Opinion

Independent voters are used to seeing people blame them for anything that happens in US politics. They are told that if only they voted for “Candidate X” a particular action wouldn’t have happened.

The accusation has been raised time and time again, and it is surfacing once more in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. People have said, “If you didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton, this is your fault.”

There are few people that help steer the course of history. Dr. Peter Ackerman was one of them. 

Peter, who has been the driving force behind some of the most powerful efforts to unrig the two-party “duopoly,” passed away peacefully in his home on April 26, 2022.

The Supreme Court holds one of the most delicate roles in our republic. This is not only because of judicial review, which gives that branch virtually unlimited power to dictate both changes as well as continuity in our nation’s development. It is also because court must perpetuate the public’s perception that they are the most impartial branch of government, in order to retain their stature and legitimacy. 

SYNOPSIS: AMERICAN CONSPIRACY (Lido Press: 7/23/2021)

Available on Amazon or other vendors on author’s website: www.mjpolelle.com

The mood among Democrats these days seems to oscillate between panic and despair. The Biden administration, which billed itself as restoring competence and order to the political process, not only grievously botched the Afghanistan withdrawal and the removal of Haitian immigrants in Texas, but cannot even attain a semblance of order within its own party. Whether it be the filibuster, government spending, or tax policy, Democrats seem afflicted with an auto-immune disease that requires them to attack each other and destroy any chance of meaningful intra-party compromise.

On September 6, 2021, Alan Braid, a seventy-six-year-old OBGYN in San Antonio, Texas, performed an abortion on a woman in her first trimester. A few years ago, this procedure would have attracted little attention. This time, however, Dr. Braid became a national headline. In an op-ed for the Washington Post, he wrote, “I acted because I had a duty of care to this patient, as I do for all patients, and because she has a fundamental right to receive this care.”

On September 1, the United States Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, refused to prevent new, draconian Texas abortion legislation from taking effect. The Court’s tentative acceptance of that law, which among other provisions, only allowed a woman to seek an abortion before she likely knew she was pregnant, provoked outrage not only among pro-choice advocates, but also from many legal scholars deeply disturbed by the majority’s seeming abandonment of accepted jurisprudence. 

The best argument for voting ‘no’ in Tuesday’s California gubernatorial recall election is that voters are denied real choice in who would replace the governor. Clearly the ‘replacement candidate’ field — despite having 46 candidates - is not broadly representative of the electorate for a variety of reasons.  

It's easy to empathize with Republicans living in California. For a long time, the state has been dominated by the Democratic Party, and Democrats are quite willing to exercise their influence in self-serving ways. No doubt California Republicans feel as though they cannot get a fair shake or even be heard. Unfortunately, this frustration seems to have led some to desperation when it comes to the upcoming recall election for Governor Gavin Newsom.

Two of the most frequently used words in right-wing America, “freedom” and “Constitution,” are also among the most misused. Many American conservatives believe the “Constitution” gives them the “freedom” to do just about anything they like. They are free to own guns and carry them openly, free to refuse to be vaccinated, free to refuse to wear masks in public places, free to refuse to accept the results of a free and fair election, and, to some, even free to invade government buildings and threaten those who work there with violence or death. Combining the two, these conservatives are