Dear Progressive Reader,
“ You have no choice but to vote for me . . . whether you love me or hate me, you gotta vote for me,” said Donald Trump in Manchester, New Hampshire at one of his many (nine already this year) campaign rallies since November 2016. The Progressive, on the other hand, believes you do have a choice.
In spite of partisan gerrymandering, assaults by the U.S. Supreme Court on the Voting Rights Act (as chronicled this week on our website by Bill Blum), and voter suppression obstacles created by Voter I.D. laws around the country, voters in the United States will go to the polls on November 3, 2020 where they will be able to enter a voting booth and cast a ballot in the Presidential election. The choice is yours. As editor Bill Lueders (who was called “super far left” on Fox News Thursday night) noted this week, in his review of a new book by P.E. Moskowitz, “If we want to make freedom of speech be all that it can be—and yes it is still a long way from that—what we need to do is speak out.”
I travelled to the Iowa State Fair last weekend with photographer Joeff Davis to see what the more than two dozen challengers to the incumbent had to say in the lead up to their first contest in the Iowa Caucuses scheduled for about six months from now. Meanwhile, during an interview on NPR’s Morning Edition, a Trump Administration official tried his hand a re-writing the immortal poem of Emma Lazarus, placed at the base f the Statue of Liberty. It did not go so well, as Mark Fiore illustrates. The new rules regarding the “public charge” determination, published this week in the Federal Register, are essentially “a ‘No Trespassing’ sign aimed at anyone who isn’t wealthy and educated, particularly for those coming from what President Donald Trump has called ‘s---hole countries,’ ” says Anthony Galace in an op-ed for our Progressive Media Project.
In international news this week, Congressmembers Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar were denied entry into Israel and the Palestinian Territories this week for their support of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. Meanwhile, as Megan Giovannetti reports this week, there is a growing non-violent, nonpartisan youth movement against the construction of settlements in the West Bank city of Hebron (about 42 miles from Beit Ur al-Fauqa, the community where Rashida Tlaib’s grandmother lives.) And Jeff Abbott chronicles the efforts of indigenous Guatemalans to get compensation from a new administration for land taken from them by a previous president.
Keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.
Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher
P.S. – Your donations are more important than ever to sustain this progressive voice. The Progressive is a non-profit, allowing us to be unfettered by corporate interests. One way to support our work is to become a sustainer with a monthly donation of $5 or more. These small, regular amounts make a big difference in our ability to survive and thrive. Thank you.
|
|
|
|
