Author: Heather Cox Richardson

Why the Supreme Court’s right-wing political ruling against vaccinations further weaponizes COVID-19

Why the Supreme Court’s right-wing political ruling against vaccinations further weaponizes COVID-19

Posted by | Jan 23, 2022

On January 13, by a vote of 6 to 3, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Biden administration’s requirement that businesses with more than 100 employees address the coronavirus pandemic by making employees either get vaccines or, if they choose not to be vaccinated, to test weekly and wear a mask at work. Employees who work exclusively at home or mostly outside were exempted from the requirement, as were those with a religious exemption. President Joe Biden took office vowing to get the coronavirus pandemic under control. By April 2021, his administration’s efforts to make vaccines available and...

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One-Party Rule: Why Republicans oppose the foundation of democracy and the freedom to vote

One-Party Rule: Why Republicans oppose the foundation of democracy and the freedom to vote

Posted by | Jan 20, 2022

Republicans say they oppose the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act because it is an attempt on the part of Democrats to win elections in the future by “nationalizing” them, taking away the right of states to arrange their laws as they wish. Voting rights legislation is a “partisan power grab,” Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) insists. In fact, there is no constitutional ground for opposing the idea of Congress weighing in on federal elections. The U.S. Constitution establishes that “[t]he Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by...

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Voting for voter suppression: Why Republicans are unwilling to support common-sense Voting Rights

Voting for voter suppression: Why Republicans are unwilling to support common-sense Voting Rights

Posted by | Jan 14, 2022

The struggle between the Trump-backed forces of authoritarianism and those of us defending democracy is coming down to the fight over whether the Democrats can get the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act through the Senate. It is worth reading what is actually in the bills because, to my mind, it is bananas that they are in any way controversial. The Freedom to Vote Act is a trimmed version of the For the People Act the House passed at the beginning of this congressional session. It establishes a baseline for access to the ballot...

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Power over Principle: The day when Americans lost faith in America

Power over Principle: The day when Americans lost faith in America

Posted by | Jan 7, 2022

Just before sunrise on a November day in 1861, Massachusetts abolitionist Julia Ward Howe woke up in the Willard Hotel in Washington DC. She got out of bed, found a pen, and began to write about the struggle in which the country was engaged: could any nation “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” survive, or would such a nation inevitably descend into hierarchies and minority rule? Howe had faith in America. “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,” she wrote in the gray dawn. “He is...

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Democracy is not a state: It is an act that requires each generation to do its part

Democracy is not a state: It is an act that requires each generation to do its part

Posted by | Jan 6, 2022

On January 6, insurrectionists trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election stormed the U.S. Capitol and sent our lawmakers into hiding. Since President Joe Biden took office on January 20, just two weeks after the attack, we have been engaged in a great struggle between those trying to restore our democracy and those determined to undermine it. Biden committed to restoring our democracy after the strains it had endured. When he took office, we were in the midst of a global pandemic whose official death toll in the U.S. was at 407,000. Our economy was in...

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Year In Review 2021: When the party of Abraham Lincoln became the party of Jefferson Davis

Year In Review 2021: When the party of Abraham Lincoln became the party of Jefferson Davis

Posted by | Dec 27, 2021 |

2021 began a second year with the deadly coronavirus pandemic, and the near collapse of American Democracy. Even with a vaccination for COVID-19, much of the turbulence from 2020 continued because of weaponized politics. That social trauma aggravated the public health crisis, and the economy’s struggle to recover. While the year did not present the same risks of physical injury for journalism as the previous, the editorial staff of Milwaukee Independent experienced many difficult challenges in the process of reporting the news and preserving those conditions with images. The Year In Review (YIR) series has evolved from a simple...

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