Category Archives: gun control

The Struggle for the Soul of America: The Problem with How a Vice-Presidential Candidate Is Chosen

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Kamala Harris’s first major task as the Democrats’ new presidential candidate is to choose a vice-presidential running mate. The most critical criterion in her decision is whether that person is qualified to be president should something happen that would require her VP to take over the presidency.

But there are other important criteria. For instance:

  1. Will they work well together?
  2. Are their policies compatible?
  3. Will the VP candidate help the Democrats win a swing state?
  4. Does the candidate have experience she lacks to bolster the ticket?
  5. Does he/she appeal to a segment of voters that will help win the election?

While all these factors make sense, this process can and sometimes does lead to a very undemocratic approach to determining presidential candidates.

For example, in 1988 Vice-president George H. W. Bush won the Republican nomination for president over Sen. Bob Dole and Pat Robertson. Bush went on to be elected president that year. But had Ronald Reagan chosen Dole to be his running mate rather than Bush in 1980, there’s a good possibility Dole would have been the Republicans’ presidential nominee and would have won the presidency in 1988.

In 2000, Vice-President Al Gore won the Democratic presidential nomination over Sen. Bill Bradley. But, if President Clinton had picked Bradley as his running mate instead of Gore in 1992, Bradley may very well have been the Democrats’ presidential candidate in 2000. And, he might have beaten George Bush for the presidency that year.

This year, Kamala Harris is the Democrats’ nominee for president mainly due to President Biden’s having chosen her as his running mate in 2020. If Biden had chosen Sen. Elizabeth Warren or Sen. Bernie Sanders as his vice president, both of whom he beat in the primaries, one of them would now likely be the Democrats’ presidential candidate.

The point is that presidents have undue influence over whom their party names as its next presidential candidate, and, thus, who the next president might be. That leaves millions of voters like you and me with very little say in the matter, which is extremely undemocratic.

Now let’s look at Harris’s most likely picks for vice president and how her decision might impact our future choices. Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro are probably at the top of her list since each of them would help Harris win a battleground state. And, all of them being white males, they would all help balance the Democratic ticket.

Some Democrats lean toward Gov. Shapiro because he could help win Pennsylvania with its 19 electoral votes, the largest of all the swing states. But his ardent support for Israel in its war against Hamas makes him a controversial choice that could dampen support from the progressive wing of the party.[1] Plus, he has been a governor for less than two years. Being only 51 years old, however, as Harris’s VP his chances of becoming president would be greatly enhanced provided Harris wins in November.

Sen. Kelly would only give the Democrats 11 electoral votes if they won Arizona. Additionally, the Dems could lose Kelly’s Senate seat to the Republicans in a special election. He also has been lukewarm about the Dems important labor bill, the PRO Act, which he finally just agreed to support.[2] On the other hand, Kelly is a national hero, having been a space shuttle commander and a combat vet.[3] As the husband of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who suffered a severe brain injury during an assassination attempt, Kelly staunchly favors gun control. But, given Harris’s strong gun control advocacy,[4] choosing Kelly would not add anything to the ticket in that regard. Kelly, 60, would still be young enough to take the torch from Harris when she completes her presidency, assuming she wins the election.

Finally, Gov. Cooper, 67, is in contention for the VP nomination. He is about to complete his second term in the North Carolina governorship. Of the three leading VP candidates, he has the most experience working with Republicans. His ability to win elections while Republicans are winning other state offices makes him an attractive addition to the Harris campaign.[5] With 16 electoral votes, North Carolina would be a valuable catch for the Democrats. At age 75 eight years from now, he would likely be too old to run for the presidency at the end of Harris’s second term.

Unlike the other two top contenders, by naming Cooper her VP, Harris would not be putting her thumb on the scales when it came time to pick the next Democratic presidential nominee. That factor sets Cooper apart from the others. Along with his significant ability to attract Republican support, the fact that he would leave office and open up a more democratic presidential selection process is why I favor Gov. Cooper as Harris’s best VP pick.

Bruce Berlin

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/.

[1] https://www.yahoo.com/news/one-vice-presidential-pick-could-100000459.html

[2] https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/potential-vp-pick-mark-kelly-backs-pro-labor/story?id=112244058

[3] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/senate-democrats-say-mark-kelly-superb-vp-pick-anxiety-rcna163220

[4] https://www.thetrace.org/2024/07/kamala-harris-guns-violence-election/#:~:text=After%20her%20election%20to%20the,of%20federally%20licensed%20gun%20dealers.

[5] https://www.axios.com/local/raleigh/2024/07/23/harris-roy-cooper-vp-pick-running-mate-democrats; https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2024/07/duke-university-roy-cooper-north-carolina-governor-vice-president-contender-option-kamala-harris-democratic-ticket-national-convention-nominee

The Struggle for the Soul of America: The Differences Between the Parties Couldn’t Be Clearer

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With the election of Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) as Speaker of the House of Representatives, the divide between the two major parties has been made astonishingly stark. At the same time, from a political perspective, the Republicans have given the Democrats a big campaign gift for 2024.

Next year the American people will have an extremely clear choice. On the one hand, they can vote for House Republican Party members who “unanimously voted for a man who made it his mission to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election, who put the political whims and needs of Donald Trump ahead of the interests and will of the American people.”[1]

According to a recent New York Times investigation, “Mr. Johnson was ‘the most important architect of the Electoral College objections’ to Mr. Trump’s loss in 2020… He made unfounded arguments questioning the constitutionality of state voting rules; he agreed with Mr. Trump that the election was “rigged,” cast doubt on voting machines and supported a host of other baseless and unconstitutional theories that ultimately led to a violent insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”[2] Consequently, Trump, the likely Republican nominee for president in 2024, approved of Johnson’s bid for Speaker of the House.[3]

Additionally, Johnson voted against a number of the Biden Administration’s major bipartisan bills — including one to establish a Jan. 6 independent commission, the infrastructure law, reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, the codification of same-sex marriage legislation, a modest new gun law and the Chips and Science Act. Johnson also voted to cut off U.S. military assistance for Ukraine.[4]

Regarding abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, Johnson strongly opposes both as well. He has a long history of advocating against these rights.[5]

On the other hand, Congressional Democrats and the Biden Administration have strongly supported all of the above legislation and issues that Johnson has rejected.

Perhaps as telling as any of the above regarding where Johnson and House Republicans stand is the first piece of legislation he proposed as House Speaker. Despite bipartisan backing for a larger aid bill to include support for Ukraine, the U.S.-Mexico border and other pressing needs, Johnson recommended funds only for Israel. Worse still, he coupled the $14.3 billion Israeli aid with cuts to the IRS, a top priority of the far-right. Since these cuts would reduce the IRS’s ability to go after high-income earners trying to evade their tax liability, Johnson’s bill would actually increase the budget deficit.[6]

Clearly, Johnson was more concerned with garnering MAGA Republicans’ support and helping wealthy Republican donors avoid paying their fair share in taxes than assisting Israel, Ukraine, border security and other priorities. Top Senate Republicans as well as the White House and practically all Congressional Democrats quickly rejected Johnson’s bill.[7]

In 2024, will Americans support an anti-democratic, election-denying Republican Party that puts its wealthy donors above everything else? Or will they back the Democrats who stand up for the rights of all Americans and are working to build the nation’s economy and infrastructure as well as to assist our democratic allies abroad? We all need to do whatever we can to ensure that the voting public understands the differences between the parties and supports the Democratic Party that’s working for them.

Bruce Berlin

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/26/opinion/mike-johnson-trump-speaker.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

[2] Ibid.

[3] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/mike-johnson-house-speaker-republican-nominee-what-know-rcna122114

[4] Ibid.

[5] https://lailluminator.com/2023/10/29/mike-johson-lgbtq/

[6] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/10/31/israel-ukraine-johnson-house/

[7] Ibid.

The Struggle for the Soul of America: My Blog Is Back As the 2024 Elections Loom on the Horizon

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Some of you have been wondering why you’ve not been getting my blog. Back in January I decided to take a break from it so I could concentrate on the memoir I’ve been writing.  But life got in the way and I have not made the progress on my memoir that I had hoped for. While I will continue working on my book, I feel that my blog can no longer be on hold. There’s just too much going on that calls for our closer examination. So, here goes…
 
While we have almost 16 months until the 2024 election, it may very well be a critical turning point in the history of our country. A victory by Trump and his Republican allies would be a major step toward our nation becoming an autocracy. The New York Times recently reported that the former president plans “a sweeping expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government if voters return him to the White House in 2025, reshaping the structure of the executive branch to concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands.” (See https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/17/us/politics/trump-plans-2025.html.)

With a dozen or more candidates lining up to challenge Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, 2024 could be a replay of 2016. Trump’s hardcore support of 30 to 40 percent of Republican primary voters could carry the day as all the other contenders carve up the remaining 60 to 70 percent of the vote. The Republicans would have to coalesce around one anti-Trump candidate to have any real chance of knocking Trump from his pedestal. 

On the Democratic side, President Biden appears to be a shoo-in for the nomination. At the moment, Robert Kennedy, Jr. is making some significant inroads into Biden’s support, though it’s hard to imagine his snatching the nomination away from Biden. In a Biden-Trump rematch, the president would appear to be the favorite given that the state of the economy, declining inflation, abortion rights, and escalating gun violence are all major issues favoring the Democrats, not to mention all Trump’s legal baggage.

The real electoral mystery is the possibility of a third-party candidacy affecting the election outcome. In a recent poll, nearly half of the respondents indicated they were open to supporting a third-party candidate. (See https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4035698-nearly-half-of-voters-would-consider-backing-third-party-candidate-in-2024-poll/.) I believe that would take more votes away from Biden than from Trump, giving the former president a real possibility of winning and turning our country into a dangerous autocracy. 

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is making gestures suggesting a possible No Labels third-party candidacy to the right of Biden as Cornel West joins the Green Party to run to the president’s left. (See https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4098630-the-memo-democrat-suspicions-grow-about-rfk-jr-cornel-west-no-labels/.) One or both of these campaigns could doom Biden’s chances of re-election and put Trump or another right-wing Republican in the White House. 

It’s way too early to even guess how this will all turn out. But it’s not too soon to get involved and learn what you can do to help avoid a democratic disaster in next year’s elections. Now’s the time to determine how you can best get in the fight to save our democracy.   

Bruce Berlin

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.


 

The Struggle for the Soul of America: Manchin and Schumer to McConnell and the Republicans, “Gotcha!”

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Did Democrats Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer pull a fast one on Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, or what?

A month ago, Sen. McConnell declared, “Let me be perfectly clear. There will be no bipartisan USICA (a $52 billion bill to support the U.S. semiconductor industry) as long as Democrats are pursuing a partisan reconciliation bill.”[1]

Two weeks later Sen. Manchin put the brakes on the Democrats’ reconciliation bill. Believing that the partisan bill was dead, McConnell and 16 of his Republican colleagues then joined with all 50 Democrats to pass the CHIPS semiconductor bill on July 27. Within hours Sens. Manchin and Schumer announced an agreement on a $740 billion reconciliation bill[2] that McConnell can’t derail.[3]

It was the kind of cunning maneuver McConnell is known for, but this time the Democrats were in the driver’s seat. McConnell has been sticking it to the Dems for way too long. Could this just be the beginning of the payback McConnell and his right-wing colleagues clearly deserve?

The Democrats are finally learning to play hardball. And, right in the nick of time. With the mid-term elections fast approaching, the Dems need to demonstrate to the voting public the stark differences between them and the GOP. Forcing Republicans to vote on popular legislation they oppose, especially if the bill ultimately fails, helps the Dems make the case that the public needs to vote more Democrats into office if they want these bills to pass.

For example, take the bill enacting the right to contraceptives. A few days ago, Senate Republicans blocked the bill,[4] despite the fact that 84% of likely Republican primary voters support safe access to contraceptives.[5] Almost all House Republicans voted against this bill as well.[6] And most of them also voted ‘no’ on a same-sex marriage bill and a couple of other popular social issues.[7]

Even more reprehensible, last week Senate Republicans rejected a bill to assist veterans suffering from exposure to toxic chemicals while on duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Twenty-five Republican senators blocked the measure, even though they had voted in favor of it just one month earlier. Their about-face was in retaliation for being outmaneuvered by Schumer and Manchin in the CHIPS Act voting previously noted. “Getting even” with the Democrats apparently overrode their longstanding strong support for our troops. This may very well cost the GOP when America’s veterans go to the polls this fall.[8]

Meanwhile, as the Justice Department begins to zero in on Trump’s criminal culpability for the January 6th insurrection, a bright light will also shine on his Republican Congressional enablers. McConnell and his colleagues who have failed to stand up to Trump are, in fact, accomplices to Trump’s crimes. If Senate Republicans had voted with the Democrats to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial after he had instigated the attack on the Capitol, he would have been barred from running for president again under Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution.[9]

The House Select Committee’s hearings have made it clear to millions more Americans how Trump and his party conspired to overthrow the 2020 election. All the Republican Congresspeople who voted against certifying that election and supported Trump’s Big Lie should be held accountable in my view. But that will be up to their constituents in November. The voters may yet reject those who chose overthrowing our government rather than upholding the Constitution, which they had sworn to defend.[10]

Though the polls and history suggest this is the Republicans’ year, recent events have given the Democrats renewed hope for winning the mid-term elections. In addition to all the above, abortion rights, gun control and climate change provide further Democratic momentum. And I just bought gas for under $4/gal. So, inflation may cease to be the overriding issue it has been projected to be. Then Democrats may well declare the ultimate “Gotcha” on the night of November 8th. Wouldn’t that be something?!

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://seekingalpha.com/news/3853443-mcconnell-looks-to-block-52b-in-chips-funding-over-spending-packages

[2] https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/07/joe-manchin-climate-bill-inflation-reduction-act.html

[3] https://www.businessinsider.com/mcconnell-assails-manchin-spending-deal-after-dems-strip-his-leverage-2022-7

[4] https://truthout.org/articles/republican-blocks-contraception-access-bill-from-coming-to-vote-in-senate/

[5] https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/07/19/poll-independent-womens-voice-republican-primary-voters-support-safe-access-birth-control-contraception/9921658251250/

[6] https://truthout.org/articles/republican-blocks-contraception-access-bill-from-coming-to-vote-in-senate/

[7] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/22/house-republican-votes-marriage-contraception/

[8] https://www.npr.org/2022/07/29/1114417097/veterans-burn-pit-bill-republican-senators

[9] https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/article-1/section-3/clause-7/#:~:text=Judgment%20in%20Cases%20of%20Impeachment,and%20Punishment%2C%20according%20to%20Law

[10] https://history.house.gov/Institution/Origins-Development/Oath-of-Office/#:~:text=Today%2C%20Members%20of%20the%20House,following%20the%20official%20swearing%2Din.

The Struggle for the Soul of America: Time for All of Us to Go the Extra Mile for Our Country

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Time is running out for President Biden and the Democratic Congress to restore our faltering country. Trump and his Republican cohorts are hell-bent on destroying American democracy and creating a one-party autocracy, if and when they gain control of the federal government.[1]

Denying the reality of man-made climate change, Congressional Republicans reject the need to protect our planet from the disastrous effects of global warming.

Snubbing the idea that easy access to guns is a primary reason for America’s mass murders epidemic, most Republicans rebuff the need for universal background checks and other meaningful gun control measures.

Renouncing a woman’s fundamental right to control her own body, Republican officials forbid abortion, even in the case of a 10-year-old rape victim.

The list goes on and on.

Most forecasts have the Democrats losing the House and possibly the Senate in this fall’s elections. Even if they only lose their House majority, the Democrats ability to pass any sensible legislative measures over Republican obstruction will be practically impossible. If they lose the Senate too, all of Biden’s judicial and executive branch nominations will be in hostile Republican hands as well.

It’s time to ask ourselves how much do we care about the future of our country? If there ever was a time our country needed us to step up and go the extra mile, it’s now. Together, I believe we can turn this around.

Though the Biden administration is well aware of the extremely harsh consequences of a Republican takeover, it seems unable or unwilling to meet the moment with the full power of executive authority while it still has the opportunity. Some Democrats and environmental groups are urging Biden to immediately declare a climate emergency to unlock the powers of the National Emergency Act to pursue actions to curb greenhouse gas emissions and build a better green economy.[2]

In announcing a recent series of executive actions targeting the climate crisis, Biden stopped short of the national climate emergency declaration called for by the Center for Biological Diversity and more than 1,200 other groups. “The world’s burning up from California to Croatia, and right now Biden’s fighting fire with the trickle from a garden hose,” said Jean Su, Energy Justice program director at the Center for Biological Diversity.[3]

The same is true in the administration’s efforts to combat gun violence. Calling on Biden to declare a public health emergency, Kris Brown, president of the Brady Campaign, exclaimed, “This should be an all-government, all-hands-on-deck approach to solve this issue…”[4]

Lindsay Nichols of the gun control group Giffords has called for Biden to eliminate background check loopholes through executive action. Nichols also wants the Department of Justice to scale up its anti-gun trafficking strike forces while others are demanding a White House office dedicated to addressing gun violence.[5]

Regarding abortion rights, Biden signed an executive order “directing his health department to expand access to abortion pills, beef up enforcement of Obamacare’s birth control coverage mandate and stand up an army of pro bono lawyers to help defend people criminally charged for seeking or providing the procedure.” Still “many activists and abortion providers voiced frustration with the measure’s scope, vagueness and timing and worried it would do little to influence the impact on the ground of mounting state bans.”[6]

So, there’s two things we all need to do. First, contact your senators and representatives as well as the White House. Urge them to do more. Go the extra mile for climate change, gun control and abortion rights.

Second, work to get out the vote in November (https://www.rockthevote.org/get-involved/help-get-out-the-vote/; https://ballotpedia.org/Get_out_the_vote) for all those candidates who support strong measures to solve these urgent issues. Together we can make a difference.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/04/trump-republican-party-democracy

[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/20/biden-announces-new-climate-change-programs-no-emergency-declaration.html

[3]https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/biden-stops-short-of-declaring-national-climate-emergency-2022-07-20/

[4] https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/3502639-biden-has-limited-options-but-there-are-some-things-he-can-do-on-guns/

[5] Ibid.

[6] https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/08/biden-abortion-executive-order-00044647

The Struggle for the Soul of America: Democrats, A Bird in the Hand Is Worth Two in the Bush

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Democrats are furious that once again Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has thwarted their latest efforts to resurrect President Biden’s Build Back Better social agenda. Manchin wants to wait till September to see if inflation is slowing down before supporting clean energy and tax increases. At the same time, Manchin has said he would vote to lower prescription drug prices and extend Affordable Care Act funding now.[1]

Democrats should be very angry with Manchin after more than a year of trying to meet his everchanging demands. Still, here’s why Democrats should go along with the West Virginia senator and pass this much smaller bill now with all 50 of their senators aboard, and not wait for a potential larger measure later this year.

First, as the old saying goes, a “bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”[2] Americans going to the polls this fall are more likely to remember what each of the two parties have done for them lately. The Democrats will be better off in November if they enact actual prescription drug and healthcare benefits this summer than if they hold out for a larger package that quite likely will not become law before the midterms. Most Republicans will not support even this smaller bill. Like inflation and the economy, drug prices and healthcare costs concern most voters.

Second, if a bill addressing climate change and other reforms does not pass before this year’s elections, Democrats will have another major issue to run on along with abortion rights, gun control, voting rights and saving democracy. Practically all Republicans are opposed to these initiatives and will vote against them. So, Democrats can tell the electorate that if they elect more of them to Congress this November, then they will be able to overcome the opposition and enact those measures next year.

And third, it is critical to get all members of Congress on the record concerning the cost of prescription drugs, healthcare and all these other important issues. Americans must be clear about where their representatives stand, and which party supports each of these critical matters:

Reducing healthcare costs                                                    Dem-yes         Rep-no

Universal background checks/gun safety                           Dem-yes         Rep-no

Ensuring the right of all citizens to vote                             Dem-yes         Rep-no

Guaranteeing a woman’s right to choose                            Dem-yes         Rep-no

Defending our country against autocracy and fascism      Dem-yes         Rep-no

Safeguarding our planet from climate change                   Dem-yes         Rep-no

Voters must also understand that Republicans reject these basic human rights so that Big Business and their wealthy donors can avoid paying their fair share in taxes and adhering to reasonable health, safety and democratic rules and regulations.

The choice is clear. The question is: Can the Democratic Party spell out in simple terms what is at stake in this fall’s elections so that all Americans will get it? And will we who already get it help spread the message? The future of our nation is in our hands.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://news.yahoo.com/democrats-vent-fury-joe-manchin-205150433.html

[2] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/a%20bird%20in%20the%20hand%20is%20worth%20two%20in%20the%20bush

The Struggle for the Soul of America: Will Republican State Legislatures Overrule the Results of the Next Presidential Election?

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The current right-wing Supreme Court recently announced that in its next session it will hear the case of Moore v. Harper, a North Carolina case involving gerrymandered congressional district maps drawn by the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature. At the heart of this case is the radical doctrine labeled the “independent state legislature” theory.

Under the independent state legislature doctrine, state legislatures have absolute control over electoral votes in presidential elections. Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Laurence Tribe and Dennis Aftergut, counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy, explain that “according to this baseless notion, state legislatures can do whatever they want in manipulating elections no matter how extreme the results — principles of voter equality and fairness be damned, along with the state’s constitution, its governor and its courts.”[1]

In other words, if the Supreme Court adopts this theory, it could rule that a state legislature can disregard the vote of the people and award its state’s Electoral College votes to whomever it wishes. And four of the Court’s justices have already signaled support for this idea.[2] As Thom Hartmann recently observed, Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution describes the state legislature’s role in presidential elections, but “doesn’t even once mention the popular vote or the will of the people:

“Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress…”[3]

The operative word here is “Manner.” Under the questionable independent state legislature doctrine, a state legislature can employ whatever manner it so choses in determining which candidate receives its state’s electoral votes.

Tribe and Aftergut further argue that “Going into this November’s elections, 30 state legislatures are firmly in Republican hands, including in most of the battleground states that determine presidential election outcomes. Adopting the independent state legislature theory would amount to right-wing justices making up law to create an outcome of one-party rule.”[4]

That is why the 2022 elections for state legislators are vitally important. Some of those 30 Republican-controlled legislatures must be turned over to the Democrats in this November’s elections. If Americans who care about saving our democracy turn out in great number and elect Democratically controlled legislatures this fall in enough states to muster an Electoral College majority, then they would prevent the overturning of the 2024 presidential election under the independent state legislature doctrine.

Once again, it is up to us to spread the word and get out the vote! Democrats have so many critical issues supported by a clear majority of voters: abortion rights, climate change, gun control, voting rights and now saving democracy itself.

We must light a fire under all Americans who want our democracy to survive. We all must get involved and do everything we can to ensure that radical Republican state legislatures cannot overturn the will of the people in the 2024 presidential election.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://www.yahoo.com/news/op-ed-supreme-court-poised-123049971.html

[2] Ibid.

[3] https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/07/01/beware-supreme-court-laying-groundwork-pre-rig-2024-election

[4] https://www.yahoo.com/news/op-ed-supreme-court-poised-123049971.html

The Struggle for the Soul of America: It’s Time to Fight Back!

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In response to the recent Supreme Court decisions undercutting women’s rights, environmental protection, gun control and more, I agree with environmentalist Bill McKibben. His recent observations remind me of the Chinese proverb, “in every crisis lies the seed of opportunity.[1] McKibben wrote:

A reasonable reaction to the week’s Supreme Court rulings, which culminated in Thursday’s gutting of the Clean Air Act, would be: we are so screwed.

But there’s another way to look at it: we can turn the right-wing’s wet dream into a nightmare for them if we fight back. If we seize it, we have the best opportunity in many years for reconfiguring American politics.

The key thing to understand about these Supreme Court decisions is that they’re fantastically unpopular. On guns, on choice, and on climate the Court has taken us places Americans badly do not want to go. By majorities of two-thirds or more Americans detest these opinions; those are majorities large enough to win elections and to shape policy, even in our corroded democracy. The right, after decades of slow and careful and patient nibbling away at rights and norms is suddenly rushing full-tilt. That’s dangerous for us, but also for them. The force of that charge can, jiu jitsu-like, be turned against them.[2]

This past week in the case of West Virginia v. EPA, the Court found that the Environmental Protection Agency did not have the authority to regulate reducing carbon emissions under the 1970 Clean Air Act by forcing utility companies to shift from coal to renewable energy. The Court held that Congress did not specifically authorize the EPA to regulate CO2 in this way. The ruling effectively makes it much harder for the U.S. government to combat climate change.[3]

But it does much more than that. It opens the door to the Court’s usurping the role of ultimate policymaker in many other areas of our lives as well, be it education, healthcare or any matter where Congress has designated the power to regulate to the Executive branch. In a blistering dissent, Justice Elena Kagan accuses the Court majority of substituting its own ideas about policymaking for Congress’s: “…the Court today prevents congressionally authorized agency action to curb power plants’ carbon dioxide emissions. The Court appoints itself—instead of Congress or the expert agency—the decisionmaker on climate policy.”[4]

What’s to prevent the Court from taking this same approach in other regulatory fields? In the short political term, according to McKibben, “a promise from every Democrat that they would overturn the filibuster and expand the Court if elected.”[5]

So, we need to get every Democratic candidate for federal office to make that promise on the record before the election campaigns heat up. That promise could well boost Democratic turnout in November. McKibben argues that “our majorities on these issues are large enough to overwhelm even these archaic structures. Seventy percent is enough.”[6] In fact, this fight must be taken to state legislative elections as well. (More about that in next week’s blog.)

While inflation and the economy will be important in voters’ minds, these recent unpopular Court rulings affecting all Americans could turn November’s election in the Democrats’ favor. Following the West Virginia v. EPA decision, on Thursday a coalition of 15 climate, environmental, and social justice advocacy groups, including the Center for Popular Democracy, the Indigenous Environmental Network, Indivisible, the Movement for Black Lives and the Working Families Party, called for the addition of four justices “to restore balance to the Court.”[7]

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) immediately joined this initiative. Markey asserted that “We cannot sit idly by as extremists on the Supreme Court eviscerate the authorities that the government has had for decades to combat climate change and reduce pollution…We must also pass my Judiciary Act[8] to expand the Court to restore balance and legitimacy to the bench.”[9]

With just four months until the election, the battle lines have been clearly drawn. Support the coalition’s efforts. Urge your senators and Congresspeople to abolish the filibuster and pass the Judiciary Act of 2021. Our rights and American democracy depend on all of us fighting back now!

Bruce Berlin

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1]https://www.pinterest.com/pin/368169338291210377/#:~:text=In%20every%20crisis%20lies%20the%20seed%20of%20opportunity

[2] https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/07/02/time-now-people-powered-backlash

[3] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/supreme-court-climegae-change-carbon-emissions_n_62b36169e4b06169caa14933; https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/30/epa-supreme-court-west-virginia/

[4] https://reason.com/volokh/2022/07/01/justice-kagan-throws-down-the-gauntlet-we-are-not-all-textualists-now/

[5] https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/07/02/time-now-people-powered-backlash

[6] Ibid.

[7] https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/06/30/markey-bowman-join-climate-coalition-urging-scotus-expansion

[8] https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/04/15/combat-right-wing-assault-democracy-new-bill-would-add-four-seats-supreme-court

[9] https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/06/30/markey-bowman-join-climate-coalition-urging-scotus-expansion

The Struggle for the Soul of America: Do Recent Decisions Expose Justice Clarence Thomas’s Impeachable Bias?

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The struggle for the soul of America got a lot more real this past week. By the end of the week, the Supreme Court had handed down two major decisions imperiling the lives of most Americans.

On Thursday the Supreme Court struck down a New York state law requiring applicants for a license to carry a gun outside of their homes to have a “proper cause” to do so. The law had made it a crime to carry a concealed firearm without a license.[1] With the Court’s ruling, we are all in greater danger of being an innocent victim of a mass shooting wherever we go.

Then, on Friday the court overruled Roe v. Wade, the 50-year-old case which established the right to an abortion was guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. The Court found that abortion is not a Constitutional right, thereby giving individual states the power to set their own abortion laws.[2]

With Republicans controlling 26 state legislatures likely to ban abortion, millions of American women will now lose control over their reproductive health decisions.[3] Low-income women will be disproportionately affected since they lack the resources to travel to states where abortion will continue to be legal. The social injustice that the Court has unleashed is unconscionable.

While the conservative majority’s opinions are unnerving, Justice Clarence Thomas’s views deserve greater scrutiny. In the New York gun case, Justice Thomas’s majority opinion invalidated the gun control law because it prevents law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their rights under the Second Amendment.[4] Apparently, Thomas believes an individual’s right to carry a concealed weapon in public outweighs the state’s right to protect its citizens against being killed by an angry man in schools, theaters, churches or wherever. More than 98% of all mass shooters are men, often younger than 25.[5]

In overruling the right to an abortion, Thomas’s concurring opinion indicated that the courts’ rationale should also be used to overturn substantive due process cases establishing rights to contraception, same-sex consensual relations and same-sex marriage.[6]

What is very telling, however, was Justice Thomas’s failure to include overturning the substantive due process right to interracial marriage established in the landmark civil rights case of Loving v. Virginia.[7] For those who are unaware, Thomas is black and his wife, Ginni Thomas, is white. His not objecting to the right to interracial marriage which is based on the same 14th Amendment “due process” clause clearly looks like a biased effort to protect his own marriage. This calls into question Thomas’s ability to be an impartial arbiter of the law.

But Thomas’s inability to be an objective judge goes way beyond shielding his interracial marriage. Thomas’s confirmation hearings were very contentious due to Anita Hill’s accusations of his sexual misconduct. Liberal Democratic senators made it a central focus of the hearings. Later a former law clerk remembered Thomas saying, “The liberals made my life miserable for 43 years…And I’m going to make their lives miserable for 43 years.”[8] Thomas’s desire for revenge while on the court raises serious questions about his impartiality.

In fact, just today Thomas exhibited his lack of judicial objectivity when he was the lone dissenting vote in the Court’s refusal to hear the Coral Ridge Ministries Media appeal. That case challenged the liberal higher bar for public figures to claim libel that was established in the 1964 case of New York Times v. Sullivan.[9] Another example of Thomas’s bias against liberals unduly influencing his judicial decisions.

Last January Thomas was the only dissenting vote when the court rejected Donald Trump’s bid to block the release of his presidential records to the House select committee investigating the January 6th insurrection. Later, the Washington Post revealed that Thomas’s wife, Ginni Thomas, sent then Chief of Staff Mark Meadows texts urging him to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election results after Trump’s loss to Joe Biden.[10]All the other conservative justices, three even nominated by Trump, rejected Trump’s request. Did Ginni Thomas’s involvement in the efforts to overturn the election influence Justice Thomas’s dissent?

Maybe it’s time for Congress to examine Justice Thomas’s lack of judicial impartiality. Along with the Court’s dangerous decisions last week, this is another issue to raise in the November elections. Another reason to vote against the Republicans who want Thomas to remain on the bench, who support carrying concealed weapons without a good reason and who deny a woman’s right to choose. Democrats need to make all this very clear to the voters in the fall. More than ever, we need to get out the vote in order to save and restore our rights.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/23/supreme-court-strikes-down-new-york-gun-law-restricting-concealed-carry.html

[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/24/roe-v-wade-overturned-by-supreme-court-ending-federal-abortion-rights.html

[3] https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2021/10/26-states-are-certain-or-likely-ban-abortion-without-roe-heres-which-ones-and-why

[4] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/23/supreme-court-strikes-down-new-york-gun-law-restricting-concealed-carry.html

[5] https://www.menagainstgunviolence.org/men-and-gun-violence-stats; https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/politifact/2022/05/27/fact-check-most-mass-shooters-ages-18-19-texas-school-shooting-uvalde-robb-elementary/9933032002/

[6] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/24/us/clarence-thomas-roe-griswold-lawrence-obergefell.html

[7]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_v._Virginia#:~:text=Loving%20v.%20Virginia%2C%20388%20U.S.,Amendment%20to%20the%20U.S.%20Constitution

[8] https://www.businessinsider.com/clarence-thomas-told-clerks-he-wants-to-make-liberals-miserable-2022-6

[9] https://www.cbs58.com/news/supreme-court-declines-to-revisit-landmark-first-amendment-decision-leaving-higher-bar-for-libel-in-place

[10] https://www.businessinsider.com/clarence-thomas-only-justice-dissent-in-trump-january-6-bid-2022-3

The Struggle for the Soul of America: Breaking America’s Gun Safety Gridlock

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A new strategy may be emerging to break the logjam on legislation for gun safety. In The Atlantic magazine, senior editor Gal Beckerman proposes students, parents, and teachers take “the next three months to mobilize” a national strike when school starts again demanding gun safety laws. During the summer vacation, “they could create thousands of local committees supporting the strike and decide on what the national demand might be—say, an assault-weapon ban.”[1]

Beckerman points to the student movement after the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The Parkland students “built one of the most forceful movements around gun control to date…They also helped persuade Florida’s governor to sign a bill that raised the minimum age for purchasing a gun to 21 and extended the waiting period to three days.”[2]

Many unions were quick to denounce the shooting in Uvalde, Texas that killed 19 students and two teachers. American Federation of Teacher’s President Randi Weingarten, whose union has lost many members to gun violence, exclaimed, “Gun violence is cancer, and it’s one that none of us should tolerate for one single moment longer…We have made a choice to let this continue, and we can make a choice to finally do something—do anything—to put a stop to this madness.”[3]

Like most Americans, I am sickened by these school shootings as well as those in theaters, houses of worship and other public places. I agree with Weingarten that we can no longer tolerate this madness. But a national teachers’ strike is a big ask of public servants whose salaries do not often afford them the ability to build large bank accounts in reserve. Therefore, a fund to support striking teachers that many of us could support should be developed as soon as the organizing begins. (Note: This idea came from Margaret Lubalin, my editor/partner.)

With the help of the AFT and other unions, an extended national strike could be very effective. Hopefully, it would force Congress and state legislatures to act. With most Republicans opposing meaningful gun safety measures, it could also have a defining impact on some contested electoral races this November.

As momentum builds, the strike could be expanded to other issues as well. Whether it’s gun safety, abortion rights, voting rights or saving democracy itself, our country is at a dangerous stalemate. And let’s not forget the COVID pandemic and global warming.

Our nation is deeply divided on all these critical issues and at a loss as to what to do. Republicans blame the Democrats who control the government. They say elect them to run the country but have offered no sound solutions. Just recriminations and name-calling. They are obsessed with power and control. To them, their way is the only acceptable way. Democrats rightly respond that Republicans just obstruct any real effort to fix our problems.

The state of American politics is demoralizing and depressing. We once were better than this. A national strike for gun safety would be a big step forward toward bringing Americans of all persuasions together (over 90% want expanded background checks[4]) and making our country a healthier, safer place to live. The question is can we muster the strength and the will to overcome the gun lobby and its allies and find our way back to a more civil society before it’s too late.  Therein lies the struggle for the Soul of America.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/05/uvalde-school-shooting-gun-control-walkout/643120/

[2] Ibid.

[3] https://paydayreport.com/strikes-over-gun-control-erie-dc-teachers-went-on-strike-over-gun-control-weingarten-calls-for-action%EF%BF%BC/

[4] https://www.bradyunited.org/key-statistics?gclid=Cj0KCQjw4uaUBhC8ARIsANUuDjX4nlkbjeRY7qs1XkJePFdqdFrRdumlsGZbzF1N9xsOsBrY5-H8gWAaAmIjEALw_wcB