Tag: politics

Retiring Leahy Bashes Congressional Colleagues

Buck Banks

“There are too many people who think, ‘What can I say that will get me on the evening news or give me a sound bite or get me on this Twitter account,’ or something else. They don’t care about the country. They care about their political ambitions.”

— Retiring Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) told the AP that too many politicians in Washington “don’t care” about the country.

More People Are Paying Attention to Politics

Buck Banks

58%

Pew Research: “Nearly six-in-ten women (58%) say they are paying increased attention to politics since Trump’s election, compared with 46% of men. Overall, more Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents than Republicans and Republican leaners say they have become more attentive to politics. But there are similarly wide gender gaps in heightened interest to politics among members of both parties.” Also interesting: “Most people (59%) say it is ‘stressful and frustrating’ to talk about politics with people who have a different opinion of Trump than they do; just 35% find such conversations ‘interesting and informative.’”

The ‘Secret’ WikiLeaks Revealed About Clinton

Buck Banks

In the midst of our bountiful October harvest of Trump grotesqueries, the Russians and Julian Assange organized a WikiLeaks dump of private emails from the Clinton campaign. These revealed a shocking and scandalous fact about the former Secretary of State: she is a politician. Indeed, the documents represent one of the most reassuring moments of this calamitous campaign. The overwhelming impression is of the candidate’s and her staff’s competence and sanity–and something more: a refreshing sense of reality about the vagaries of politics.

— Joe Klein, in Time.

How Space Travel Puts Politics in Perspective

Buck Banks

You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the Moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch’.

— Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon, who died Feb. 4 at age 85, quoted by Space Flight Insider.

2016 Could Lead to Major Political Realignment

Buck Banks

On this all can agree: Strange happenings are afoot in the 2016 presidential cycle, the kind that leave experts scratching their heads. Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, talk of a third-party run—we’ve never seen anything quite like it, right? … Except that we have. It happened in 1968, and if you are seeking precedents for this cycle, that year’s momentous presidential election is a good place to look. Here’s something further to consider: The 1968 race so shook up the political system that we’re still feeling its aftershocks today, more than a generation later. There is at least a chance this year’s race could become a similarly realigning campaign.

— The Wall Street Journal

Millennials Have Checked Out of U.S. Politics

Buck Banks

Whether it is entertainment, consumer goods or almost anything else that can be purchased, viewed or clicked on, Millennials are the most coveted demographic. There are about 80 million Americans between the ages of 18-34 and next year they are expected to spend $2.45 trillion. But when it comes to politics and national policy they have relatively little clout because most of them don’t reliably vote and aren’t major political contributors. These young adults have voluntarily checked out of a political system they consider corrupt and dysfunctional.

— Linda Killian, writing in the Daily Beast.

Candidate Lies Like a Dog Then Says Media ‘Ambushed’ Him

Buck Banks

I am who I am. I don’t think my educational history or my age or voter registration has anything to do with what I’m trying to do in this city. … This is my first rodeo, and I’m disappointed that the media are bringing me down.

— Embattled Laguna Beach City Council candidate Jon Madison, claiming he is being “ambushed” over evidence that he falsified his age, educational and work histories on his campaign website, the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot reports.