Remembering Pearl Harbor: Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future
National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day and the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Official commemoration website https://pearlharbor75thanniversary.com/
In U.S. Senate Race, Candidates Moved Left, Not to Center
An interesting revelation at the USC Schwarzenegger Institute’s postmortem event on California’s U.S. Senate race: The two candidates to emerge from the first round of voting in June – Kamala Harris and Loretta Sanchez – didn’t move to the center in the second round. They both moved left. That was one clear conclusion about the […]
Are You Ready? Propositions for the 2018 Ballot, Part 2
This is Part 2 of my proposals for new initiatives to liven up the Nov. 2018 ballot, written with my friend Jim Juroe, an Orange County attorney. Part 1, with a longer intro, is here. Proposition 76: The Student Freedom Restoration Act of 2018. Makes attending K-12 school voluntary. It’s the ultimate school choice. If […]
Urgent appeal: California Democrats to invoke new anti-Trump weapon
As they suit up for battle against the Trump administration, Democrats who dominate California’s Legislature vow to unleash one of the superpowers of holding a supermajority: the ability to enact laws immediately. An underplayed consequence of the fact that they won two-thirds of the seats in both houses last month is that—if they stick together—California Democrats have […]
Celebrity Politicians Don’t Stand on Ceremony
When newly-elected Donald Trump took his family to a restaurant for dinner without telling the public recently, the press flipped out. A chorus of complaints swelled across the land and apoplexy ensued among the news media. “He didn’t tell us!” “He’d supposed to let us know!” “That’s not how it’s done!” “We should have come […]
Ben Franklin’s Crystal Ball
While the news coming out of Washington these days has yet to have a particularly soothing effect in the aftermath of a tumultuous election, a trip to one of America’s most fabled cities can be reinvigorating. That would be Philadelphia, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the cradle of democracy at the nation’s birth and its […]
Lessons from the Senate Race Won’t Apply in 2018 Gov. Battle
California witnessed its first statewide race featuring contenders from the same political party but listening to campaign consultants for Kamala Harris and Loretta Sanchez at a Friday forum presented by the USC’s Schwarzenegger Institute lessons that might translate to future similar contests—say the 2018 governor’s race—may be hard to draw. In many ways, the senate […]
Dear Kevin, It’s Time for You to Move On
Dear Kevin de León, Your heart isn’t in the legislature, is it? I don’t know if it’s your next job that’s preoccupying you. Or whether you’re in mourning about Hillary losing (you were talked up as a candidate for EPA administrator) or about Trump winning, which means having to spend your time fighting off all […]
This Time the Democrats’ Supermajority Exists in Fact, Not Just Theory
Attempting to divine the significance of the Democrats capturing a two-thirds majority in the California Legislature, many analysts are pointing to the fact that the same thing happened in 2012, and concluding that it showed the supermajority didn’t really mean much. They note the ideological diversity within the Democratic caucus made it nearly impossible to […]