Month: July 2015

One GOP Donor Seeks to Block Trump from Debates

Buck Banks

Someone in the party ought to start some sort of petition saying, ‘If Trump’s going to be on the stage, I’m not going to be on there with him.’ I’m toying with the idea of it.

— Republican donor John Jordan, who, along with other donors, is worried about “Republican-on-Republican violence,” the AP reports.

S.C. Senate Votes to Remove Confederate Flag

Buck Banks

37 to 3

Vote by members of the South Carolina Senate to remove the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds, the Charleston Post and Courier reports. The Columbia State notes the Senate “must take one more vote Tuesday to send the bill to the House. The final vote requires a two-thirds majority vote for passage, a rule set under set in the 2000 law that moved the Civil War icon off the Capitol dome.”

One Reason People Are Excited About Bernie Sanders

Buck Banks

Now, I’ve known Hillary Clinton for many years. Let me confess: I like Hillary. I disagree with Hillary Clinton on many issues. My job is to differentiate myself from her on the issues — not by personal attacks. I’ve never run a negative ad in my life. Why not? First of all, in Vermont, they don’t work — and, frankly, I think increasingly around this country they don’t work. I really do believe that people want a candidate to come up with solutions to America’s problems rather than just attacking his or her opponent.

— Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), in an interview with The Nation.

Two Reasons the GOP Can’t Dismiss Donald Trump

Buck Banks

Mr. Trump is important for two reasons: first for the damage he can do to the Republican Party, and second for the useful lesson he can teach that same party. The potential damage comes largely in the harm he can do—indeed, already may have done—to Republicans’ crucial mission of building better bridges to Hispanics. The lesson comes by way of illustrating the depths of populist anger running through sectors of the GOP right now.

— Gerald Seib, in the Wall Street Journal.

How the South Makes America American

Buck Banks

A lot of the traits that make the United States exceptional these days are undesirable, like higher violence and less social mobility. Many of these differences can be attributed largely to the South… Minus the South, the rest of the U.S. probably would be more like Canada or Australia or Britain or New Zealand—more secular, more socially liberal, more moderate in the tone of its politics and somewhat more generous in social policy. And it would not be as centralized as France or as social democratic as Sweden.

— Politico