Over the last week, the U.S. House of Representatives has been going through multiple votes in order to elect a new Speaker.
The Speaker of the House acts as the leader of the governing body. They run the chamber’s business and often serve as the house majority leader. In order for a speaker to be elected a majority (not a plurality) of the house’s voting members must vote for one person. A person nominated or elected speaker does not have to be the house majority leader nor do they have to be a member of the house.
For the last century, the speaker vote was ceremonial with nearly every member of the majority party voting in their majority leader as speaker with a few exceptions.
That was until recently when Kevin McCarthy (Republican from California) was unable to gain enough support from his caucus to be elected. Roughly 20 representatives voted against him, preventing him from becoming the speaker. These representatives are the most conservative within the Republican caucus and see McCarthy as too moderate. This is despite the many willing concessions he has made to that group of republicans.
In the end, McCarthy prevailed winning just enough votes to become elected speaker late on the night of January 6th, 2023. Still, 6 Republicans refused to vote for McCarthy and voted present. As for the other Republicans, they were promised committee positions and rule changes granting them more power than ever. This includes things such as a speaker recall vote only requiring a single vote in the house.
This is in stark contrast to Democrats who have been completely united in every single vote thus far as of Jan 6th, 2023. Democrats have consistently bragged about both their wide variety of beliefs in the party as well as their unity in congress which has shown this week. Democrat Hakeem Jeffries has consistently won all 212 Democratic votes.
By Wittman Sullivan
On January 6th, 2021 rioters from Trump’s stop-the-steal rally broke into the capital in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
In order to investigate the events that led up to that day, and that day itself; Democrats created the January 6th Select Special Committee. Republicans fought against creating such a committee arguing that it was both in the past and that the events were overblown or politicized. Despite this Democrats pressed on creating the committee with bipartisan support and members.
Over the last year, the committee has gathered evidence, interviews, and testimony putting together a more clear picture of what happened. They recently have what is considered to most likely be their last meeting. It focused on the secret services' response to violent threats against the capitol and the actions of congressional leadership during the events that took place.
The committee has done two major things so far which are gathering evidence and making said evidence public through public hearings. The committee's next major task will be to put together a single comprehensive commission report that compiles all the evidence and paints a complete picture of the events that unfolded.
So far the committee has laid out a series of events in their public hearings through interviews and compilation of evidence. They have made it clear that the attack was pre-planned, and that security organizations such as the secret service were aware of the plans to attack the capital. Then as the day started and the rally began, that rally sparked his supporters to be more motivated and emboldened to carry out an attack. After the rally concluded supporters began to march toward the capitol and subsequently broke down barriers and broke through barricades. After breaking through capital police lines they stormed the capital with the intention to overthrow the government. During the attack, Donald Trump was at best apprehensive and at worst in active support of the rioters.
The full report is still yet to come and this is still a developing story.
By Wittman Sullivan
On November 8th, 2022, local, state, and federal governments held their midterm elections. The results from this election have 5 major takeaways which can help to understand the past, present, and future of American politics.
1: Democrats overperformed expectations
Democrats were expected to lose both chambers of congress and almost every competitive race in the country. Particularly in the House of Representatives where Democrats were expected to lose up to 6 seats. They defied expectations, and may even possibly expand their senate majority, only losing the house by five seats. Furthermore, Democrats won many governor races and picked up and maintained state legislature majority in many states.
2: America is shifting left
There are many reasons the American electorate is generally moving politically left. Most importantly because gen-z Americans are reaching the age to vote. Gen-Z is considered some of the most left-leaning demographics in America. Along with this,Americans in general have shifted left due to successful informational campaigns and social media. The general economic atmosphere of the last decade has led to a major rise in an economic leftist movement known as social democracy, the belief in greater government control of the economy to make the U.S. economy improved and safer for workers and the lower class. These reasons all combined led to increased democratic support in this election.
3: Social conservatives are going out of fashion
Social conservatism has fallen out of popularity in the United States. Generally, the U.S. public has become more accepting of progressive views and ideas along with different minority groups. Along with this, Americans have generally become hostile to regressive change like the overturning of Roe V. Wade. The midterms were a test especially for abortion rights, and in every ballot measure abortion rights won and anti abortion measures failed. This is a clear showing that current day social conservatism -especially when based on religion, isn’t anywhere near popular in America.
4: Major state trends and shifts
Many states showed considerable new or continued voting trends. The major states are Arizona, New York, Colorado, Ohio, and Florida. In Arizona and Colorado, major swings toward the democratic party continued with every statewide office being won by Democrats. Along with that, house races in Arizona were expected to be guaranteed Republican victories were competitive whilst in Colorado democrats overperformed expectations. In New York Democrats underperformed widely, due to general backlash against Democrats because of Covid-19, gerrymandering, and backlash, particularly against career Democrats that are seen as corrupt. In Florida, it has become clear that it is no longer a swing state with almost every major area both urban, rural, and suburban voting mostly for the Republican party. In Ohio, it is unclear how the state is shifting. Most statewide offices went to the Republican party by considerable margins whilst every competitive House race, and district nine was considered a likely Republican seat. Marcy Kapture won the seat by a likely margin. In states such as Illinois and Minnesota, small towns and rural areas have lost population while urban and suburban areas have grown. This has resulted in a shift to the left while the rest of the midwest has shifted to the right.
5: Major tests on major figures
The two major figures that were tested in this election were Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Both are considered to be ideological leaders of their respective parties. Despite not having a presidential election between the two they are still considered the unofficial leaders of their respective parties. This election was a referendum on both of these figures. On the Democratic side, Joe Biden’s approval rating is considered one of the worst ever recorded in American history according to 538’s polling average. For Republicans, Trump has the second lowest average approval rating according to 538’s polling average. This did not reflect in the final vote count, however. Democrats overperformed expectations and their senate majority. This is most likely due to Joe Biden’s hands-off approach to governance and a relatively lax public image. Due to this lax public image, most voters didn’t vote for or against the Democratic party based on their approval of Joe Biden causing the vast difference in Biden’s approval rating and the vote count.
This is in stark contrast to Donald Trump’s very active public figure and his stronghold on the Republican party. This results in many voters voting for or against the Republican party based on their approval of the former president. This significantly worked against the Republican party due to Trump’s low public approval.
By Wittman Sullivan
Since the 2020 election, supporters of Trump have been plotting what they will do to try to overturn the next election.
Even before the results of the 2020 election had even been finalized, Trump and his supporters were already stowing doubts about the election results. They made outlandish claims of fraud and irregularities in an attempt to discredit the results. Trump’s reasoning was based on how he perceived his popularity and his sense of indestructibility. He felt that he was so overwhelmingly popular that it would be impossible for him to lose a fair election. This was obviously not the case, polls then and still now find him to be incredibly unpopular with the majority of Americans. Despite that, however, his supporters believed him and cultivated the big lie; over a third of Americans today believe that the election was stolen.
He was not able to do this out of nowhere. This was the result of a decades-long Republican assault on American democracy. Republicans have been increasingly unpopular in recent decades due to their inability to change policies or platforms to be more progressive. Instead over the course of the Trump administration, the Republican platform has shifted to be even more conservative. This is most blatant in their stances on social issues that have become increasingly hostile toward civil rights, abortion/women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and education. These views don't align with those of most Americans and have led to ever-increasing support for Democrats.
In order to combat this, Republicans have taken steps and stances that have been described as anti-democratic. In recent years they’ve taken every measure possible to restrict voting rights and make the democratic process less inclusive. Not only that but they have made it easier for companies and organizations to influence politics and elections which has led to virtually the buying of elections. This has eroded the democratic process in America to sway more and more towards a constant guarantee of Republican victories. They have been able to hang on to power consistently by exploiting constitutional and legal loopholes to their benefit. For example, they consistently pander to rural voters because on average a rural conservative vote in the senate counts an average of 10 times more than their urban counterparts. Or gerrymandering (drawing political districts to benefit a political party or group) that has allowed Republicans to gain guaranteed majorities in state legislatures and congress. Furthermore, their support of undemocratic relics like the electoral college allows them to cling to presidential power without the support of the majority of Americans.
Due to this power, Republicans have been able to appoint the majority of the federal judiciary and pass overwhelmingly unpopular decisions. Decisions like Dobbs's (a decision in the summer of 2022 that found that abortion is not a protected constitutional right) have been wildly unpopular with over 2/3s of the American public opposing them. Even more deceitful, the court has taken stances on democratic reforms that will heavily favor Republicans. These include the independent state legislatures theory, and cases pertaining to gerrymandering.
Due to this willingness to subvert American Democracy, people like Trump feel empowered to take democratic attacks even further. This led to his denial of the 2020 election and blatant indifference to democratic elections. Donald Trump (along with other supporters) denied the results of the 2020 election. Since then they have continued to deny unfavorable election results. This has resulted in the majority of Republicans and 1/3rd of the American public believing that elections are susceptible to fraud. As a consequence of this widespread distrust, people have become increasingly hopeless and therefore increasingly violent toward the government. This all culminated on January 6th when Trump supporters stormed the capitol in an attempt to overturn the election.
This willingness to use violence is very dangerous as it may normalize political violence and further erode the trust in our democracy. This could result in an uptick in political violence, civil war, or the unraveling of American democracy as a whole.
By Wittman Sullivan
Before the midterms, many political analysts and pollsters were expecting Republicans to do particularly well. This was due to inflation, immigration, and most of all, the repeating part of a president’s party losing seats in the first midterm election. Estimates had Republicans ahead by 3 percentage points and Democrats losing both chambers of Congress. Along with that, Democrats trailed in many of the key races throughout the nation in all aspects.
On Tuesday night Democrats overperformed expectations in almost every state. Democrats have been able to hang on to key senate races in Pennsylvania and Arizona, and key house races in Ohio and New England. Whereas, Republicans have lost many key gubernatorial races and state legislature races nationwide. Similarly, many Republican-led ballot initiatives failed while Democratic-led ballots consistently won. This comes as a shock to many Republicans who expected what they call a “red wave,” or major Republican election victory.
The loss was blamed on the brainwashing of young people, unmarried women who they see as unhinged (Jesse Watters of Fox News claimed that Democratic policies are designed to keep women single, which he concluded explained 68% support for Democrats from single women), the influence of Donald Trump on Republican candidates, and voter fraud. Democrats have similarly been caught off guard by their overperformance, citing the overturning of Roe V. Wade, civil rights, post-covid recovery, and general lack of support for Republican policies as the reasoning.
Going into this election Democrats specifically campaigned on taking action for economic recovery, reindustrialization, civil rights, and other issues. This was in stark contrast to the constant offensive campaigning that Republicans consistently used against Democrats. Consequently, a general lack of understanding of Republican policies and positions alienated voters. With that, the recent overturning of Roe Vs. Wade has stoked fears from many major groups in the country about the status of their civil rights. Fears have become widespread about the possibility of more rights for more people being taken away by the conservative-run supreme court. Democrats consistently promised to protect such rights furthering their support.
This all resulted in the lackluster Republican performance in the 2022 midterm elections. At the time of this article, neither party has complete control of the house or senate, and both the states of Nevada and Arizona still have a significant number of votes to count.
UPDATE*
Democrats have won control of the Senate winning races in both Arizona and Nevada. This secures at least a 50/50 senate with Democrat Kamala Harris acting as the tie-breaking vote.
UPDATE*
Democrat Raphael Warnock has won the Georgia runoff election securing a 51-49 Democratic senate majority.
By Wittman Sullivan
In this term, the Supreme Court will decide on a case regarding the 'Independent State Legislature Theory.’
The 'Independent State Legislature Theory' is a fringe legal theory that is based on a deliberate misreading of the constitution. The misreading in question is from the Elections Clause which reads “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.” The belief is that states have full authority over elections and do not have to adhere to checks and balances from other branches of the state government. This gives state legislatures broad authority to gerrymander and pass election laws without input from the Governor or State Supreme Court. Despite the explicit mention of “the legislature,” it has been generally agreed upon that it applied to all governing bodies in a state including all three branches of the state government.
This will empower state legislatures to have full control over states’ elections and full governing authority for things not federally regulated. This would render state constitutional provisions, executive, and judicial protections on elections. Even if a state were to have a constitutional provision of state law outlawing something like gerrymandering, any state legislature could simply ignore the law and simply override it. This would render many democratic processes useless, and elected officials and ballot measures will not be in a position to protect things like voting rights.
This decision has its roots in the aftermath of the election of 2000 in the decision of Bush V. Gore. Justice Rehnquist wrote a concurring opinion which was considered an early version of the theory. He believed that the constitutions explicit use of the word legislature diminished the state courts’ ability to alter elections. At the time it was considered fringe by most in the legal profession but in recent years many conservative legal circles have endorsed the theory. It has very recently gained significant momentum due to the aftermath of the 2020 election. Many in Trump’s circles called for the use of this doctrine along with the ‘Presidential Electors Clause’ was used as justification to try and alter the results of the election. Both are based on the deliberate misrepresentation of the word legislature in the constitution.
This theory is simply the centerpiece of a decade-long battle for power that religious fundamentalists and companies have been waging. Due to their increasing unpopularity and therefore losses in elections, they find it a necessity to remain in power for their own interests. So through funding conservative candidates that will take action to keep conservatives in power, they create a positive feedback loop that benefits the religious groups and companies. Democracy is a threat to companies' ability to profit and religious groups’ ability to impose religious ideals on people. This is only possible due to ‘Citizens United’ which was a case in 2020 that decided that spending money is a form of political expression and therefore protected by the 1st Amendment of The Constitution. This empowered these same groups to be able to essentially buy elections and heavily influence our politics and elections.
There is no guarantee that the court will decide one way or another in this case, but if they decide in favor of the theory there will be long-lasting profound effects on American elections for years to come. This will set a precedent of unequivocal power within state legislatures and could allow them to suppress voters and eventually be able to essentially alter election results. This could also empower more legitimization of the ‘Presidential Electors Clause’ which would allow state legislatures to appoint any electors and essentially ignore and change the results of presidential elections. This could be detrimental to the state of American democracy and unravel the very notion of our democratic republic.
By Wittman Sullivan
In the wake of Hurricane Ian’s aftermath, many things have become apparent. Things such as the mass loss of life and property have shaken the entire state of Florida. Hurricane Ian was a category 4 hurricane that battered Florida and caused high winds and 16 ft flooding throughout the state.
In Florida, entire neighborhoods have been swept away causing mass devastation in the state. In particular, the major coastal economic and population centers of Florida have been all but erased. People have lost homes, businesses, and even loved ones from this deadly storm. Rescue crews are still searching debris and rubble statewide while families await news for their loved ones.
This hurricane will have a lasting impact on the state due to many reasons. The first of which, and subsequentially the most obvious is fear of this happening again driving out residents of the state. People who lost everything in this storm may not want to rebuild in the path of the next life-upending storm. Individuals also may not have the resources to rebuild and may be focused to relocate from the state.
Another major effect that Ian will cause is economic activity leaving the state, businesses may find Florida too risky of an investment. This will also most likely be fueled by population decline, decimated infrastructure, and economic downturn from such a major storm.
By Wittman Sullivan
After the recent Dobbs decision, many people have found themselves personally attacked by what they feel is a rouge court. The decision caused national outrage and shifted the entire political landscape. It’s important to understand how we got here, where we are, and even more importantly, where we are going.
From the 1940s to the 2000s, the supreme court has been consistently liberal and has taken liberal and progressive stances on most issues. This was mostly due to the Roosevelt Administration and later administrations' fairly liberal appointments to the courts.
These Liberal Decisions rested on the 14th amendment’s equal protection clause and the 9th amendment’s enumerated rights clause. The most important one is the 14th amendment. The way that it has been consistently interpreted is that people are guaranteed equality in all aspects of life whether explicitly or not explicitly stated within the constitution.
This includes precedents such as Roe V. Wade which guaranteed the right to an abortion, Planned Parenthood V. Casey which made it so that abortions could not be banned before fetal viability, Loving V. Virginia which guaranteed interracial marriage and, Griswold V. Connecticut which guarantees the right to birth control, and Lawrence V. Texas which guarantee marriage equality.
Social conservatives felt as if this era of liberalism was dangerous for the country. So in the 70s social and economic conservatives built a coalition in the republican party such conservatives. This culminated in the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Once Reagan was elected the supreme court has taken consistently more conservative views and positions. This mostly started with limiting government powers and giving states more power over the federal government. For decades now conservatives have pushed through justices and court appointments to try and shape domestic social policy. This has mostly been led by the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization that seeks to shift American domestic policy rightward.
Recently due to Donald Trump's appointments, the court has shifted to completely upending precedent and overturning most of the established precedent that they feel violates the constitution.
In 2021 they heard a case, Dobbs V. Jackson Women's Health Organization. The case was originally just supposed to decide whether or not Mississippi’s 15-week ban on abortion was constitutional. Lower courts had prevented the enforcement of the ban by placing preliminary injunctions in place. They based their decisions on the decision of Planned Parenthood V. Casey which prevented states from banning abortion before fetal viability.
When the supreme court decided Dobbs V. Jackson Women's Health Organization they went even further than protecting the Mississippi ban, but they completely overturned Roe V. Wade and Planned Parenthood V. Casey. The Dobbs decision removes any federal abortion protections and fully gives powers to the states. Thirteen states have already fully banned abortion with more expected to.
The next question is what's next. This by no means is an easy question to answer, but this next term will be an indicator of just how far the court may be willing to. There are two possibilities, and that depends on whether Justice Roberts or Justice Thomas gets their way. Justice Roberts believes that abortion is just an outlier and isn't indicative of what the court may do next. He believes that the 14th Amendment equal protection clause still stands and that no other rights are at threat. This differs from Justice Thomas’ Beliefs.
According to Justice Thomas, his constitutional view is that precedents are based on rights being equal because the 14th amendment’s equal protection clause only applies to explicit rights in the constitution. This threatens precedents like Loving V. Virginia which guaranteed interracial marriage, Griswold V. Connecticut which guarantees the right to birth control, and Lawrence V. Texas which guarantees marriage equality. The idea is that unenumerated rights are made up and hold no legal water.
Outside of the court, it’s important to understand what states and the federal government can or will do. First, it's important to understand, that with few exceptions Republicans support the Dobbs decision, while Democrats support the precedents set by Roe. What has been observed is democratic states and their legislatures passed or introduced laws or state constitutional amendments that protect abortion. While Republican states have done the opposite and passed numerous laws to restrict abortion access.
On the federal level, there have been unsuccessful laws introduced to ban, restrict, and protect abortion rights in the U.S. Recently Republican Senator Linsey Graham introduced a bill to ban abortion nationally. Although it’s not expected to pass, it’s a clear sign of the Republican party's intentions. National Republicans are not overturning Roe and Casey just because of a constitutional belief and a belief in states’ rights, but they have an interest in a national abortion ban.
Another key factor to understand is that 61% believe that abortion should be protected in all or most cases according to Pew Research Center. A large majority of Americans believe in the right to an abortion. Therefore when the issue is put on the ballot it will more than often sway liberally.
Precedents are precedents until they aren't. This precedent is no different than any other. It’s not set in stone, nor is it unchangeable. In the same fashion that conservatives got mad and successfully organized in the 1970s, liberals are now mad and organizing. We very well may observe another focused and conceited effort to sway the courts once again. This will have large political effects in the coming decades and becomes a deciding factor in most elections.
One thing that is important to not forget is that goes further than just politics. Women are going to be heavily affected by this decision. They have lost their right to reproductive care. This is the true damage and effect.
Wittman Sullivan
Recently Florida was hit by a category 4 hurricane named Ian. The hurricane has killed dozens of people (although the death toll is continuously rising) and billions worth of damage. The hurricane has wiped out entire neighborhoods and destroyed uncountable lives.
Large island towns have been all but erased from the Florida coast, either due to ruin, or even being completely whipped off the map. Coastal communities have also not been fortunate, as they have seen mass flooding and destruction on a similar scale.
Natural disasters of this magnitude have become increasingly common, especially in coastal regions of the world. This is due to climate change which has already had significant impacts on weather and disasters worldwide.
This has led to Florida’s leaders pleading for federal disaster relief funds. People have pointed out the hypocrisy due to the same leaders’ opposition to relief for other states during disasters like Hurricane Sandy. That mentioned this disaster mustn't be politicized, Regardless of political views, it is an undeniable fact that people are suffering due to this disaster.
Florida however, is no stranger to natural disasters, as they have in the past faced comparable disasters. It is still yet to be seen how they will rebuild the state. whether they will rebuild in the same fashion they have in the past, or will they try to rebuild in ways that will be less risky. For example, rebuilding homes off of the island and away from coasts, or restoring more greenspace.
By Wittman Sullivan
After the recent landing of Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico, there have been parallels drawn between this and Hurricane Maria. Puerto Ricans feel both left behind and left out by their “territory” status which has only seemed to hurt their island.
Puerto Rico is an American Caribbean island that currently has territory status. The US gained it from the Spanish-American war, along with Cuba and the Philippines. It is a mostly Spanish-speaking island that is also majority Hispanic.
When Puerto Rico was first brought in as a territory it was given a bicameral legislature, similar to that of US states. It stayed as a farming territory until the 1960s. In the 1960s the government, in order to incentivize business and industrial development established section 936. This made it so that businesses in Puerto Rico wouldn't have to pay federal taxes. This led to quick industrialization mostly in the pharmaceutical industry. The island’s economy became dependent on this rapid industrialization.
Due to different market factors such as generic brands, cheaper manufacturers in different countries, and a general shift away from Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican economy has fallen into downtown. This has led to increased poverty, crime, and wealth inequality.
The US federal government has done little to help the island territory’s economy, and the federal government has done even less to quell the woes caused by natural disasters. This is due to either purposeful deprioritization, or simply ignorance of their issues or even status as a territory.
This all came to head with Hurricane Maria, a Cat 1 hurricane that destroyed infrastructure, caused flooding, and knock out all of the island's power. The federal government has still done little to nothing to quell the issues and help the people of Puerto Rico.
Due to the federal government's inaction, there have been two movements that have recently surged into mass support. The movement for Puerto Rican independence, and the movement for Puerto Rican statehood. The movement for independence calls for independence based on the large differences between the US and Puerto Rico culturally, and also the federal government's inaction. The statehood movement believes that the island would be better off politically and economically as a US state and that the lack of federal assistance would be fixed by statehood.
By Wittman Sullivan
On Tuesday, November, 8th the final votes were put in the ballot box and the rigorous process of counting every vote began. Currently, Democrats have won the Senate and could pick up one seat if they win the Georgia run-off election. This process still isn't over, especially for many house races and western senate races. Key races in the house are still to be decided. Republicans have won the house with most likely only a three-seat majority.
A major thing to understand is that the democratic party overperformed expectations in almost state with the exception of New York. Democrats have won the senate and Republicans have won the house
With that, the Georgia senate race will not be determined until a December run-off election. This is due to a Georgia law that requires that a winning statewide candidate must get at least 50% of the vote or it will go into a runoff between the top two candidates by votes. The runoff will be on December 6th between incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock, and Republican challenger Hershel Walker.
Other results for local or national competitive races are as follows
Local
Ward 1: Nancy Holland wins landslide 79-20% against Micheal Andes
Issue 10 Akron: YES wins by 2/3s majority
Congress, Ohio (underline means competitive (within 15 points))
District 1: Dem Landsman wins by 5 points
District 2: Rep Wenstrup wins by 49 points
District 3: Dem Beatty wins by 40 points
District 4: Rep Jordan wins by 39 points
District 5: Rep Latta wins by 34 points
District 6: Rep Johnson wins by 35 points
District 7: Rep Miller wins by 11 points
District 8: Rep Davidson wins by 29 points
District 9: Dem Kaptur wins by 13 points
District 10: Rep Turner wins by Turner
District 11: Dem Brown wins by 55 points
District 12: Rep Balderson wins by 39 points
District 13: Dem Sykes wins by 5 points
District 14: Rep Joyce wins by 23 points
District 15: Rep Carey wins by 14 points
Other Ohio statewide offices
Senate: J. D. Vance wins against Tim Ryan by 7 points
Governor: Dewine wins against Whaley by 25 points