Since I posted installments VII and VIII of Our Flabby Language, I’ve had some interest expressed in the first six. So—because I’m accommodating (and lazy)—beginning today, I’ll repost them on Wednesdays.
Read the Rest!Electoral College–Time to Drop Out?
Amid all the Presidential debate “performance” hoo-hah this morning—talk about exalting form over substance—was another sober reminder of what we’ve come to: Sixty-plus percent of 13 million voters—that’s roughly eight million souls, 2.6% of the population and 5.3% of registered voters—could decide who your next President is.
Read the Rest!Did Our Founders Fail Us?
Hell, no. If anything, we have failed them. They were, first, citizens, and fully engaged. Are we?
Read the Rest!Black Patriots–A Promise Unkept
After my first post in the last series, 8 Shameful Things Our Founders Believed, I heard from an old friend, Maurice Barboza. We worked together on the staff of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee in the ‘70s, after which I moved to the Senate side and left D.C. to return to my Northwestern roots.
Read the Rest!8 Shameful Things Our Founders Believed–VI
Picking up from last Friday: The Rest of Shameful Thing 8–Redistricting. Perhaps the most currently contentious legacy of the Philadelphia founders’ decision to leave the States in charge of how its voters select their federal—and, by default, state and local—representatives is periodic redistricting.
Read the Rest!8 Shameful Things Our Founders Believed–V
Picking up from Monday: Shameful Thing Eight—Voting Rights. 7. Each State could decide who gets to vote and under what circumstances.
Read the Rest!8 Shameful Things Our Founders Believed–IV
Picking up from Friday: Shameful Things Six and Seven. 6. The people couldn’t be trusted to elect their state’s Senators.
Read the Rest!8 Shameful Things Our Founders Believed–III
Picking up from Monday: Shameful Thing Five. 5. Neither were women equal to men.
Read the Rest!8 Shameful Things our Founders Believed–II
Picking up from last Friday: Shameful Things 3 and 4: 3. Kidnapped Africans were property—bought, sold, and claimable—defined as “three-fifths” human, but only for census purposes.
Read the Rest!8 Shameful Things Our Founders Believed–I
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Read the Rest!