fate minutes earlier seems an impossible feat, Morris proceeds to usher Bannon through other positions that seem completely contradictory.</p> <p> </p> <p>And we can even see some of these seeming contradictions in Bannon's life: moving through a cavalcade of elite institutions while, simultaneously, having an affinity for outsider heroes. The viewer is left with a collection of sharply contrasting images, but they only make sense when the metaphorical camera pans out to view not the pictures as individuals but the whole they comprise.</p> <p> </p> <p>While Morris challenges Bannon on these seeming inconsistencies, he doesn't try to move in the other direction: trying to amass, through his own questioning, the picture composed of these images.</p> <p> </p> <p>Hearing Bannon describe the United States as on course for a revolution that ultimately cannot be avoided reminds one of reading Michael Anton's <em>The Flight 93 Election</em>. But years later, an almost apocalyptic present leaves the viewer wondering what good charging the cockpit has done the passengers. We see a Bannon who is content with his ministrations: He sees a United States that must first be made sick to be cured of its illness. One is made to wonder if, like pyrotherapy, the cure may be worse for the patient than the underlying disease.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3stevebannonfilm.jpg" style="height:338px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Adam Gravano is a contributing writer at</em> Highbrow Magazine.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/errol-morris" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Errol Morris</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/steve-bannon" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">steve bannon</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/american-dharma" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">American Dharma</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-documentaries" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new documentaries</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/right-wing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">right wing</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/republicans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Republicans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/conservatives" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">conservatives</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/politics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">politics</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/us-politics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">u.s. politics</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hunter-bidens-laptop" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">hunter biden&#039;s laptop</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/joe-biden" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">joe biden</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/elections" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">elections</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Adam Gravano</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">All images courtesy of topic</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 02 Nov 2020 15:46:38 +0000 tara 9948 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/11006-steve-bannon-right-wing-prince-darkness-politics-and-fate#comments The Importance of the 2020 Election: How to Save Our Democracy https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10838-importance-election-how-save-our-democracy <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 09/07/2020 - 13:50</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1_vote_statue_of_liberty-pxfuel.jpg?itok=Blm8vZ-i"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1_vote_statue_of_liberty-pxfuel.jpg?itok=Blm8vZ-i" width="450" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong><em>This is an excerpt from Mac Regan’s new book, </em>The 2020 American Revolution<em>. Printed with permission.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Citizens know that things are amiss. The country’s historical formula for success—combining Constitutional values, democracy, and capitalism—is out of balance and increasingly unable to adapt.</p> <p>Americans are socially divided, unsure of the future, and politically polarized. Government leadership is partisan, unable or unwilling to address the nation’s issues, and mired in hostile and often misleading dialogue. Businesses prioritize stock price, short-term profits, and political influence over the drivers of long-term success— job creation, increased wages, worker training, and contributions to community and society.</p> <p>Internationally, America is at odds with long-standing allies, less likely to stand up to human-rights abusers, and confrontational with major trading partners. Tweeted threats and saber-rattling have replaced bipartisan diplomacy.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1macregan.jpg" style="height:600px; width:375px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>It remains to be seen whether the Trump legacy will be one of draining the swamp and making America great or creating a deeper morass of increased income inequality, environmental degradation, and trade policies and tariffs that reduce Americans’ ability to sell their products while simultaneously increasing their own costs.</p> <p>It seems certain that the 2020 presidential and congressional elections will be the most ferociously contested, costly, and consequential in memory. If America’s founding patriots could tweet from the grave, they would warn us about the destabilizing potential of a failure to address the ills that threaten our historical values. This scorecard includes legacy racial segregation and ethnic intolerance (aren’t all created equal?), religious fundamentalism (what about separation of church and state?), increasing wealth and income inequality (does this “promote the general welfare”?), disproportionate and often harmful influence of the wealthy and powerful on our elected representatives (is this government “of the people, by the people”?), and radicalization of both major political parties (is this aiding “a more perfect Union”?).</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2joe_andjillbiden_anthony_quintano_-_flickr.jpg" style="height:334px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>That said, a majority of citizens acknowledge our problems, are passionate about many issues, and enjoy large tracts of middle-ground consensus. But it is unclear if they will vote in sufficient numbers (particularly in congressional and gubernatorial elections) to negate the impact of highly organized and well-funded cadres of uncompromising, win-at-all costs conservatives and liberals. It is also unclear how voters, in the era of fake news, compromised social media, and information overload will systematically sort through dizzying amounts of information and disinformation to allow a well-informed vote.</p> <p>Reasserting the primacy of citizens and aligning our representatives to the “general welfare” are the central challenges of the 2020 elections. It is said that Americans love a fight or a show. The 2020 elections will be both. However, citizens will not advance America via partisan disagreement or by watching from the sidelines.</p> <p> </p> <p>The stakes are high. Do we want increasing wealth inequality and imbalances in power and influence, social fracturing and unrest, deterioration of the natural environment, subpar economic growth, inability to change and respond to problems, increased risk of financial and trade market collapses, unchecked political corruption and cronyism, loss of access to opportunity, and inadequate future supplies of workers?</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/bidenobamatrump_cristian_l_ricardo_-_usmarinecorps-wikimedia.jpg" style="height:571px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>After years of legislative and social gridlock, these failings are at a critical stage. But irreversible damage to our historical values, our democracy, and our capitalism can be avoided. The last line of defense now, as in 1776, is citizens who can make informed decisions and have the patriotic courage to sacrifice, compromise, and overcome bias in the service of America. The 2020 revolution for America will depend on objectivity and critical thinking rather than firelocks and cannons; it will be fought among candidates with big policy and philosophical differences rather than against an oppressing foreign power; and it will be decided by voter turnout rather than military victory.</p> <p>The previously politically disengaged, independents, moderates, millennials, and crossover centrists will determine the 2020 election. Failure of these groups to participate and make a well-informed choice will leave America at the mercy of its political pols. Citizen patriots must do their most fundamental job: vote.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2macregan.jpg" style="height:500px; width:332px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>This is an excerpt from Mac Regan’s new book, </em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/2020-American-Revolution-Decision-Support/dp/05786250" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">The 2020 American Revolution</a><em>. Printed with permission.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Mac Regan spent 35 years as a consultant and executive for Mercer, a large multinational corporation, before attending the Graduate Master of Arts Program (GMAP) at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University), where he honed his understanding of the U.S. from a global perspective. He has written, researched, and spoken extensively on the imbalances in the American system of constitutional values, democracy and capitalism, and is the author of <a href="http://globalcitizenpatriots.com/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Global Citizen Patriots</a> in addition to his newest book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/2020-American-Revolution-Decision-Support/dp/0578625083" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">The 2020 American Revolution</a>.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Image Sources:</strong></p> <p><em>--Courtesy of the author</em></p> <p><em>--</em><a href="https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-jcxjl" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Pxfuel</em></a><em> (Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><em>--Anthony Quintano (</em><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/quintanomedia/50100512043" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Flickr</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><em>--U.S. Marine Corps Lance Corporal Cristian L. Ricardo (</em><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barack_Obama,_Donald_Trump,_Joe_Biden_at_Inauguration_01-20-17_(cropped).jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Wikimedia.org</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mac-regan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Mac Regan</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/2020-american-revolution" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">The 2020 American Revolution</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/2020-presidential-election" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">2020 presidential election</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/joe-biden" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">joe biden</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Obama</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/politics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">politics</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/democracy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">democracy</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/american-politics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">american politics</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/us-government" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">u.s. government</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/american-voters" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">american voters</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/voting-rights" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">voting rights</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/constitution" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the constitution</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/civil-rights" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">civil rights</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Mac Regan</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 07 Sep 2020 17:50:24 +0000 tara 9813 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10838-importance-election-how-save-our-democracy#comments How Political Conventions Went From Selecting Party Nominees to Pageantry and Partying https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10783-how-political-conventions-went-selecting-party-nominees-pageantry-and-partying <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 08/11/2020 - 08:27</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1politicalconventions.jpg?itok=S087Hv2e"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1politicalconventions.jpg?itok=S087Hv2e" width="299" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p> </p> <p>In August, the Democratic and Republican national conventions will take on new, uncharted formats. Due to COVID-19 concerns, gone are the mass gatherings in large convention halls, replaced with a switch to mostly online formats.</p> <p> </p> <p>This is just the latest modification in presidential nominating conventions since they were first introduced in the 1830s.</p> <p> </p> <p>Initially, conventions were insulated meetings of representatives from the state parties, with convention delegates on their own determining which candidate became the party’s presidential nominee.</p> <p> </p> <p>By the early 20th century, convention participants began to receive information about public preferences from commercial public opinion polls and a small number of presidential primaries, which constrained conventions in their choice of presidential nominees.</p> <p> </p> <p>Today’s national conventions ratify a candidate already chosen by the voters in primaries and caucuses.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2politicalconventions.jpg" style="height:600px; width:432px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Insulated conventions</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>George Washington needed no formal nomination, as he was the overwhelming choice for president among those who would make up the Electoral College.</p> <p> </p> <p>Subsequent early presidential candidates were nominated by their party’s members in Congress. But if a state did not have a representative from a particular party in Congress, it had no say in the party’s presidential nomination.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the 1830s, political parties switched to national conventions, which were meetings of representatives from the state parties. Each state was allotted delegates proportional to its Electoral College vote, and early conventions consisted of just a few hundred delegates. These delegates sought to find a popular candidate to head the party’s general election ticket, but had little information on who this candidate might be.</p> <p> </p> <p>Candidates’ names were placed into contention by being nominated, and seconded, by a convention delegate. The winning candidate was determined by a series of roll-call votes of state delegations that continued until one candidate won the required number of delegates.</p> <p> </p> <p>Candidates did not attend the conventions; the norm of the day was that politicians were not to openly campaign for the presidency. Instead, managers of the various candidates bargained with state party leaders to accumulate the required number of delegates.</p> <p> </p> <p>If one candidate began gaining strength in the rounds of voting, that candidate experienced a bandwagon of new support as other delegates wanted to be on the winning side.</p> <p> </p> <p>Sometimes none of the early contenders was able to secure the winning total, and the convention turned to a compromise candidate instead. These late-round compromise candidates were known as “dark horses.” James Polk became the Democratic nominee in 1844 as one of these dark-horse candidates.</p> <p> </p> <p>Party platforms, encompassing the party’s positions on issues, were introduced in the 1840s.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3politicalconventions.jpg" style="height:600px; width:563px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>How Lincoln won the nomination</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>At the 1860 Republican convention, a half-dozen potential candidates split the initial vote, although New York Senator William H. Stewart was considered the frontrunner.</p> <p> </p> <p>Candidate Abraham Lincoln’s strategy was to prevent Stewart’s nomination on the first ballot. Lincoln’s campaign managers would consolidate anti-Stewart delegates behind him in subsequent rounds. Lincoln’s managers won over some delegates by arguing that Lincoln was the most electable candidate, who could draw votes from farmers and businessmen, as well as abolitionists.</p> <p> </p> <p>While Lincoln requested that his managers not make any deals, they did promise a Cabinet position to powerful Pennsylvania Senator Simon Cameron to gain support from that state’s delegation. Lincoln’s managers also packed the public audience in Chicago with his supporters, a task made easier by the use of counterfeit public tickets.</p> <p> </p> <p>Lincoln won the nomination on the third round of voting.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4politicalconvention_laura_patterson_-_wikimedia.jpg" style="height:403px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>The public gets a voice</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>In the 20th century, information about public preferences became available, which would help delegates to determine who would be their party’s most popular presidential candidate.</p> <p> </p> <p>Early in the century, a handful of states adopted presidential primaries to select delegates, although most states continued to use traditional methods such as appointment by state or local party leaders or selection at local caucuses. Thus, the vast majority of 20<sup>th</sup>-century convention delegates remained representatives of their state parties, not supporters of specific candidates.</p> <p> </p> <p>An early use of presidential primaries in 1912 proved disastrous. Former President Theodore Roosevelt ran for president again, won 10 of the 13 presidential primaries and was favored by the progressive wing of the Republican Party.</p> <p> </p> <p>But the majority of Republican convention delegates were party regulars who supported the current president William Taft instead. In addition, by this time, a new norm had taken hold, to renominate sitting presidents.</p> <p> </p> <p>Roosevelt lost the Republican nomination, founded the Progressive Party in protest, was nominated by that party and split the Republican vote in the fall general election, allowing Democrat Woodrow Wilson to win.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5politialconventions_chuck_kenney_whitehouse.jpg" style="height:600px; width:400px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Demise and comeback of primaries</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>With the divisive results from the 1912 Republican convention and the waning of the Progressive Movement, which championed state adoption of primary laws, presidential primaries went out of favor.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the middle of the 20th century, typically only 15 states held presidential primaries, selecting only one-third of the convention’s delegates. Few candidates ran in these presidential primaries, as primaries were not seen as a successful pathway to the nomination.</p> <p> </p> <p>The public, however, still influenced presidential nominations as newly reliable public opinion polls measured support for potential nominees. In the mid-20th century, the candidate at the top of the national polls almost always was nominated by the national conventions.</p> <p> </p> <p>Other changes came to 20th-century conventions. Franklin Roosevelt was the first presidential nominee to attend a convention when he gave an acceptance speech in 1932, broadcast nationally by radio.</p> <p> </p> <p>Presidential primaries became somewhat more influential after World War II, when some candidates adopted a strategy of running in presidential primaries. Other candidates avoided running in primaries and relied on a traditional strategy of courting the party’s elite who would be delegates at the convention.</p> <p> </p> <p>Running in presidential primaries was a risky strategy: A candidate who lost in a primary could see their presidential bid end, but even someone who won every single primary would not earn enough delegates to secure the nomination.</p> <p> </p> <p>The goal of candidates entering the primaries was to convince party leaders of the candidate’s vote-winning abilities. John F. Kennedy in 1960 used primary victories to convince Democratic convention delegates that he would be the most popular candidate.</p> <p> </p> <p>Hubert Humphrey, in 1968, became the last candidate nominated for president without running in any of the presidential primaries.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><strong><em>Barbara Norrander is a professor at the School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Arizona.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>This is an excerpt from an article originally published in </em></strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/us" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><strong><em>the Conversation</em></strong></a><strong><em> and is republished with permission. Read the rest </em></strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/political-conventions-today-are-for-partying-and-pageantry-not-picking-nominees-142246" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><strong><em>here</em></strong></a><strong><em>. </em>Copyright © 2020, The Conversation US. Inc.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Image Sources:</strong></p> <p><strong>--</strong><em>Painting of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart (</em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lansdowne_portrait_of_George_Washington#/media/File:Gilbert_Stuart,_George_Washington_(Lansdowne_portrait,_1796).jp" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Wikipedia.org</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><em>--President James K. Polk </em><a href="http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/polk/aa_polk_subj_e.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>(Library of Congress</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><em>--</em><a href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn86063758/1912-06-25/ed-1/?sp=1&amp;st=si" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Library of Congress</em></a><em> (Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><em>--Laura Patterson (Library of Congress via </em><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1996_Democratic_National_Convention.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Wikimedia.org</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><em>--Chuck Kennedy (Whitehouse.gov, </em><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Obama_and_Biden_families_on-stage_at_the_2012_Democratic_National_Convention.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Wikimedia.org</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/political-conventions" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">political conventions</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/political-primaries" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">political primaries</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/joe-biden" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">joe biden</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/democratic-party" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">democratic party</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/republicans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Republicans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/delegates" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">delegates</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nomination-process" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">nomination process</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/presidential-elections" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">presidential elections</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/voters" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">voters</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Barbara Norrander</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 11 Aug 2020 12:27:15 +0000 tara 9747 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10783-how-political-conventions-went-selecting-party-nominees-pageantry-and-partying#comments A New Path Forward for the Democratic Party https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10772-new-path-forward-democratic-party <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 08/02/2020 - 22:20</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1joebiden_gage_skidmore_-_flickr.jpg?itok=clCCzVht"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1joebiden_gage_skidmore_-_flickr.jpg?itok=clCCzVht" width="480" height="321" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><div>  <p><strong><em>This is an excerpt from <a href="http://theopportunityagenda.com/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">The Opportunity Agenda: A Bold Democratic Plan to Grow the Middle Class</a> by Winston Fisher and Sly James (<a href="https://mascotbooks.com/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Mascot Books</a>). Printed with permission.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p>For Democrats, it’s both the worst of times and, by some measure, our most hopeful moment in a decade. We may not control the White House, the Senate, or the Supreme Court for the time being. But the public’s decidedly mixed reaction to President Trump (we’re doing our best to be generous here) combined with a Republican agenda that alienates huge swaths of the electorate, points to a seemingly inevitable Democratic renaissance. If the results of the 2018 midterm elections offer a window into how future contests are likely to turn out, Democrats are poised to bounce back strong.</p> </div> <p> </p> <p>But our prospects raise two big questions. First, is embracing a message that virulently opposes President Trump’s agenda sufficient to propel us forward <em>even after Trump is no longer on the ballot</em>? Second, even if that <em>is</em> a winning campaign strategy right now, what do we intend to do in office once we’re back in power?</p> <p> </p> <p>These two questions, while separate, are indelibly intertwined. If the American people react to Donald Trump’s presidency with even a fraction of the disgust and anger the two of us feel, he’s almost sure to be a one-term president. But if we intend to sustain a Democratic governing majority over the long term, we’ll need an agenda (and an accompanying narrative) that stands on its own. Without a compelling message, we won’t be able to hold on to the power that the public’s revulsion to Trump may help us win. Then we’ll be back at square one.</p> <p> </p> <p>From where we sit, we don’t believe that Democrats have yet begun to grapple in earnest with this quandary. In our zeal to castigate President Trump time and time again, we’ve failed to come to terms with the fact that, in recent elections, our ideas haven’t resonated with vast segments of the American electorate. If more people were invested in our incumbent agenda—if they liked our existing ideas—Trump wouldn’t have been remotely competitive in 2016. We should have trounced the Republicans in the 2016 presidential election.</p> <p> </p> <p>Don’t get us wrong: We believe Democrats have plenty of good ideas—many of which would surely improve hardworking families’ lives. But we also think that certain elements of our governing philosophy are well past stale. So, in the pages that follow, we’ll introduce a new platform, what we like to call an “Opportunity Agenda” for “Opportunity Democrats.” Our aim is to help steer the Democratic Party back to power in a way that sets us up for long-term success.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2slyjamesbook.jpg" style="height:600px; width:401px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Let’s begin by facing the music. Whether or not they represent good policy ideas, there’s nothing “new” in proposals to guarantee Medicare for All, or to raise the minimum wage, or to provide more generous family leave to new parents. The electorate has heard our candidates hawk this stuff for decades. President Trump’s incompetence may be his undoing. But on a substantive level, Democrats today are still selling the same fundamental agenda we had on offer in 2016, even if some of the ideas are a bit more strident.</p> <p> </p> <p>What are we supposed to do to turn things in a new direction? Admit the truth: We need to refresh our agenda. Some will claim that the 2018 midterms proved that the old stuff is good enough—that we should just stay the course. But that’s simply wrong. Democrats swept control of the House in 2018 primarily because voters were disgusted with President Trump. We didn’t generate the landslide so much as we benefited from the GOP’s implosion. To make a basketball analogy, we didn’t steal the ball or block a shot and run a fast break. We simply caught the rebound.</p> <p> </p> <p>Not that there’s anything wrong with that—per se. By some measure, that’s how opposition parties always find their way back to power. But Democrats will never make long-term reforms if our success depends on the GOP’s failure. We need an affirmative strategy that establishes a majority, regardless of what the GOP is saying. We need a slate of fresh, new ideas that, on its own, convinces a majority of voters to support our candidates for office. If Democrats are going to get beyond “catching the rebound,” we believe we’ve got to take the party in an entirely different direction.</p> <p> </p> <p>This book began as a collaborative project between two people who, on paper, appear to have very little in common. One of us is a New Yorker—the other’s from the Midwest. One of us is a businessman, and the other has spent the last decade as a big city mayor. One of us is the spitting image of Denzel Washington—the other is not. And while we’re both young, one is nearly a quarter century older than the other. (We won’t say which.)</p> <p> </p> <p>For all our differences, we share one central conviction: We believe the Democratic Party is due for a major disruption. It’s not that we think the party should abandon its goals—we still want to help hardworking families achieve the American Dream. But we’re both convinced that, to get our country pointed in the right direction again, Democrats need to rethink our approach.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3slyjamesbook.jpg" style="height:400px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Here’s our <em>opportunity</em>. Millions of Americans—most Democrats, lots of independents, and even some Republicans—could be convinced to join a broad coalition if someone painted them a compelling picture of the way forward. Unfortunately, after decades of listening to our tired messaging, whole swaths of America have pigeonholed the Democratic Party as so obsessed with growing government that we’ve lost sight of the greater good.</p> <p> </p> <p>Our stale ideas are particularly inept for economic growth. Two things about the American job market are crystal clear. First, technology and globalization have left many hardworking people feeling exceptionally vulnerable. Breadwinners today hope to maintain the American Dream for the next generation—to ensure their children and grandchildren have it a bit better. But they fear that they’ll hand off a world in which future generations aren’t even able to sustain today’s lifestyle. Remarkably enough, even during periods of low unemployment, many Americans are concerned about the prospect of <em>downward </em>mobility. At the same time, we know that prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, employers struggled to fill open positions—members of the workforce simply don’t have the skills they require. In other words, amid a glut of demand, the workforce still fears being left behind.</p> <p> </p> <p>Something has gone dreadfully wrong. Even after the economy recovers from the pandemic, it’s likely many people will still fear they won’t have the skills needed for the jobs that emerge.</p> <p> </p> <p> Have Democrats offered any breakthrough ideas to help equip a vulnerable workforce for the jobs of tomorrow? Not that we’ve heard. Even if we <em>do</em> have good ideas, we’ve failed to message them so voters understand what we want to accomplish. We’re too hung up on our old agenda. We’re too accustomed to preaching the old “big government” gospel.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4trumphillary_gage_skidmore_-_wikimedia.jpg" style="height:412px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Does America have the capacity to resolve the mismatch? Unquestionably. If our universities, colleges, and community colleges establish programs to retrain Americans stuck in (soon-to-be) obsolete professions, we could boost millions into higher-paying, more productive jobs. But they aren’t moving fast enough to meet the evolving demands of the country’s businesses. <em>That’s </em>the sort of problem our agenda needs to address <em>head on.</em></p> <p> </p> <p>Take one specific illustration: The president of the City University of New York’s (CUNY) LaGuardia Community College recently revealed that she had invested more than two years—thousands of dollars’ worth of staff time—procuring a single piece of software. The purchase had to win approval from one layer of bureaucracy…then the next. From the college’s own faculty. From CUNY. From the State Department of Education. Rather than focus on improving education, they were compelled to navigate a series of bloated bureaucracies.</p> <p> </p> <p>For Democrats, that anecdote is a political disaster; it burnishes the public’s sense that the very institution we tend to champion— government—is hopelessly inept. Our failure to bear down on this is both a substantive and reputational disaster. Even if Democrats champion education reform, we’re held responsible for nurturing these unwieldy bureaucracies that prevent students from getting the training they need. We need an agenda that demonstrates that we’re going to solve this kind of real-world problem. And we need voters to hear us make that argument time and time again.</p> <p> </p> <p>Now, Democrats can go on talking about the issues that have long been at the top of their agenda—many have real merit. But the sort of red tape entangling LaGuardia Community College is rampant all across the country. Voters know that America’s “systems” aren’t working for them—higher education, healthcare, infrastructure, or criminal justice. And for many Americans, bureaucratic bungling has a larger impact on life than any single issue that’s made its way into the Democratic bailiwick; it frames their view of government writ large. As a party, we haven’t convinced the public that we’re capable of fixing the underlying problems. We’re not even telling voters that fixing these problems is at the top of our agenda. Is it any wonder they’re not enamored with us?</p> <p> </p> <p>Red tape isn’t the sole issue holding us back. But we do believe that it’s indicative of a larger problem. The incumbent Democratic agenda fails to address the challenges facing middle- and working-class families <em>from their perspective</em>. We too often endorse government-only solutions when their experience is that the private sector also has a role to play<em>. </em>We need to center our ideas on something else altogether: opportunity. And rather than remain caught in an ideologically driven approach, we need simply to present ideas that will solve the problems that voters grapple with in their everyday lives.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4slyfisherbook.jpg" style="height:600px; width:400px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>This is an excerpt from <a href="http://theopportunityagenda.com/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">The Opportunity Agenda: A Bold Democratic Plan to Grow the Middle Class</a> by Winston Fisher and Sly James (<a href="https://mascotbooks.com/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Mascot Books</a>). Printed with permission.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bios:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><em><strong>Sly James</strong> is the former mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, and responsible for overseeing the city’s renaissance. Throughout his tenure, James moved the needle on universal pre-K, spearheaded the construction and expansion of a streetcar line, and successfully passed an $800 million infrastructure package. He has also served on numerous boards and commissions, including The Missouri Board of Law Examiners, the Economic Development Corporation, and as president of the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association. Mr. James previously authored the critically acclaimed autobiography A Passion For Purpose, a mantra by which he based his tenure as mayor and his life.</em></p> <p> </p> <p><em><strong>Winston C. Fisher</strong> is a partner at Fisher Brothers, a real estate firm based in New York City, and CEO of AREA15, an experiential retail and entertainment company. Fisher also serves as co-chair of Gov. Cuomo’s New York City Regional Economic Development Council and is active in civic and policy organizations and higher education institutions, including the Center for an Urban Future, the Real Estate Board of New York, and Syracuse University.</em></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Image Sources:</em></strong></p> <p><em>--Courtesy of Mascot Books</em></p> <p><em>--Gage Skidmore (<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/48605395292" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Flickr</a>, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><em>--Gage Skidmore (<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trump_%26_Clinton.jpg" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Wikimedia.org</a>, Creative Commons)</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/opportunity-agenda" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">The Opportunity Agenda</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/sly-james" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Sly James</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/winston-fisher" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Winston Fisher</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-books" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new books</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/political-books" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">political books</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/democratic-party-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the Democratic Party</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/democrats" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Democrats</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/joe-biden" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">joe biden</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/2020-elections" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">2020 elections</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/middle-class" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">middle class</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/democratic-voters" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">democratic voters</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/republicans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Republicans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hillary-clinton" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Hillary Clinton</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Obama</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sly James and Winston C. Fisher</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 03 Aug 2020 02:20:20 +0000 tara 9730 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10772-new-path-forward-democratic-party#comments Why Hillary Clinton Will Succeed https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5282-why-hillary-clinton-will-succeed <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 10/05/2015 - 18:34</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/3hillary_1.jpg?itok=EHiKgB8-"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/3hillary_1.jpg?itok=EHiKgB8-" width="480" height="329" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2015/10/why-hillary-wont-fail.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Commentary</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Here’s the partial checklist of the endless ploys to torpedo a Hillary Clinton presidential bid. The vapid and phony Benghazi hearings, the baseless email scandals, the legion of cherry-picked polls, the well-oiled and orchestrated campaign by the RNC, the dizzying array of right-wing bloggers and websites, and shadowy super PACS, the loud calls for Joe Biden to run, and finally, the insurgent campaign of Bernie Sanders.</p> <p> </p> <p>Now add to this the two-decade long GOP campaign of rumor, smears, and outright lies against Hillary and Bill Clinton both within and without the White House, and you have a pattern of deceit and duplicity against a politician virtually unprecedented in American political annals. Given the massive and relentless political assault on Clinton, she should be, as much of the media giddily taunts, a political dead duck. This isn’t and has never been even remotely the case. Polls now show that Clinton has a commanding lead over Bernie Sanders and would have an equally commanding lead over Biden if, despite the near hysterical begging and pleading for him to jump in the race, he ever did.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>The reasons for Clinton’s steady lead aren’t hard to find. While the chatter about outlier inflammatory curiosities such as Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, and the politically radical Sanders, awes, fascinates, and titillates the media and a wide body of the public, they are far from electable. Polls do show that the overwhelming majority of Americans are sick of and disgusted with the dysfunctionality, deal-making, and big money manipulation of American politics. Yet there is no evidence that this has now, or in the past, ever translated into a repudiation of traditional party politicians at the polls. In September, a Washington Post/ABC poll found that no matter whether Democrat, Republican, conservative, liberal, moderate, or independent, voters prefer a candidate who stands for reform, not a radical overhaul of the system. The majority back a candidate with proven political experience over an outsider.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>But there’s still the intriguing question of why a nontraditional political outsider always fails. You’d have to go back more than six decades to 1952 to find a non-office-holding candidate who won the presidency. But to call Dwight Eisenhower an insurgent, radical, or inflaming candidate would be laughable. Eisenhower was a rock-solid, revered military hero, with a track record second to none as a proven administrator and political negotiator, and was courted by the political bosses in both parties. He was financially backed to the hilt by the GOP establishment. It would take nearly four decades after the Eisenhower presidency for another non-office-holding candidate to stir real passion among supposedly frustrated and malcontent voters who purportedly wanted radical change.</p> <p> </p> <p>But Ross Perot’s wealth and insurgent campaign in 1992 crashed hard against the bitter reality that when the votes are in, voters still punch the ticket for a traditional candidate on a party ticket. The two office-holding politicians, who did bag their party’s presidential nominations, the ultra-conservative Barry Goldwater in 1964 and the leftist George McGovern in 1972 ,went down to flaming defeat in the general election.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/4hillary_1.jpg" style="height:416px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The GOP’s great fear of Hillary is driven by the standard mix of business as usual cutthroat partisan politics between the GOP and the Democrats, the longstanding loathing of the Clintons, and the high-stakes drama of a presidential election campaign. But most importantly, it is driven by the candidate herself. She’s been one of the best prepared White House candidates in years.</p> <p> </p> <p>Her experience in international relations and her hands-on administrative experience in White House policy affairs have already insured the allegiance of millions of voters to her. Polls consistently showed two years before she declared her candidacy and in 2014 that she was the one sure Democrat who would beat any GOP contender.</p> <p> </p> <p>Millions of women see Clinton as the gender Obama. Her presidency would mark a historic presidential breakthrough for women. She would be a role model and inspiration for millions of women young and old in the world’s top political power spot. There’s the perception that she has the political savvy to wage the blood battles with a GOP-controlled Congress.</p> <p> </p> <p>There’s also the political reality about the shape of a Clinton White House. She is a moderate, centrist Democrat who will give a hard nod to the interests of minorities, gays and women. She will continue and expand Obama’s policies that expand government programs and initiatives, hike spending on education, health care, and jobs and markedly increase taxes on corporations and the wealthy while enforcing and even tightening regulations on the banks and Wall Street.</p> <p> </p> <p>There will be more polls that purport to show Clinton is failing, phony, manufactured Clinton scandals, calls for Biden to run, and starry-eyed boasts that Sanders, not Clinton, is the party’s hope. But none of this will change the one constant about Clinton and that’s that she’s still the only candidate who has the qualities that Americans demand when picking a president. That’s not a prescription for a Clinton failure.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio: </strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is the author of Torpedoing Hillary: The GOP Plan to Stop a Clinton White House (Amazon ebook). He is a frequent MSNBC contributor. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on Radio One. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KTYM 1460 AM Los Angeles and KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.</em></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hillary-clinton" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Hillary Clinton</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/2016-elections" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">2016 elections</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/presidential-elections" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">presidential elections</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/democrats" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Democrats</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/joe-biden" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">joe biden</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/bernie-sanders" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">bernie sanders</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/bill-clinton" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Bill Clinton</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Earl Ofari Hutchinson</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 05 Oct 2015 22:34:11 +0000 tara 6387 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5282-why-hillary-clinton-will-succeed#comments