BRANDON J. SUTTON
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The DEI Candidate

7/25/2024

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Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives were designed to help organizations create a more fair and inclusive work environment for their workers, but Republicans have weaponized the term. They believe DEI programs are being used to hire unqualified minority candidates over more qualified white candidates – that organizations are hiring individuals based on their gender or race instead of their qualifications. Using their definition, Senator JD Vance (if that is his real name) is a DEI hire. Vance is 39 years old with no significant government experience and was nominated to be Vice President of the United States by the Republican Party because he is white, straight, “Christian”, and authoritarian.  
 
Republicans have been on a campaign to end DEI programs across the country. They use the term; primarily, as a derogatory slur against Black Americans. When the Key Bridge collapsed in Baltimore, Republicans described Baltimore’s Black Mayor as a DEI hire (how does an elected official be a DEI hire? Your guess is as good as mine). Republican Congressman Chip Roy described the Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris as a DEI hire as well as Congressman Tim Burchett who said Harris is, “One hundred percent [a] DEI hire”.
 
Of course, Vice President Harris is more than qualified to be President of the United States. She served as the San Francisco District Attorney, Attorney General for the state of California, and had served in the U.S. Senate for four years before serving as Vice President of the United States. But what about the DEI hire, Vance? Vance came to prominence in 2016, after publishing his best-selling memoir – Hillbilly Elegy, and he began his political career as a never Trump Republican. Vance previously called Trump an “idiot” and said he was “reprehensible”. Vance even said of Trump that he is “America’s Hitler”. So, why did Vance change? Because he is a craven politician who would do and say anything for power, and though he rails against DEI initiatives– he himself doesn’t mind being a “DEI hire”.
 
Vance has ZERO experience with international politics, nor has he passed any meaningful domestic legislation during his brief time as a Senator. He doesn’t believe in no fault divorces, supports a national abortion ban, and if Trump wins, he’d be one heartbeat away from the Presidency, but qualifications no longer matter in the Republican Party. If you are willing to debase yourself and pledge allegiance to Trump, you have a place within the party. Also, Vance doesn’t mind helping Trump install himself as a dictator. He is a January 6th sympathizer who said had he been Vice President in 2020, that he would not have certified the 2020 Election results. He believes that the Supreme Court decisions can be ignored by the President and admires dictators like Hungary’s Viktor Orban.
 
Vance is an unqualified, dangerous authoritarian and should not be anywhere near the Presidency, but he’s white, so his inexperience and lack of qualifications will be overlooked. Vance is another mediocre white man who was picked not because of ability but because he is willing to be the worst common denominator in a possible Trump Administration that has pledged to undo democratic norms and punish dissent. Trump and Vance will fundamentally transform America as we know it and must be defeated at the ballot box this fall.

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American Politics and Violence: Examining the Complex Relationship

7/15/2024

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Following the failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump – President Biden addressed the nation saying “There is no place in America for this kind of violence or any violence for that matter. An assassination attempt is contrary to everything we stand for as a nation.” Biden is correct, there is no place for violence, especially in a political campaign, but he is incorrect in saying that violence is contrary to who we are as a nation.
 
America itself was founded on violence - from the enslavement of African Americans to the genocide of Native Americans - the very foundation of this nation was built on violence. And political violence isn’t foreign either. President Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, President Garfield was assassinated in 1881, President McKinley was assassinated in 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt survived an assassination attempt in 1912, President Kennedy was killed by an assassin in 1963 along with his brother, Robert Kennedy in 1968. There were assassination attempts on President Ford’s life in 1975 along with President Reagan in 1981.
 
But we do not have to go that far back for examples of political violence in America. Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords survived an assassination attempt in 2011. Following the 2020 Election, insurrectionists stormed the United States Capitol in an attempt to overturn the election results – resulting in the death of 5 individuals. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul Pelosi was nearly killed last year after a deranged man entered her home looking to harm the former Speaker.
 
In the last few years, we have seen an uptick in political leaders encouraging violence with incendiary language. In 2016, Mr. Trump said that “maybe the second Amendment people” could stop Hillary Clinton’s judicial picks (had she become President), a clear suggestion of violence against a political rival. Earlier this year, Trump posted a video with a hog-tied President Biden, and who could forget his role in inciting violence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. Trump also mocked Paul Pelosi after he was attacked. Kevin Roberts, the President of the Heritage Foundation who is responsible for Project 2025 recently said that “We are in the process of the second American Revolution… which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” North Carolina Republican Gubernatorial candidate Republican Mark Robinson recently  said at a political event that “some folks need killing!”
 
Make no mistake about it, there are some people who are perfectly fine with political violence as long as it is not directed towards them. You cannot condemn Trump’s assassination attempt while at the same time calling the January 6th insurrectionists, patriots. You cannot condemn one attack but mock another or remain silent when the Governor of Michigan is threatened or when election workers are being harassed. The assassination attempt on Mr. Trump was wrong and should be condemned along with all acts of political violence and intimidation.

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The Democrats Biggest Mistake

7/1/2024

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After President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance, Democrats are doing what they do best – panic! Contrary to the current media narrative, the Democrats biggest mistake wasn’t making an 80-year-old Biden; one of the most effective Presidents of the last 50 years, the party’s standard-bearer in 2024. No, their biggest mistake was not safeguarding and shoring up American Democracy after the 2020 Election.
 
Biden, like every Democratic President of the last 30 years, inherited a mess from his Republican predecessor. When Biden took office, the country was still in the midst of the COVID Pandemic, the economy had tanked resulting in record high unemployment, and Republican Insurrectionist had just tried to overthrow the U.S. government.
 
So, naturally, Biden and Congressional Democrats prioritized COVID relief and economic stimulus along with other campaign promises to end the war in Afghanistan, combat climate change, restore governmental norms, and fix the country’s ailing infrastructure, but all this came at the expense of strengthening American Democracy. Because the Democrats failed to expel the insurrectionist, restore the Voting Rights Act, and reform the Supreme Court during Biden’s first two-years in office when Democrats were in control of the White House, Senate, and House - America is now dangerously close to becoming a fascist country fueled by Christian Nationalism, racism, and cruelty.
 
With the signage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, America had taken a significant step in ensuring that all individuals would have a voice at the ballot box. Immediately after the law took effect, Black participation in elections and representation across all levels of government increased – culminating in the election of the nation’s first Black President in 2008. And despite being reauthorized numerous times by bi-partisan coalitions in congress – Republicans have always sought to weaken and even eliminate the law. They fulfilled this desire in 2013 when the United States Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in their Shelby County v Holder decision allowing states to discriminate against and disenfranchise Black voters.
 
The Supreme Court and federal judiciary have only grown more radical since that decision. Republicans have successfully packed the federal courts with right-wing zealots who care more about power than equal justice under the law. Since weakening the Voting Rights Act, the radical Republican Court has taken away reproductive rights from women, stripped federal agencies of their authority, eliminated the separation of church and state, struck down Affirmative Action and diversity initiatives, sided with insurrectionist, criminalized homelessness, and shielded a criminal president from prosecution – even going as far as saying that the president is above the law.
 
Some Democrats will tell you that the party did try to restore the Voting Rights Act, but that Senators Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema blocked the effort and that they did not have the votes to expel insurrectionist lawmakers or reform the Supreme Court. But change requires both knowledge and action, and Democrats failed to use the levers of power to properly educate and inform the public of the dangers we are facing as a country. Democrats could have held public hearings, filed impeached articles against biased, unethical judges, and used the bully pulpit of the presidency to frame the debate. Instead, they dithered and failed to implement any real structural changes, and now we find ourselves on the brink. Democrats must implement bold policy ideas that expand access to the ballot box, balance the power between the three branches of government, and ensure that all Americans regardless of race, gender, age, or sexual preference have an opportunity to live in a free society.
 
This isn’t to absolve the Republican Party from any responsibility to protect our democracy, but we must understand that they have chosen the path of autocracy. They would rather live in a society where they have power and control rather than a multi-racial, free, democratic society. So, it is up to the Democratic Party and yes, their 81-year-old Presidential nominee to stop and push back against American fascism. If they fail, the country will become a far worse place for those already struggling to survive.

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