Category: Domestic

Paul Ryan’s House

Christopher Boccia

The Speaker was a public ally – and a private adversary – to the president.   After a month of the government in shutdown and a declaration of national emergency, Paul D. Ryan, the oft-considered inconsequential Speaker of the House, feels like a distant memory. Politics in the nation’s capital has trudged along, rendering Ryan dust in the wind of history’s heartless march forward. As the government returns to regular business, though, and the political tumult simmers temporarily, a legacy conversation is in order for the 20-year old congressional veteran…

The Pipe Dream of Donald Trump as “Uniter-in-Chief”

Kyle Chin

With approximately two years of the Trump presidency having already elapsed, most have, by this point, become more than familiar with the pattern of the new, Trump-driven news cycle.  Every few weeks, some kind of tragedy, controversy, or other drama will unfold, the president will inevitably make a tone-deaf or divisive remark which will briefly set the mainstream media in an uproar, and then the next scandal begins.  So the cycle goes on and on like a Mobius strip.  Every time such a situation makes the headlines, discussion regularly turns…

The Problem with Public Schools: Where We Are and Where We Need to Go

Julia Hammond

Of all government-funded projects and services, the public education system is one of the most important – and not just for individual students. Access to a robust public education gives students lifelong skills, increased job prospects, and a greater likelihood of future family stability and financial independence. In the aggregate, a more educated population (on the local, city, state, and national levels) leads to improved public health, civic engagement, and economic prosperity, as well as reduced crime and unemployment.  Undeniably, public education has the power to help everyone.  For many…

America: Land of the Unfree

David Andreas

Conjure an image of ninth graders, fourteen-year-olds who have just barely entered high school, putting tape over their laptop webcams in an effort to thwart U.S. government spies. When I was in ninth grade, this trend was all the rage. Many of us feared that the FBI agent “personally assigned” to us would snitch on us for going on Facebook during class. Most students did this as a joke, but some of my slightly less-informed peers surmised that the government could – and would even bother to – watch them…

No, Amazon in New York is a Terrible Idea

Ryan Slattery

“It is a great day for New York City” said New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio, as he and Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the plan to host half of Amazon’s headquarters in Long Island City. Yes, the same guy who suggested that private property just doesn’t make the cut in New York City is now welcoming a company through billions of dollars in incentives. He even said “I think people all over this city, of every background, would like to have the city government be able to determine which…

Why Representation Matters

Samantha Zandanel

If you are a straight, white, cisgender, able-bodied man or woman, it is likely that you have never given diversity much thought because you have always been represented. You have always shopped in a store, turned on the TV, or read a book wherein the names and faces match what you see when you look in the mirror. For many people, this is not reality. Occasionally LGBT and non-white people are given a bone – as if to say, “here, now stop complaining” – but the amount of times in…

Towards a Secure and Effective Emergency Powers Doctrine: A Reflection on the Dark Knight Trilogy

Theodore Schoneman

If we could unleash a Batman-like force to solve an emergency of either domestic or international politics, should we? This was a question that occurred to me while recently watching Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. Batman’s job is to save the city of Gotham, which is too corrupt to be saved by conventional means. The mob has such a stranglehold on the city that the typical crime fighting institutions cannot bring about justice. Batman decides that in the fight for justice, extrajudicial means are necessary. Acting as a vigilante, he…

The Shroud of Objectivity

Alexandra Berndt

Racialized immigration has reentered the contemporary national discourse following Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and his “Muslim Ban.” Trump’s immigration policies, like “family separation” and the Muslim Ban, call for the exclusion of “undesirable” immigrant groups with appeals to order and national security; this exclusion, he argues, is a logical and impersonal precaution which serves the nation’s best interest. However, these appeals to order prove insincere when he and others effectively describe the citizens of the targeted nations as “lesser,” “untrustworthy” racial groups. Trump’s immigration policies and corresponding justifications echo the…