Politics in Context

“The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.” -U.S. Constitution, Article I, Sec. II. 2020 is a census year. The federal census happens every ten years and is an incredibly important government function, something so basic and necessary the Founders included it in the Constitution. The census is administered by the  U.S. Census Bureau . The goal of the census is to gather information about the population of the country. Ideally, everyone residing in the country, regardless of citizenship status, should be counted. The data collected is invaluable because it is used to allocate government resources appropriately and draw electoral districts. Drawing electoral districts is essential. While the census data comes from the federal government, the actual drawing is left up to the state and local governments because local govern

I have struggled a bit this election season. I am a progressive. I think that government should play a more active role in the economy. I believe that people should not be discriminated against because of who they are. I know there are certain things that government can do better than private industry. I want Medicare-for-All, a Green New Deal, much more progressive taxation, and a stronger social safety net. So, naturally, I have a choice to make: Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. Elizabeth Warren was the first progressive politician I ever knew about. When she ran for Senate in 2012, I had just started paying serious attention to politics. I liked what she was saying and how she said it. She was talking about economic inequality and corruption before I even understood how serious those problems were. Bernie Sanders was my first choice in 2016. I admired his unapologetic liberalism and his straight-forward style. He has been a warrior for the working class his entire life. What

On the morning of April 20, 1999, two students at Columbine High School in Colorado walked into school carrying a Hi-Point 995 Carbine, a 9x19mm Intratec TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun, a Savage-Springfield 67H pump-action shotgun, and a Stevens 311D double-barreled shotgun and proceeded to murder twelve students and one teacher before turning the guns on themselves. At the time, it was the deadliest school shooting in United States history. In the immediate aftermath, there was a lot of talk about what was to blame and what the proper response was. Politicians blamed video games, Marilyn Manson, and bullying, among other things. Several parents of those killed in Columbine blamed guns. Less than two weeks after the shooting, the National Rifle Association held their yearly convention in Denver. Despite protests, the NRA did not cancel the convention. During the convention, NRA President Charlton Heston gave a  speech  in which he called Columbine an “isolated, terrible event”

For almost one hundred years, the United States had open borders . In the beginning, there were no restrictions on who could enter; all ports of entry would allow anyone in. America had a lot of empty land at the time and was eager to settle it (and had no problem committing genocide to do so.) If an immigrant lived in the country for a certain period of time, they would automatically become a citizen (as long as they were white .) After the Civil War, as America industrialized and urbanized, immigration increased dramatically. The first federal restriction on immigration into the United States was the Page Act of 1875. The law prohibited the entry of "undesirables," that is, any individual from Asia who was coming to perform contract labor. A fine of up to $2000 and a maximum jail sentence of up to one year on anyone who tried to bring a person from any Asian country.  In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, marking the birth of "illegal immigration"

The future looks pretty bleak right now, doesn't it? I know I'm not the only one who sees it. Follow the current trends of climate change , economic inequality , and right-wing extremism to their logical conclusion and the outcome is clear: we're fucked. Historically, each of these alone always precedes civil unrest at best, calamity at worst, but all three together? We're completely and utterly fucked. Anyone who can't see that is being willfully ignorant at this point. With the Internet, everyone can have a front-row seat to the sixth mass extinction event, the lives of billionaires , and live-streamed acts of terrorism. As a young person, it often feels like I was born just to bear witness to the end. When faced with the realities of today, despair is inevitable. Despair is nothing new, of course, we all feel the cold flutter of the void against our souls, but this is different. This is not a personal fear of my own mortality, this is an unprecedented, peer-

The Cuyahoga River is approximately 85 miles long, running from Hambden, Ohio, through Cleveland, and emptying into Lake Erie. During the 20th Century, the river was one of the most polluted rivers in the country. The surface was covered with "brown oily film" and "large quantities of black heavy oil floating in slicks" were frequently observed. The color changed from grey-brown to rusty brown as the river proceeded downstream. Sludge accumulated at the bottom and animal life did not exist. The river has caught fire at least 13 times. The largest was in 1952, causing over $1 million in damages. On June 22 , 1969, the river caught fire again, causing around $50,000 in damages. After Time  magazine published an article about the fire, which described the Cuyahoga as a river that "oozes rather than flows" and in which a person "does not drown but decays," a flurry of environmental legislation was passed. This was the start of the modern environme