KENNEDY: 2017—Goodbye and good riddance
I’m very happy to bid farewell to a depressing year in which I’ve watched America being dismantled to benefit the president and his cronies.
Sheila Suess Kennedy
Articles
VIEWPOINT: When government abdicates responsibility
Consumers Union is only one of the numerous consumer organizations opposed to repealing net neutrality. These organizations warn that, without net neutrality, internet service providers will raise prices and—even more troubling—give preferential treatment to favored sites and apps.
KENNEDY: Faith-based economics fatally flawed
When President Clinton hiked taxes, the economy boomed. When President George W. Bush slashed them, the economy ultimately collapsed.
KENNEDY: The America in the mirror
If we are honest, if we look at our recent and not-so-recent history, we’ll see that our democratic institutions have been malfunctioning, and our democratic norms eroding, for a long time.
Tribalism and core American values
We Americans are a cantankerous and argumentative lot. We hold vastly different political philosophies and policy preferences, and we increasingly inhabit alternate realities. Partisans routinely attack elected officials—especially presidents—who don’t share their preferences or otherwise meet their expectations. Politics as usual. Unpleasant and often unfair, but—hysteria and hyperbole notwithstanding—usually not a threat to the future […]
KENNEDY: Contrasts in leadership
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett has shown leadership in his handling of the police shooting of an unarmed black man.
KENNEDY: McConnell’s travesty
The Senate Republican health care bill rations care and massively increases everyone’s premiums in order to fund $300 billion in tax breaks to the top 2 percent of income earners. It robs the poor and gives to the rich.
KENNEDY: Framing the social safety net
Attitudes about social welfare can be divided into two utterly incompatible categories: The use of citizens’ tax monies to provide a safety net is viewed either as charity or as self-interest, properly understood.
KENNEDY: Whistling in the dark
The rise of populism, increasing racial resentments and anti-immigrant rhetoric, the widening divide between flourishing cities populated with skilled workers and emptying rural areas pock-marked with abandoned factories and stores should be a wake-up call.
KENNEDY: Another reason single-payer makes sense
If health coverage were de-coupled from employment, the United States would become a much more attractive location for new businesses, and incentives to outsource production to overseas workers would be reduced.
KENNEDY: We don’t need no stinkin’ democracy
Safe legislative districts breed voter apathy and reduce political participation. What is the incentive to volunteer or vote when it obviously won’t matter?
KENNEDY: Trump: And so it begins
In his first week in the White House, Donald Trump exceeded my expectations—and not in a good way.
KENNEDY: Losing Bill Hudnut, a leader with vision
Unlike politicians who see the job of mayor as a low-level “stepping stone” to higher office, Hudnut reveled in being Indianapolis’ mayor. He had a passion for—and an intellectual engagement with—urban policy, and he understood the importance of a vibrant central core.
KENNEDY: Time to determine what’s next
The electoral map is not—as often described—cosmopolitan “elitist” coasts against the “heartland.” It’s a nationwide series of blue islands in seas of red—urban centers surrounded by suburban, exurban and rural precincts.
KENNEDY: The elephant in the courtroom
Since Obama was elected, the Senate GOP has stubbornly resisted acting on the majority of Obama’s judicial nominees. According to the Federal Bar Association, vacancies in the district courts, where most federal judicial work gets done, are reaching crisis proportions: 65 seats on the district court bench and at least 90 vacancies throughout the Article III courts. That’s more than 10 percent of the federal judiciary.
KENNEDY: Too many Americans don’t vote ‘correctly’
What constitutes a “correct” vote has nothing to do with voting for an objectively superior candidate; instead, casting a “correct” vote means, for purposes of this research, voting for the candidate whose positions are most closely aligned with those of the voter.
KENNEDY: Leadership for ‘no mean city’
The bustling city we inhabit today owes its existence to Richard Lugar, Bill Hudnut and others who were willing to stick their necks out to do the right thing.
KENNEDY: But think of the children!
Often, as with age restrictions on sales of certain substances, laws are genuinely motivated by concerns for children; in other cases, pious pleas to “think about the children” mask different agendas.
KENNEDY: Questions for a new candidate
ERIC Holcomb’s decision to tie himself firmly to Pence’s record—a record many of us thought would elect John Gregg in November—raises a number of interesting questions.
KENNEDY: Roddenberry, Trump and the Enterprise
There could hardly be a more dramatic contrast between Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s “kumbaya” vision and values than the fear and anger exhibited by Republicans in Cleveland.