Like President-designate Donald Trump, and his nominee for Secretary of Education, Michigan billionaire and Amway heiress, Betsy DeVos, I’m a huuuuge proponent of “school choice.” What’s more American than the freedom to choose (unless you’re a woman, and we’re talking about reproductive health choices–but I digress…)? It’s a fundamental human right to be able to make important personal choices about […]

It was just a few weeks ago that I was thinking, “Well, since Republicans control EVERY aspect of our state government now, at least lame duck should be quieter than usual.” That, of course, was delusional thinking and Republicans are making that very clear as we begin the 2016 lame duck – or, as I like to call it, “inflamed […]

The people who’ve been conned aren’t the enemy. The con man is. Let’s say there’s a fair and open election in four years, which is actually a real question. But say it happens. Here’s a handy theme that will work as part of larger campaign full-throated progressive campaign: Trump betrayed you. The campaign we just witnessed centered on a theme […]

Before I get started, I’ll say what I have said during our weekly podcast: I do not think Green Party candidate Jill Stein is the reason that Hillary Clinton lost in Michigan. Despite the fact that if only a quarter of Stein voters hadn’t thrown their vote away on a candidate they KNEW would never come close to winning, the […]

We can’t give up our identity politics because the right won’t give up on theirs Abandoning everything you believe about politics, culture and America based on about 100,000 voters in three states is probably a bit hasty. But there is a slight yet loud call the left urging give Democrats to give up on “identity politics” to focus on economic […]

Mike Pence is every principal or superintendent who has looked a teacher straight in the eye and told them that they were being terminated for low student test scores, even though most of the teacher’s students come to school every day hungry and tired. Mike Pence is every business owner who cuts his employees’ hours to avoid paying for their […]

Letter represents the voices of more than 10 million people asking the president-elect to speak out against hateful acts and ideology. Labor, civil rights and faith leaders, along with many others, called on President-elect Donald Trump to take a much stronger stance against hate-fueled acts of harassment, vandalism, property destruction and assault that have happened since his election. More than […]

The Republican Party is now the strongest political party in the history of this country Donald Trump’s popularity is on the rise — slightly. But he’s still likely to be the least popular president ever inaugurated in the history of attempting to measure popularity. This makes sense because he received fewer votes than his opponent and is only the president […]

Due to a technical error (i.e., I screwed up), the daily digest email service was recently interrupted. This service sends a single email once a day around 5 p.m. Eastern with links to all the posts on the site within the past 24 hours. Some people prefer to get an email whenever we publish a post but others prefer this […]

Over the next few days, I’m going to share the thoughts of friends and acquaintances as they process the reality of a Donald Trump presidency. Some will be from people willing to share their identity. Others will be anonymous. All will help us to understand that we’re not alone in our grief and struggle to understand “what’s next.” Installment Three […]

The following poem was performed by Callie McKee at the HERsay performance art show this past week in Ann Arbor. Callie is an Ann Arbor-area theatre artist, writer, storyteller, performance poet, and fierce feminist. She is the Director of the University of Michigan educational theatre company (UMetc), where she designs programming around bystander intervention, mental health, working in diverse teams, […]