Victory and more bigotry: American politics still influenced by the backlash to Civil Rights legislation
By Julian Maxwell Hayter, Associate Professor of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond For nearly 60 years, conservatives have been trying to gut the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the crowning achievement of the civil rights movement. As a scholar of American voting...
Threat Rhetoric: Understanding the language used to stoke violence by those who want to divide society
By H. Colleen Sinclair, Associate Research Professor of Social Psychology, Louisiana State University Events like the riots in Brazil, the January 6, 2021, insurrection two years before it and the mass shooting at the Colorado LGBTQ nightclub each occurred after...
Why accepting DeSantis’s version of history would be a perversion of our past and our principles
It is commonly understood that Republican Rutherford B. Hayes won the electoral votes from three contested southern states in 1876 and thus took the presidency by promising to remove from the South the U.S. troops that had been protecting Black Americans there. Then,...
Frances Willard: How the legacy of the temperance movement’s founder still influences feminism today
By Christopher H. Evans, Professor of the History of Christianity, Boston University As younger adults opt for “wellness” products, many are practicing alcohol abstinence. Sometimes referred to as “sober curious,” this trend of often forgoing alcohol has forged public...
The threat of domestic terrorism: Why the “lone wolf” extremist myth is dangerous to society
By Alexander Hinton, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology; Director, Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers University – Newark On February 15, 2023, a judge informed Payton Gendron, a white 19-year-old who killed 10 Black people at a...
Airport security across United States intercepted an alarming number of passenger guns in 2022
The woman flying out of Philadelphia’s airport last year remembered to pack snacks, prescription medicine and a cellphone in her handbag. But what was more important was what she forgot to unpack: a loaded .380-caliber handgun in a black holster. The weapon was...
Violent domestic abusers allowed to keep their guns under interpretation of recent Supreme Court ruling
By April M. Zeoli, Associate Professor of Public Health, University of Michigan; and Shannon Frattaroli, Professor of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins University For a large part of the history of the United States, domestic abuse was tolerated under the...
Milwaukee Independent recognized as finalist for 11 journalism awards including War in Ukraine coverage
The Milwaukee Press Club announced the list of finalists for its 93rd Annual Gridiron Awards for Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism, covering an unusual news year of the pandemic, social unrest, and political turmoil. Milwaukee Independent was selected for 11...
Without a budget plan of their own to offer House Republicans try to steal the president’s thunder
“Show me your budget,” President Joe Biden is fond of saying, “[and] I’ll tell you what you value.” Biden introduced his 2024 budget on March 9 at the Finishing Trades Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Biden’s 182-page, $6.9 trillion budget plan advances a...
Showcase of extremism at CPAC: Trump embraces grievances that echo surge of fascist movements
The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) met in Washington DC, over the March 4 weekend, sparking speculation over the 2024 Republican presidential field. Hard-right figures like Donald Trump and his loyalists Mike Lindell, the MyPillow entrepreneur, and...
When the rich paid taxes: Why Republicans hide the real cause of America’s $31tn debt
The dire warnings of fiscal hawks are once again darkening the skies of official Washington. They are demanding that the $31.4tn federal debt be reduced and government spending curtailed, thereby giving cover to Republican efforts to hold America hostage by refusing...
Debt Default: Republicans risk triggering the dollar’s collapse and damaging America’s economic might
By Michael Humphries, Deputy Chair of Business Administration, Touro University It is a case of déjà vu all over again on the debt ceiling debate. Republicans, who regained control of the House of Representatives in November 2022, are threatening to not allow an...
