Garnet Donkey

College Dems went to D.C. in early May to do some lobbying for comprehensive sex ed.  One of the offices that we met with was that of Senator Arlen Specter, Republican turned Democrat of Pennsylvania (at the time of our meeting he had just made the switch).  Of all of the people we met with, he seemed the most reluctant to support our position.  That, however, may be changing.  A special shout out to the author of that article, Swarthmore’s own Dina Kopansky.

The governor of South Carolina went missing for 5 days recently.  He returned yesterday to explain his disappearance:

In a rambling news conference, Mark Sanford apologized for having an affair, ending a mystery over his recent activities.

Just read Bob Herbert’s column in today’s New York Times. He points out the role of the NRA in fueling the flames of right-wing extremism. He cites an article written by an NRA lawyer claiming that the second amendment is not abount hunting, but rather is”directed at maintaining an armed citizenry. … to protect against the tyranny of our own government.”

I understand this is a politically sensitive issue and I know Obama and congressional democrats aren’t about to start a fight over gun control. Still, I’m always a little surprised that the progressives who can don’t more often advocate for the repeal of the second amendment.

The text of the amendment makes the founders’ intention clear. It reads “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The logic – placing the right to bear arms after “a well regulated militia” was intentional. The second amendment was designed to ensure that Americans would be able to protect themselves from foreign invaders. It had nothing to do with hunting or sport or even self-defense. The second amendment is archaic and obsolete. It has no relevance in today’s United States, the greatest world power with no threat of invasion.

According to the Brady campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 30,000 people die every year from gun violence. 85 people die every day, 56 of them teens and children, 35 of them murdered. Every day, 191 people are shot and survive. Herbert wrote eloquently about the numbers in April.

This is the American way. Since Sept. 11, 2001, when the country’s attention understandably turned to terrorism, nearly 120,000 Americans have been killed in nonterror homicides, most of them committed with guns. Think about it — 120,000 dead. That’s nearly 25 times the number of Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For the most part, we pay no attention to this relentless carnage. The idea of doing something meaningful about the insane number of guns in circulation is a nonstarter. So what if eight kids are shot to death every day in America. So what if someone is killed by a gun every 17 minutes.

The second amendment does not protect a basic right, it places a privilege on a pedestal. How can we argue that the right to own a gun deserves constitutional protection while the rights to quality health care or education do not? The right to bear arms deserves its own amendment about as much as the right to posses marijuana. (Both can be great tools for recreation, but have the potential to do harm) Repealing the second amendment would not amount to a ban on gun possession. (Yay the 10th amendment) It would simply level the playing field for debate. Rather than simply invoking the 2nd, pro-gun groups would have to engage in a substantive debate about the impact of guns on our country.

Part of the problem, and the reason this issue never seems to gain much salience with liberals, is that so many people with money and privilege and power live in safe communities and don’t see the devastating impact of guns in America. What gun-control advocates need is something like the anti-tobacco Truth campaign, a grass-roots effort to bring this issue to the forefront of political and social discourse.

Today, to celebrate his birthday, former President George H.W. Bush parachuted out of a plane. As a Navy Lieutenant, Bush has considerable experience, but it was an impressive feat nonetheless.

Did I mention that this was to celebrate his eighty-fifth birthday?

You can watch this bit of ex-presidential awesomeness on video here.
(h/t NYMag)

The battle over healthcare reform is heating up as congressional democrats debate the public option. Last week the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 51 conservative democrats, issued a statement saying they would only support a public option as a fallback measure that would be triggered sometime in the future if private insurers cannot meet certain requirements. Yet, as reported by the Huffington Post, 20 Blue Dogs have pledged to the healt care reform coalition Healthcare for American now! (HCAN) that they would support a public option without a trigger. Representatives Patrick Murphy (D-PA), Loretta Sanchez (D – CA) and Jane Harman (D – CA) and Jim Cooper (D-Tenn), the vice chairman of the Blue Dog Health Care Task Force, have expressed their support for a public option without a trigger.

But fear not progressives! – The 71-member Congressional Progressive caucus has called for a “robust public option” that “must not be conditioned on private industry actions” and “ must be available to all individuals and employers across the nation without limitation. They are joined by the Congressional Black Caucus, which together with Hispanic and Asian Pacific American Caucuses (Together called the Tri-Caucus) plans to release its own healthcare reform plan in the near future.

With strong progressive support for a public option and the Blue Dogs fractured, I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ll end up with a strong public option on the House side. On the Senate Side, it could be much more difficult. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee did not include a public option in a draft bill released Tuesday, apparently in an effort to appease the Republicans opposition. Nonetheless, President Obama remains steadfast in his support for a strong public option, which he expressed in a letter to Senator’s Ted Kennedy and Max Baucus.

There is the possibility of compromise. Blue Dogs have already demanded that any public plan negotiate rates with providers, rather than mandate them Medicare-style. At this point, I have faith that the final bill will include a public plan. What it looks like will depend largely on the success or failure of grassroots progressives as they take on the insurance companies.

Rep. Sestak is, officially, in the race for the Democratic Senate nomination in 2010. Politico reports that the congressman said to Wolf Blitzer this afternoon:

I don’t think that a D next to your name makes you a Democrat. It’s about whether Arlen will fight for the right issues, Democrat or Republican. He helped derail health care plans without an alternative in the ’90s. Maybe he’s changed, but I’m not sure we can take that chance.

Those are fighting words and, with multi-million warchests for both Sestak and Specter already in place almost a year from the May 18, 2010 primary, we are looking at a fight for the nomination.

TPM is reporting that Rep. Joe Sestak, who represents Swarthmore and has long been a great friend to Swat College Dems, is privately telling supporters he’s running. If he does chose to run, I’m all for it. The congresman has done great work in his  years in the House and has been a leader on issues like the genocide in Darfur (darfurscores.org, a project of the Swat-founded Genocide Intervention Network, gives him an A+ for his record, with extra credit for sponsoring key legislation).

Much more after the jump. Read more »

One of the most surreal experiences I have had at Swarthmore was that of being repeatedly asked, in my function as then-president of College Democrats (aka the organization that brings you Garnet Donkey), how one might contact College Republicans, a group that has gone in and out of existence during my time at Swat.  Despite what might be described as an overwhelmingly liberal campus ethos, when they have pursued such funding and recognition, the various relevant formal student & administration bodies have dutifuly recognized and supported the Republican group.

The experience of our counterparts in the still-new College Democrats chapter at Jerry-Falwell-founded Liberty University has not been quite the same. Read more »