Good Commentary on Youth Vote and Its Significance for Future U.S. Elections

Good commentary I've just read on the youth vote in the recent U.S. elections and what it may signify for the future:

More Post-Election Commentary: "If they win, I should get all the credit. If they lose, I should not be blamed at all"

Photo of stack of newspapers by Daniel R. Blume, Wikimedia Commons

Post-election commentary continues. Here are some pieces I've read that I'd like to recommend:

Election Commentary: The Red Trickle, Youth Vote, Abortion, Trump's Rough Night

Brian Tyler Cohen, "Lauren Boebert’s 'victory party' before and after she started losing to her opponent

Judd Legum:

The much-discussed “red wave” never materialized.

Is It That the Democrats "Lost" White Christians, or That Obama's Elections Re-Energized GOP's "White Christian Strategy"?

Yesterday's PRRI "Morning Buzz" email newsletter* discusses a recent article by Jack Jenkins' entitled "Democrats lost white Christians. Can they win them back?" As I read this article yesterday, the thought that kept running around in my head was this: But the Democratic party did not "lose" white Christians. White Christians have walked away from the Democratic party because US white Christianity is deeply racist.

Twitter Chews Over Election Results: "Thoughts and Prayers to all the Republican Politicians Who Lost Their Seats Today"

Thoughts and prayers to all the Republican politicians who lost their seats today. We won't do anything to prevent it from happening again.

— Bess Kalb (@bessbell) November 8, 2017

A Twitter Thread in Response to Franklin Foer on What's Wrong with the Democrats

No mention at all of the significant role played by gerrymandering and voter suppression to lock in GOP control, as a minority. 1) https://t.co/PYX2jepDyW

— Bill Lindsey (@wdlindsy) June 21, 2017

This is a Twitter thread in response to Franklin Foer's "What's Wrong with the Democrats?" in the latest issue of The Atlantic. 

Robert Leonard on Why Rural America Voted for Trump: A Critique of the Argument

Robert Leonard's recent op-ed piece in New York Times on why rural America voted Trump is receiving a lot of attention as a cogent new statement in the growing body of literature upbraiding American liberals for their failure to understand the thinking and mores of heartland citizens who voted for Trump. This literature inevitably proceeds from the assumption that liberals live for the most part in "elite" enclaves on the two coasts of the nation, and have done too little to inform themselves about what people think and feel in flyover country — hence their abasement in the 2016 elections.

Tired Old "Discussion" of Democrats As Anti-Religious after 2016 Elections: Valuable Recent Commentary

I've never seen a group of people so happy to do such evil as take healthcare away from 30 million Americans. pic.twitter.com/kJJv5vdTNt

— CoryBooker2020 (@CBooker2020) January 5, 2017

Following a presidential election in which 4 in 5 white evangelicals and 3 in 5 white Catholics and Mormons placed Donald Trump in the White House, claiming "pro-life" intent as they did so, there is a predictable "conversation" now in the mainstream media about the purported tone-deafness of the Democratic party and liberals to religion. This "conversation" takes place repeatedly in the mainstream media following Republican political victories. It reinforces the assumptions that 1) Republicans own religion, 2) religion is to be equated with its right-wing iterations, 3) the religious views and practices of people who do not equate religion with its right-wing iterations should be ignored as the media discuss religion in American politics, and 4) non-right-wing iterations of religion are to be kept in check by the mainstream media.

"This Campaign Is a Choice Between a Normal Political Party and an Abnormal One": Ezra Klein on the (Moral) Choice Confronting American Voters in 2016

Ezra Klein on the significance (a moral significance) of the 2016 U.S. presidential elections:

Defensive Responses to Critiques of Hillary's "Misstatement" About Reagans and AIDS: What Do They Portend for Future of Democratic Politics?

I've been noticing an interesting (yes, that word again) thing lately in comments in my circles of Facebook friends. I'd like to think out loud about this interesting thing now, in dialogue with any of you who might care to respond to my meandering thoughts here.

Commentary on 2014 U.S. Elections Worth Reading

New York Times editorial:

The next Senate was just elected on the greatest wave of secret, special-interest money ever raised in a congressional election. What are the chances that it will take action to reduce the influence of money in politics?

Quote for Day: Thomas Frank on What's Still the Matter with Kansas

Thomas Frank is incisive about the self-deluding, fatuous centrism (his word, and he's right) of the Democrats, who imagine that the sheer force of demographic change will somehow wrench the out-of-control American political process from the hands of the rabid right, whom the Democrats have cravenly appeased over and over again from Clinton forward. As he says, he knows what he's talking about when he talks about Kansas and its hard turn to the hard GOP right, because he grew up Republican in Kansas. And:

Jared Bernstein on Painful Lessons from "Fiscal Cliff" Crisis: Stop Negotiating with Renegades Holding Nation Hostage!

Jared Bernstein at Salon on the next self-created trap that the minority party holding gerrymandered seats bought and paid for by the 1% intends now to spring immediately on the nation--the "debt ceiling" crisis:

Big News: Obama and Democrats Enjoying Wide Lead Among Catholics

The big news now vis-a-vis Catholics and politics in the U.S.: as Daniel Burke reports at Religion News Service, a Pew Research Center poll conducted on 16 September shows Obama leading Romney among American Catholics by 54-39 percent.  As Burke notes, this widening lead is despite the U.S. bishops' "fortnight for freedom" shock-and-awe events this summer, and despite Romney's having selected Catholic Paul Ryan as his running mate.

Catholics Ignoring Bishops, Trending Democratic As U.S. Elections Near: Polling Data, My Reflections

Snatching a free moment later in the day to catch up on news-reading--and to post the following:

News Roundup: Dolan at DNC, More on Finn Conviction, Eric Erickson and Michael Sean Winters

Some end-of-week commentary that touches on issues I've discussed here of late:

1. At Salon, Sarah Posner looks at the Democrats' decision to have His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan bless the proceedings of their convention, and wonders why Democrats still have such difficulty speaking truth to power.  As she argues, Dolan's real role at the DNC--a role the party handed him by inviting him on stage--wasn't to bless the convention but to signal to conservatives his condemnation of the DNC platform.

Nation Editorial on GOP as Post-Truth Party

The Nation's latest editorial on the GOP as the "post-truth" party that "has now fully entered the netherworld of post-truth politics" seems to me right on target.  As the editorial notes, (über-Catholic) Mr. Ryan is now "infamous" for his "pack of lies," and (über-Mormon) Mr. Romney wasn't even "remotely believable" with his rambling, truth-defying rhetoric at the recent convention of the party on whose side God stands.

GOP and Democrats on God-Talk and Faith: Rube Bait and the Least Among Us

At National Catholic Reporter, Pat Perriello takes a close look at the Republican platform in 2012, and finds it lacking on ethical grounds.  He concludes:

Amy Sullivan on Catholic Bishops' Paul Ryan Problem, Fred Clarkson on Mitt Romney's Dog Whistle to Religious Right

Some good religion and politics commentary from the last several days:

GOP Attempt to Turn Back Clock and Restrict Minority Access to Polls: A Collection of Statements

At The Nation site, Ari Berman draws the parallel I drew recently between current attempts of the GOP to bar minority voters from the polls, and what the Democratic party did with Jim Crow laws across the American South.  Berman writes,