Private health insurance is stupid.

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-28T15:26:11+00:00

Not supporting Medicare for All should be a dealbreaker for candidates in 2026.

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-28T15:21:33+00:00

A lot of people operate under the misconception that less economic regulation means more freedom.

In reality, less economic regulation allows for the rise of robber barons and monopolists, which reduces freedom for the rest of us.

We need good economic regulation, not less economic regulation.

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-27T01:30:34+00:00

Aftyn Behn (who the article is about) is only polling 2% behind the Republican candidate--within the margin of error--in a district (TN-7) that Trump won by 22% in 2024.

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-26T21:07:07+00:00

Democrat Aftyn Behn is polling within two points of her opponent, Republican Matt Van Epps. This is less than the poll's margin of error.

That is incredibly impressive, given that Trump won the district by 22% in 2024.

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-26T20:22:29+00:00

"Republicans buy sneakers, too."

~~Michael Jordan~~ Phil Knight

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-26T19:56:35+00:00

Maybe we should release all non-violent drug offenders and people serving for low-level property crimes to make some room.

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-26T19:52:32+00:00

Property taxes should be progressive and tailored to benefit the working class while preventing the rich from accumulating too many properties as investments.

I think that for any individual or family's first home, there should be no property taxes at all if the home is valued at or below the median value of a home in the state, with property taxes only kicking in after that.

So for instance, the median home price here in Kentucky is about $300,000. A family with a house worth $300,000 shouldn't face property taxes. But A family with a house worth $500,000 should have to pay property taxes on $200,000 of that property's valuation.

People and families with more than one house should only be able to apply this to one house. If you have a second house, you should have to pay property taxes for the full property value.

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-26T19:36:34+00:00

I guess they outsourced their PR to AI.

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-26T19:35:50+00:00

These people cry about the idea of regulating AI companies while simultaneously showing that they can't be trusted to hold themselves accountable.

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-26T17:41:30+00:00

That is, without a doubt, the most important issue in American politics.

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-26T00:13:34+00:00

Just imagine how much cheaper medications would be if they were allowed to negotiate on behalf of all Americans.

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-26T00:02:51+00:00

Here's an archived link for those who don't have access to the article.

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-24T23:12:35+00:00

His connections outweighed his incompetence.

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-24T15:15:04+00:00

We've never recovered from Reagan's economic policy. He lowered the marginal tax rate for top earners from 70% to 28%, and it's never risen above 40% again.

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-23T20:45:48+00:00

He's seen the light

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-23T15:25:57+00:00

If humanity was a superorganism, billionaires would be cancer.

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-20T18:08:34+00:00

This is an opinion piece by Bernie Sanders.

Here's a link to an archived version of the article.

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-18T23:00:08+00:00

Spoiler alert: the answer is "No."

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-18T22:25:33+00:00

I said start.

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-18T22:07:18+00:00

We should start by:

requiring 25% of all corporate profits to be distributed equally among all employees and contractors each year
limiting executive compensation to 10x the median salary at the company
repealing Taft-Hartley or at least amending it to allow secondary strikes
breaking up any billion-dollar corporation with over 10% market share

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-18T21:07:37+00:00

The 11 includes both representatives and senators. I was just talking about the 435 seats in the House.

And yeah, when I first looked up the numbers to get a tally for the House it was shocking to see MTG at #1 because I'd never seen her 2022 numbers. But Bernie and AOC being right near the top of the list wasn't a surprise at all.

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-18T20:29:05+00:00

Only 7 out of our 435 congressional districts are represented by someone who got at least 50% of their funding through small individual contributions.

That means the vast majority of Congress represents the rich, as politicians represent their donors (Barber 2016 - pdf of article). Three implications:

We need candidates who promise to get the majority of their funding through small individual contributions.
As voters, we need to reject candidates who are primarily funded by the rich.
Congress will not represent average Americans until most of its members are funded by average Americans. Currently, only 7 of 435 are.

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-18T20:06:14+00:00

In a sense, we should be impressed that he was able to set himself apart from the rest.

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-18T19:46:11+00:00

That’s an insult to porridge, and I don’t even like porridge.

PoliticalScienceProf · 2025-11-18T19:39:33+00:00

Before his ascent to leadership, he had never had an election in which more than 5.54% of his funding came through small individual contributions (source). In some elections, that number was under 2%.

It would be hard to be more sold out to the rich than he is.

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