The earliest presidential debate I can remember watching was in 1996. Bedtime at my house was strictly 9 p.m., unless something that interested or galled my mother was going on (which meant that bedtime was never 9 p.m.). That night, I was running a fever that we later learned was on the upside of 104 degrees. Watching that debate, I had the feeling I was looking through the wrong end of a telescope.
I had a similar feeling this week watching snippets of the Republican forum on Monday and the debate on Thursday. This was the week that we learned, via Ben Carson, that the Almighty has a tax plan and, via Donald Trump, that the Republicans haven’t been trying to criminalize foreign birth for the last million years. So, to bring us all back to reality, here’s the latest goings-on in the world of Bernie Sanders and his local hoi polloi.
Polls of the Week: Politico ran with the wildly enthusiastic headline “Hillary maintains lead, but Dem voters don’t mind Bernie.” Gee, thanks. The upshot is that Bernie’s favorable rate keeps going up, and he’s in a statistical tie in New Hampshire. ICYMI: This comes a week after another poll showing Bernie beating several Republicans in a head-to-head contest.
Pet Issue of the Week: It was the 50th birthday of the Voting Rights Act, and the poor thing is more or less on life support by now. The New York Times magazine has a meaty article on the history of the campaign to undo the act. The good news is that the 5th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, not known for its progressive legal views, ruled that Texas’s voter ID law violated Section 2 of the act. Bernie asks, “How can we go around the world and talk to developing countries about the importance of democracy when we are losing important elements of our own democracy?”
Profile in Convenience: The Democratic Party released its joke of a debate schedule this week. We get a whole six debates! Rather than finding an article to explain why it’s terrible to schedule so few debates, I invite you to read the comments on the Medium.com post in which the schedule was announced.
American Mourns the Retirement of Jon Stewart, and even PolitiFact produces a bit of hagiography in its farewell article. We will miss you, sir. You provided much-needed laughter through some very dark years.
Shameless Plug for Book I Haven’t Read Yet: Plato, Adam Smith and Elizabeth Warren walk into a book. “Divided: The Perils of Our Growing Inequality” came out in paperback this week, and I’m waiting anxiously for its arrival.
What’s Next: Bernie’s coming to California! = ) But it’s southern California. = ( So LA friends: Get thee to the LA Memorial Sports Arena on Monday. Arizona got 11,000 people out for Bernie. It’s on, Arizona.
The header image is adopted from “Protect the Voting Rights Act rally at the SCOTUS” by SEIU. It is distributed under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.