“As much as I reject Donald Trump as our party leader, he did not create the political culture of the United States on his own.”
–Former Republican presidential candidate and governor of Florida Jeb Bush, in an op-ed published in The Washington Post where he denounces Donald Trump, saying he does not reflect “the principles or inclusive legacy of the Republican Party.” But Bush says that it is President Obama, not Donald Trump, who first escalated the conflict, by abusing his power to push liberal policies over the wishes of the American people.
“Eight years of the divisive tactics of President Obama and his allies have undermined Americans’ faith in politics and government to accomplish anything constructive,” Bush writes. “The president has wielded his power — while often exceeding his authority — to punish his opponents, legislate from the White House and turn agency rulemaking into a weapon for liberal dogma.
“In turn, a few in the Republican Party responded by trying to out-polarize the president, making us seem anti-immigrant, anti-women, anti-science, anti-gay, anti-worker and anti-common-sense,” Bush continues. “The result has been the vanishing of any semblance of compromise or bipartisanship in our nation’s capital. Simple problems don’t get solved. Speeches happen; the important stuff doesn’t. The failure of elected leaders to break the gridlock in Washington has led to an increasingly divided electorate, which in turn has led to a breakdown in our political system.”
Bush then uses the bulk of the rest of the column to propose conservative ideas meant to solve major issues facing the country. Bush argues that Republicans can win back the White House with “the power of our ideas,” such as term limits, a balanced-budget amendment, line-item-veto authority, a tough approach to terrorism, and promoting free markets. While Bush says he will either vote Libertarian or write someone in for president, he urges House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and the Republican-controlled Congress to serve as a check on the president, regardless of which candidate eventually wins the White House.
Bush also attacks Trump’s “abrasive, Know Nothing-like nativist rhetoric,” calling out the business mogul over his lack of serious policies, his use of Twitter to disparage opponents, and his embrace of tactics that “cynically feed” people’s angst and fear. But he also takes aim at presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, arguing that she would only “continue the disastrous foreign and economic policies of the Obama administration, as well as its hyper-partisanship.”
“She has gone as far as to say Republicans are her “enemy” — a clear sign she doesn’t have any more interest in doing the hard work of forging consensus than her former boss does,” writes Bush in a dig at both Obama and Clinton.
A rainbow crosswalk in Columbus, Ohio -- part of a federal road safety study -- was defaced when an unknown vandal poured a black tar-like substance across its brightly colored panels.
The incident comes as rainbow crosswalks nationwide face political pushback, with Republican leaders including former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis portraying them as dangerous distractions on the road.
City officials learned of the vandalism on August 25 after a Reddit post and calls to 311 alerted them to the damage. The crosswalk, at Lane and Waldeck Avenues near Ohio State University, had each of its colored panels smeared with the black substance.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has reposted a CNN clip featuring Doug Wilson, leader of the Christian evangelical movement he follows, in which the pastor calls for making gay sex illegal.
“In the late ’70s and early ’80s, sodomy was a felony in all 50 states. That America of that day was not a totalitarian hellhole,” Wilson says in the seven-minute segment, reports the Daily Beast.
Wilson goes on to say he wishes the United States would revive anti-sodomy laws, which criminalized same-sex relations -- and, in some states, even certain non-vaginal sex acts between consenting heterosexual partners.
"I was really into politics at a very young age," says Tim Miller, host of The Bulwark Podcast and an MSNBC political analyst. "I can't remember what they were called, but you'd get those kid magazines about politics that would come to your school, and I remember always really being drawn to them, and reading them and wanting to know more. I always knew lots of weird facts about politics and geography as a little middle school nerd."
Raised in St. Louis until fourth grade, when his family relocated to Littleton, Colorado, Miller became enmeshed in conservative politics at a young age, taking various campaign jobs throughout his career as a former Republican strategist. He jokes that his success at handicapping political races dates back to the 1992 election, when he won a $1 wager after betting his grandmother that then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton would unseat sitting president George H.W. Bush.
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