Now that the impeachment is over, the question is: what next? Some will say we should move on. But we cannot move on without a reckoning. This reckoning must determine the failures that led to the Capitol riot, prevent future crises and facilitate national reconciliation. Speaker Nancy Pelosi Nancy Pelosi Senators given no timeline on removal of National Guard, Capitol fence Democratic fury with GOP explodes in House House Republican attempts to appeal fine for bypassing metal detector outside chamber MORE has championed a " 9/11-type commission " to investigate the Capitol riot. Her recommendation is correct, but her reasons are not. Pelosi told members of Congress that the issue is “about you.” She told them it is necessary to address “your safety as you serve in Congress, your safety in your district and your safety when traveling to and from Washington.” ADVERTISEMENT Pelosi is wrong, because the issue is not just about Congress. It is about all Americans. The problem at hand is not only what Pelosi called “serious and ongoing security threats facing members" of Congress. The Capitol riot was also a law enforcement breakdown , an act of domestic terrorism according to President Biden Joe Biden Klain on Manchin's objection to Neera Tanden: He 'doesn't answer to us at the White House' Senators given no timeline on removal of National Guard, Capitol fence Overnight Defense: New Senate Armed Services chairman talks Pentagon policy nominee, Afghanistan, more | Biden reads report on Khashoggi killing | Austin stresses vaccine safety in new video MORE and a wakeup call about anti-Semitic and racist hate groups. Some will argue that the next step should be the courts. But I believe courts are not built for this. A Biden Justice Department investigation would smell of political bias. Trump’s legal challenges in different states, already underway , will not address the ...
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Six ways to visualize a divided America
It’s not your imagination and it’s not hyperbole: The nation is as politically divided today as at any point in the last century. President Biden Joe Biden Klain on Manchin's objection to Neera Tanden: He 'doesn't answer to us at the White House' Senators given no timeline on removal of National Guard, Capitol fence Overnight Defense: New Senate Armed Services chairman talks Pentagon policy nominee, Afghanistan, more | Biden reads report on Khashoggi killing | Austin stresses vaccine safety in new video MORE captured 224 congressional districts in the 2020 elections, compared to 211 won by former President Trump Donald Trump Senators given no timeline on removal of National Guard, Capitol fence Democratic fury with GOP explodes in House Georgia secretary of state withholds support for 'reactionary' GOP voting bills MORE . Only 16 districts — nine held by Republicans, seven by Democrats — split their vote between the presidential contest and congressional races. That’s a little under 4 percent of the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. To put that in historical context, as recently as 1988, a third of congressional districts split their vote between presidential and House elections. The percentage of split-ticket districts hasn’t been this low since 1920, according to research from Brookings . ADVERTISEMENT The lines along which the United States is divided are shifting, and the two party coalitions are evolving to define the future of politics for the next decade or more. If the last decade was replete with reminders that demographics were destiny, the coming years will show that density is determinative. Here are six charts that illustrate where we are, and where we’re headed — and a note of thanks to the team at Daily Kos Elections , who crunched the numbers to show presidential election results by congressional district for each of the last three national elections: Democrats dominate ...
First Asylum-Seekers from Mexico’s Matamoros Border Camp Enter US
MEXICO CITY - The first asylum-seekers from a Mexican border camp that had become a symbol of Trump-era immigration restrictions entered the United States on Thursday under a new policy meant to end the hardships endured by migrants in dangerous border towns. The United Nation’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the initial group comprised 27 people who had been living in the makeshift camp in Matamoros opposite Brownsville, Texas. Some residents have lived there for more than a year under former President Donald Trump's controversial Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for U.S. court hearings. A new process under President Joe Biden will gradually allow thousands of MPP asylum-seekers to await courts' decisions within the United States. Some migrants last week were permitted to cross into San Ysidro, California. Francisco Gallardo, who runs a migrant shelter in Matamoros and provides humanitarian aid at the camp, welcomed the news that the process had begun in Matamoros, but said it should have come sooner. "It's good that they are doing it, but unfortunately coming late," he said. Freezing temperatures at the U.S.-Mexico border had made the Matamoros camp a priority, the Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday. Migrants at the camp have struggled to ensure proper hygiene and to protect themselves from organized crime in a state that is one of the most violent in Mexico. "The camp was a space that had multiple risks for the migrants," said Misael Hernandez, a researcher on migration issues at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte. Mexico's migration institute did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ...
Georgia State Senate Passes Bill Requiring Photo ID for Absentee Voting
The Georgia State Senate passed a bill Tuesday requiring voters in the state to present a photo ID prior to receiving an absentee ballot. The vote was 35 to 18, with Democrats united in opposition, as GPB (Georgia Public Broadcasting) News reported : Majority Caucus Vice Chair Sen. Larry Walker (R-Perry) sponsored the bill and said it would improve security and efficiency of the absentee process. “It’s not about disenfranchising voters, it’s not about overly burdening the electorate,” he said. “It is about efficiency and security and election integrity and allowing the Georgia public to have confidence in the vote.” But Sen. David Lucas (D-Macon) gave an emotional speech in opposition to the proposal, calling it “malarkey” and warning that the measure would be costly because of inevitable court challenges. “You’re going to spend taxpayer money trying to defend it,” he said. “I will not go back home and tell those who vote that I took away the right for you to vote.” The bill now goes to the Georgia House of Representatives, where the Special Committee on Election Integrity voted Wednesday to approve HB 531 , which contains a number of election reform measures, including the requirement of photo ID for absentee ballot applications. The Gwinnett Daily Post reported : The roughly 60-page bill, sponsored by Rep. Barry Fleming, R-Harlem, contains more than two dozen proposals including a controversial change requiring voters seeking mail-in ballots to provide the number on their driver’s license or state identification card, or photocopies of other valid ID forms. Fleming’s bill would also restrict ballot-casting on weekends during the three-week early-voting period, scrapping rules for polls to be open on Sundays and instead requiring counties to pick either one Saturday or one Sunday ahead of Election Day for the precincts to be open. The bill passed the state House Special Committee on Election Integrity, which Fleming chairs, on a ...
Analysis: Republicans ‘Becoming the Party of Blue-Collar Americans’
Republicans are “becoming the party of blue-collar Americans” so long as the party continues with a populist-nationalist agenda, new analysis reveals. Overall, an NBC News survey finds, Republicans have gained 12 percentage points with working class Americans between 2010 and 2020 while losing one percentage point with Americans who hold white-collar jobs. At the same time, Democrats have lost eight percentage points with blue-collar Americans and gained just one percent with white-collar Americans. For Republicans, since 2020, the total of white Americans in blue-collar jobs who now vote for the GOP jumped from 45 percent in 2010 to 57 percent in 2020. The increase of support for Republicans with working class Americans has cut across racial lines. For example, whereas just 23 percent of blue-collar Hispanic Americans supported Republicans in 2010, today about 36 percent support Republicans. Working class black Americans, likewise, support Republicans at a rate of about 12 percent — a seven percentage point boost since 2010. “For good reason,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) wrote online. “Republicans are the party of the working class!” Screenshot via NBC News. Screenshot via NBC News. Screenshot via NBC News. Screenshot via NBC News. The demographic’s growing support for Republicans has occurred as President Trump introduced the “America First” agenda in 2015 which sought to boost wages, job opportunities, and quality of life specifically for working class Americans who are often shut out by the economic gains of the nation’s wealthiest and donor classes. Trump’s economic nationalist platform — which included reducing overall immigration to tighten the labor market, imposing tariffs on foreign imports, pressuring corporations to bring manufacturing back to the United States, and opposing foreign wars — continues to be widely popular with the party’s base and swing voters. Many of those populist-nationalist ideals ...
