He didn’t get mentioned until the fourteenth paragraph of a very speculative story in the New York Times about who the Democrats might run for president in 2020, but that was enough for the Boston Globe to spin out a front-page story on Tuesday suggesting US Rep. Seth Moulton may be in the hunt for […]
Presidential Election
Posted inOpinion, Politics
DNC needs to be turned upside down
IT HAS BEEN OVER A MONTH since the 2016 presidential election. For Democrats, the collective empty feeling and sleepless nights are still present. Why did the Democrats lose? Simply, it is because the party nominated an unelectable candidate, who ran a terrible campaign, who lost to another unelectable candidate, who also ran a terrible campaign. […]
Posted inPolitics
The antiquated Electoral College
WHEN THE FOUNDING generation realized the Electoral College they created contained serious flaws, they changed it to reflect emerging norms of democracy. We should follow their example. The method of choosing the president was not designed for popular elections but for the deliberation of wise and accomplished men who were capable of discerning the qualities […]
Posted inEducation
Students push for ‘sanctuary campuses’
UMASS AMHERST OFFICIALS, under pressure from students, said on Friday they were committed to making the campus a safe haven for undocumented students, faculty, and staff. But they stopped short of meeting the students’ demand that the school be declared a sanctuary campus. The notion of a sanctuary campus popped up over the last week in […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Warren sets rules of engagement
THIS WASN’T A PRETTY ELECTION. In fact, it was ugly, and we should not sugarcoat the reason why. Donald Trump ran a campaign that started with racial attacks and then rode the escalator down. He encouraged a toxic stew of hatred and fear. He attacked millions of Americans. And he regularly made statements that undermined […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Electoral College must go
THIS COLLEGE HAS NO IVORY TOWERS, no campus lawn, no library dedicated to a major benefactor. You can’t apply for admission to this college or get a degree from it. Yes, most of you know about the Electoral College – or do you? Most people view the Electoral College (if they think of it at […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Rearranging the electoral map
Last in a series MAPS ARE ONE OF THE OLDEST WAYS known to humankind to illustrate a location or make a point. Like the great Medieval stained glass windows depicting scenes from the scriptures, maps can be a powerful visual way to teach when language fails. Our fascination with maps has bled into the presidential […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
A wasted vote of conscience
IN THIS PERIOD of discontent with the Republican and Democratic nominees for president, many Massachusetts voters are talking about writing in their own candidate when they enter the voting booth on Nov. 8. But while a write-in vote may be a feel-good act of personal protest, it won’t mean much because a peculiarity of Massachusetts […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
US needs a mobility moonshot
Fourth in a series THERE WAS A BRIEF PERIOD, in muscular, post-war, auto-centric America, when the Democratic nominee for president would officially commence the general election campaign with a large rally in Detroit’s Cadillac Square on Labor Day weekend. In 1960, as recounted by presidential campaign chronicler Theodore White, the “union men of Detroit’s assembly […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Clinton’s debate victory margins historic
HILLARY CLINTON ADMINISTERED a historic thumping to Donald Trump in the three presidential debates. The candidates met Wednesday night for the third and final time, and the outcome was the same as the first two outings — post-debate polls from CNN and YouGov showed Clinton again walking away with the win. A perfect string of 15 […]