Tagged: election 2016

Obama’s Lost Army | New Republic

But they never got that chance. In late December, Plouffe and a small group of senior staffers finally made the call, which was endorsed by Obama. The entire campaign machine, renamed Organizing for America, would be folded into the DNC, where it would operate as a fully controlled subsidiary of the Democratic Party. Plouffe stayed on as senior adviser, and put trusted field organizers Mitch Stewart and Jeremy Bird in charge of the new group. Bird says the OFA team was never even told about the idea for Mov

Source: Obama’s Lost Army | New Republic

No Racial Barrier Left to Break (Except All of Them) – The New York Times

It’s true that, in fulfilling the duties of the presidency with great dignity, Mr. Obama represents the highest expression of the goal of assimilation. But for African-Americans, he was also the ultimate lesson in how this antidote alone is insufficient to heal the gaping wounds of racial injustice in America. It’s clear that black leadership, in itself, isn’t enough to transform the country. So we must confront the end of an era and the dawn of a new one.

Source: No Racial Barrier Left to Break (Except All of Them) – The New York Times

Divisions in My Dorm Room – The New York Times

As a student at New York University and the daughter of a civil servant at the United States Department of State, I am familiar with political unrest and its potentially disastrous outcomes in the arms of ignorance and hysteria. I did not hold any particularly strong opinions about Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. If I had voted, however, I would have picked Mr. Trump. I was focused on school. I had no idea that a few days later I would be dismissed as a “Trump supporter” and a person of “privilege” who “reflected an us versus them mind-set” in an essay by my college roommate in this publication — an essay that would go viral and change my life.

Source: Divisions in My Dorm Room – The New York Times

‘If we want comrades, we must be comrades.’ by Wahneema Lubiano | NewBlackMan (in Exile)

If we want comrades, we must be comrades.

Source: For the incomplete gesture, from a black girl writing with uncertain instruments by Wahneema Lubiano | NewBlackMan (in Exile)

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: What it means to be black during a Trump administration – The Washington Post

Yes, we’re all supposed to come together after an election, let bygones be bygones, and march forward unified as neither Democrats nor Republicans but patriotic Americans celebrating the triumph of the democratic process. But it’s difficult to link arms when the home of the free embraces the leadership of a racist.

Source: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: What it means to be black during a Trump administration – The Washington Post

Trump’s Surprise Victory Sends Shock Through Higher Ed – The Chronicle of Higher Education

This is a very real point.  College students, and young people in general are the biggest losers in this election.  Not in the theoretical sense of losing out on just moral leadership, but more specifically in that unlike Clinton, Trump was never pushed to seriously engage issues about college debt and education financing.

“That’s the risk of trying to appeal to the everyday man, by de-emphasizing the importance of education, you run into a situation where education is put on the back burner and then institutions of higher education experience significant cuts and then we have trouble preparing the next generation of voters,” Ms. Tolson said. “I do see it as probably the biggest and honestly the saddest fallout of how our political system has developed.”

Source: Trump’s Surprise Victory Sends Shock Through Higher Ed – The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Men Feminists Left Behind – The New York Times

The men feminism left behind pose a threat to the country as a whole. They are armed with their own facts and heaps of resentment, and one electoral loss, even a big one, will not mean widespread defeat. Other Republican candidates are no doubt observing Mr. Trump’s rabid fan base and seeing a winning strategy for smaller races in certain conservative, homogeneous locales.

Source: The Men Feminists Left Behind – The New York Times