Here’s another patriarchal hangover that is affecting the 2020 election. According to several studies, likeability is optional to voters if the candidate is male, but is a requirement for a female. Also true is that people view forceful women as lecturing but give a thumbs up to a m

  If some people can’t handle the truth, it may be because the truth is hard to find.  Too often there’s an understory. A number of understories appeared in the February 14 edition of The Week. Because they are amusing, I’ll share them, starting with male myths: A man driv

Recently, I had a meeting with a woman about her upcoming presentation at the free summer workshops I give each year. She’s an expert on ways to use video to promote book sales. As we talked, I mentioned the title of an old film, then slapped one hand to my face after I’d done so.

Recently, a Bernie Sanders supporter floated a conspiracy theory on Facebook: U. S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi deliberately delayed delivering the  Articles of Impeachment to the Senate in order to keep Sanders in Washington D. C. for the trial, away from the Iowa campaign, and to le

Recently, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). People rejoiced and slapped one another on the back, forgetting that when the provision was introduced in the 1970s, it had a 7-year expiration date. No matter how good it felt, the ratification of ER

Recently, I shared an article that argued if the Warren/Sanders wing of the Democratic party didn’t consolidate, the mathematical certainty was Joe Biden would win the nomination. A Sanders supporter wrote back to say he couldn’t trust Warren. She’d once been a Republican. Havin

If  voters are to understand the Democratic debates in the next election, they will need to understand a “new economics” that is beloved by the political left: Modern Monetary Theory, affectionately known as MMT.  I think of it as Money Magic Trick. And it isn’t new.  The the

An interesting poll came out the other day. (“Poll Watch,” The Week, Feb 8, 2019, pg. 17)  Fifty-five percent of Americans favor receiving a health care plan through Medicare, but only 37% would be willing to raise taxes for it.  Presidential aspirant, Kamala Harris, and Senator

Nobody likes a multi-billionaire who stiffs his workers.  Donald Trump accuses Jeff Bezos of greed and Bernie Sanders agrees, suggesting a man who pockets $157 billion a year while his warehouse workers live on food stamps is a man whose conscience is questionable.*  While Trump’s

Weaponizing anger is a dangerous game.  Bernie Sanders tried it in the last Presidential election and so did Donald Trump.  Trump did it better and he remains a beacon for those who feel disenfranchised.  What both candidates did was tap into the residue loathing still with us from