Politics
"Hispanic Voters Are Poised to Have an Unprecedented Influence on the 2016 Election"
If you start doing the math, 3,000 more Hispanics are eligible to vote every day. It's a young population: 800,000-plus of native-born eligible voters every year in the last four years, in addition to the new immigrants that are naturalizing. It's unprecedented: more than 27 million eligible Hispanic voters. An estimated 13, maybe 14 million, will cast a vote, depending on their motivation. more »
Having a Field Day With the Candidates: Judging Oratorical Skills of Hillary and Donald on the Trail
Doris O'Brien writes: Trump, an inveterate risk taker, refuses to play it safe. He often repeats phrases, as if to nail them down. And while his supporters profess admiration for his talking 'extemporaneously,' he is technically doing no such thing. By definition, 'extemporaneous' means to speak from notes, as opposed to memorization or reading from a script. Hillary's speaking style suffers from being the reverse. She is too predictably 'on script,' making her delivery sound mechanically driven, rather than 'in the moment' inspiring. When she does veer from her teleprompter, she measures her words carefully, punctuating them with a lot of annoying "uhs". more »
Jo Freeman's Convention Diary: Organized Women at the Democratic Convention; More Events of, by and for Women Than Any Other Single Group
While women faded into the background at the Republican Convention, they were front and center at the Democrats'. Women were everywhere, and not just sitting in the seats. There were more events aimed at women each day of the Democratic Convention than on all the days of the Republican Convention. more »
Jo Freeman's Convention Diary: Class and Culture at the Republican and Democratic Conventions
Walking around the conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia one could see that there have been many changes in class and culture both inside and outside of the parties in the last fifty years. Many of you remember back in the ‘60s when those of us who marched for civil rights and against the war in Viet Nam were dismissed as bearded beatniks and hairy hippies by working class men. Now they've become what they said we were. more »