A previous Pandemic Journal (# 10) and seven comments thereto discussed the turmoil over Wisconsin’s April primary election and yet its successful implementation of voting by mail so long as such votes were postmarked on or before the actual date of the election.[1] Another state, Colorado, has had a successful system for voting by mail … Continue reading Pandemic Journal (#18): Colorado’s Successful Voting by Mail
James H. Lowry, a Grinnell College classmate (1961), friend, and accomplished social activist and business executive, has written the following inspiring election message which he asked me to share. (Here is his biography in The History Makers (the nation’s largest African-American video oral history collection). “As we near Election Day 2020, I’ve been reflecting on … Continue reading Election Message from James H. Lowry
U.S. “election officials are living with a palpable sense of dread . . . about how our vast, diverse system of voting will function [this year] amid a pandemic.” This is the judgment of informed observers of that system: Kevin Johnson, the Executive Director of Election Reformers Network, and Yuval Levin, Director of Social, Cultural … Continue reading Election Officials’ Dread About This Year’s U.S. Election
At the May 1st Memorial Service for former Vice President Walter Mondale, Presidential Historian Jon Meacham delivered the following remarks.[1] “The story begins the year before he was even old enough to vote. It was a late July afternoon in 1948, and Fritz Mondale, then all of 20, had been put in charge of the … Continue reading Presidential Historian Jon Meacham’s Remarks About Walter Mondale at His Memorial Service
This was the first sentence of the Washington Post’s headline for its January 2 editorial. As a blogger who has frequently lamented the continued existence of the Electoral College, the overrepresentation in Congress of states with relatively fewer people, gerrymandering and other efforts by some states to restrict and discourage voting (especially of minority citizens) … Continue reading “The U.S. needs a democracy overhaul”
Any country that claims to be a democracy in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic should be taking steps to encourage maximum voter participation while protecting voters from risking their health. Such steps would include facilitating voter registration and maximizing the use of voting by mail. That seems self-evident. Yet it is not happening throughout … Continue reading Will Upcoming U.S. Presidential Election Be Legitimate?
Number Date Title MARCH 2020 1563 03/23/20 Pandemic Journal (# 1): Kristof & Osterholm Analyses 1564 03/24/20 Pandemic Journal (# 2): Westminster Presbyterian Church Service (03/22/20) 1567 03/27/20 Pandemic Journal (# 3): 1918 Flu 1567A 03/28/20 Naming of the 1918-20 Flu 1567B 04/22/20 Other Thoughts on 1918 Flu 1568 03/28/20 Pandemic Journal (# … Continue reading List of Posts to dwkcommentaries—Topical: Pandemic Journal
This year’s U.S. presidential election reminds us that such elections operate under 50 sets of confusing rules established by state legislatures. We, therefore, should be reminded of the need for a Federal Elections Agency to simplify this morass. Latest Proposal for Such an Agency[1] The latest proposal for such an agency has been put forward … Continue reading U.S. Needs Federal Elections Agency
Harvard professors of government, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, make a convincing case that the structure of the U.S. government has permitted minority rule in the U.S. and they propose ways to change that structure to reduce the enabling of such minority rule.[1] We will examine their arguments about structure and reform. Then a couple … Continue reading The Need To End Minority Rule in U.S.
Peggy Noonan, a Wall Street Journal columnist, offers her thoughts on what we are learning in the coronavirus pandemic. Here are her main points along with reactions thereto. Noonan’s Observations[1] She says we have learned a lot. “How intertwined and interconnected our economy is, how provisional, how this thing depended on that. And how whisperingly … Continue reading Pandemic Journal (# 24): What We Are Learning in the Pandemic
