Month: November 2016

Social Media Influences Elections

Buck Banks

20%

Of social-media users modified their stance on a political or social issue because of something they saw posted to social media, according to a report from Pew Research. Additionally, 17% reported that social media helped alter their perspective on a specific candidate. Democrats were found to be more likely than Republicans to say that they changed their views because of social media.

Trump Will Take $1 Salary

Buck Banks

$1

Amount President-elect Donald Trump will take per year as his presidential salary, The Hill reports. Said Trump: “I think I have to by law take $1, so I’ll take $1 a year. But it’s a — I don’t even know what it is. Do you know what the salary is?” When informed that it’s $400,000, he added: “No, I’m not going to take the salary. I’m not taking it.”

Lindsey Graham Must Really Hate the Justices: Cruz for SCOTUS

Buck Banks

I’m here to tell my Democratic colleagues that I voted for Obama’s nominees. I expect them to give Trump’s nominees a fair shake. He won this election. He will pick a conservative. I would put Ted Cruz on that list… There are some really strong people in there. And there is no stronger constitutional conservative than Ted Cruz.

— Sen. Lindsey Graham, telling WYFF that President-elect Donald Trump should nominate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to the Supreme Court.

Donald: ‘I’m Okay’ with Supreme Court Ruling on Gay Marriage But Opposed to Its Ruling on Abortion

Jon Ponder

In an interview on “60 Minutes” on Sunday, Donald Trump reversed his opposition to gay marriage by announcing that, as president, he will not seek to repeal laws that allow same-sex couples to marry because that right was affirmed by the Supreme Court.

Donald in 2011: “I just don’t feel good about it. I don’t feel right about it. I’m against it, and I take a lot of heat because I come from New York. You know, for New York it’s like, how can you be against gay marriage? But I’m opposed to gay marriage.”

And yet in that same interview he signaled he will appoint judges who will outlaw abortion, even though a woman’s right to choose whether to carry a fetus to term was also affirmed by the Supreme Court.

The shift on gay marriage is a significant reversal. In a campaign interview on CNN last year, Donald was asked by Jake Tapper, “But what do you say to a lesbian who’s married or a gay man who’s married who says, ‘Donald Trump, what’s traditional about being married three times?'”

Donald — a serial adulterer and infamous philanderer — responded, “I don’t say anything. I’m just for traditional marriage.”

[…]

How Will Trump Govern?

Buck Banks

The U.S. has never before had a president with no political or military experience, nor one who so routinely shirks the truth, embraces conspiracy theories, and contradicts himself. All of this makes it almost impossible to know how he will govern. … But Trump’s looming presidency does have a precedent: George W. Bush’s. Several parallels stand out. For starters, like Bush, Trump did not win the popular vote, but may nonetheless assume that he has a mandate for sweeping change. And the direction of that change may produce results that not even his supporters like.

— Jeffrey Frankel