When a politician has been in office too long

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Is there an age when politicians should leave public office? Looking at age, national leaders are out of sync with the people they represent.

The median age in the U.S is 39 years. The median age of members in the U.S. House of Representatives is 58. Sixty-one representatives are 70 to 79 years old, and 11 are 80 years old or older.

The median age in the Senate is 65. Thirty senators ...

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Ballot initiatives and walking the tightrope of politics and religion

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This post comes from my friend, Rev. Tim Ahrens, a strong advocate for social justice.

In 1912, it was just called “The Initiative.”

The Initiative represented the constitutional right of all Ohioans to shape fair and equitable laws through the ballot box of initiatives and referenda. The Ohio Progressive Republican League helped establish this constitutional right for all Ohioans in 1912. Under this constitutional ...

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Seitz, LaRose, Paduchik attacks on O’Connor undermine justice

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In a guest column published on March 25, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Brunner cautioned against attacks on the judiciary because they undermine confidence in the courts. In his guest column the following week, Chairman of the Ohio Republican Party Bob Paduchik criticized Brunner being a thin-skinned politician. Can both perspectives be right?

Brunner’s guest column followed on the heels of House Republican Bill Seitz and two other House ...

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You might be a socialist and not even know it  

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If you haven’t noticed, we’re being overrun by socialists. Fortunately, they’re easy to recognize. They’re the ones supporting President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure bill, which Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., tells us is nothing but “big government socialism.” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, calls the bill an “accelerator to socialism.”

There’s lots of talk about how the bill will lead to the nation’s demise but little talk about what’s in the bill.

What’s ...

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Bishops wrongheaded to weaponize Communion

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Every day, someone in the Catholic Church’s hierarchy wakes up says, “What can we do today to show how out of touch we are with our people and lose more of them?” The current leader of that effort is José Gomez, archbishop of Los Angeles and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The conference is considering whether Catholic politicians, like President Joe Biden, should be denied Communion—the heart ...

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GOP’s 17 who stood against Trump deserve support

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This op-ed is for all the Democrats who criticized the 191 Republican representatives who did not vote to impeach Donald Trump and the 43 Republican senators who did not vote guilty. It’s easy, even justified, to say they acted cowardly and disregarded the plain facts, but we have since witnessed the wrath of the Republican Party.

For the 10 representatives and 7 senators who voted to hold Trump accountable, their state party organizations have either censured them or are planning ...

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Yep, people really said these things

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It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about ministers, lawyers or politicians, people say things that are either stunningly tone deaf or stunningly brazen or just plain dumb. Here are some examples.

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“It’s important that he thinks you’re hot.”

            –Pastor Stewart-Allen Clark, in his sermon at the First General Baptist Church in Malden, Mo., about how married women “let themselves go.” [March 9, 2021]  

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“Because it puts us at a competitive disadvantage relative to Democrats. Politics is a zero-sum game.”

            –Arizona Attorney ...

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Democrats can’t afford to take the Black vote for granted

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During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump asked Black Americans why they support the Democratic Party: “Look how much African American communities have suffered under Democratic control. . . . What do you have to lose by trying something new, like Trump? … You’re living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs. … What the hell do you have to lose?”

It was a brazen challenge. Of course, as it turns out, Trump did little to improve ...

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Let’s admit that state judges are politicians

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Let’s admit it. Like it or not, state judges are politicians, and their party affiliation should be shown on general ballots, just like it is for every other politician.

Party affiliation is not disclosed on judicial ballots because we like the fiction that judicial races are nonpartisan and, perhaps we’re even a little enamored of the idea that judges are above the political fray. It’s a quaint notion that doesn’t reflect today’s reality.

We just saw bare-knuckled attack ads in two races. Appellate ...

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