Informed Weekend: 10 Links I Learned From This Week (Vol. 15)

Here are the ten(ish) links I learned from this week:

  1. Presidential Election Update
    1. Democratic Primary
      1. Clinton wins big: Hillary Clinton had an amazing night – and not just because of her victories (Vox)
        1. Further reading: Do gendered comments help or hurt Hillary Clinton? (The Washington Post)
      2. Bernie’s chances: Here’s the math for Bernie Sanders going forward. It doesn’t look good (Vox)
    2. Republican Primary
      1. Kasich wins Ohio: Why John Kasich is Still Standing (The Atlantic)
        1. Further Reading: John Kasich is the establishment’s last best hope against Trump (Vox)
      2. Rubio drops out: Marco Rubio just quit the race. The establishment couldn’t save him. (Vox)
    3. A Brokered Convention? Think a ‘brokered’ convention is undemocratic? Think again. (The Washington Post)
  2. Trump… again
    1. Trump changes how voters view the other Republican candidates. Here’s how. (The Washington Post)
    2. Trump Voters’ Aversion to Foreign-Sounding Names Cost Him Delegates (FiveThirtyEight)
  3. Merrick Garland Nominated to Supreme Court
    1. Merrick Garland’s probably-doomed, strategically interesting nomination, explained (Vox)
    2. The Supreme Court Confirmation Battle Begins (The Atlantic)
    3. The Nomination of Merrick Garland is a Victory for Judicial Restraint (The Atlantic)
  4. Four things ever voter needs to know (The Ohio State University)

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"Marco Rubio" by Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 2.0)

“Marco Rubio” by Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 2.0)

6 thoughts on “Informed Weekend: 10 Links I Learned From This Week (Vol. 15)

  1. Article title: “Trump Voters’ aversion to foreign-sounding Names Cost Him Delegates”

    It’s no surprise today when you turn on your TV and witness Donald Trump holding a fairly dominant position in the national polls for the Republican nomination. According to David Wasserman’s analysis on FiveThirtyEight, Trump may be a few delegates short of the special 1,237 delegates needed to become the presidential candidate for this upcoming election due to his views of outright racial discrimination (Wasserman, 2016). This has been reflective in the Illinois primary where Republicans did not vote for delegate candidates that were for Trump simply because of their foreign sounding names. On Tuesday March 15, a sufficient amount of legislative districts had their delegates become divided in forms that make you wonder about Trump supporters’ racial motives. In the FiveThirtyEight analysis of the 12 highest vote differentials within districts, it is evident that the candidate who received the most votes had an Anglo-sounding name whereas the candidates who gained the least votes had a full name that were of African-American, Asian, and Hispanic ethnicities (Wasserman, 2016). In conclusion, the article supports the controversial idea that Trump’s followers are motivated by a biased racial agenda even tho its might hurt Trump’s Campaign.

    • Great summary, Wissam! Do you buy their argument? What do you mean by “his views of outright racial discrimination”?

      • I definitely agree with their argument, since on multiple occasions his supporters had directly followed the negative and hate filled statements he says in his speeches. For instance, when he told his supporters that he will pay the legal fees for anyone who attacks protesters at his rallies. That lead to an increase in violence toward protesters, even leading to death threats toward protesters. I feel like not only do they believe what he says but act on it as well.

        I feel like from the beginning of his campaign he had made an effort to target certain groups based on their racial and more specifically ethnic background. Throughout multiple speeches he speaks of discriminating against a certain group, yet justifies it by playing on the fear of the public. By attacking these groups, he makes the discriminatory actions seem like an effort to keep America safe from those individuals. For example, his agenda to make all Muslim-American ware a badge to identify themselves. Not only is that unconstitutional but a way to increase discrimination and hatred toward that group of individuals. I think his views are more discrimatory based on ethnic background that race specifically.

        • Wissam, yes, much of Trump’s rhetoric is hateful and discriminatory. He is playing to people’s fears. Does his badge suggestion remind you of any other time in world history?

          • Definitely, it can be directly connected to what Hitler did at the beginning of the Holocaust. And with the vast support that Trump is getting, some people actually fear another Holocaust would occur. Or something similar, to what happened to the Japanese during WWII.

  2. My comment mostly pertaining to the article “Why Kasich is the Last Hope Against Trump.” I’d like to simply add that the GOP doesn’t like Kasich. They are putting all their money, effort, and time into Cruz. Check out this article I read on Monday from the New York Times;
    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/21/magazine/why-the-republican-establishment-doesnt-like-john-kasich.html?_r=1

    Kasich’s accomplishments are mentioned and praised in both the New York Times and the VOX articles but the NY Times article goes on to described his reputation among the other republicans his career in House. Behind closed doors Kasich is bull headed and hard nosed, a kind of politician no one wants to see but everyone knows they need. Cruz on the other hand is more of a what you see is what you get. In the presidential polls Cruz falls short to Clinton but Kasich is beating Clinton. The last hope against trump, maybe, but we wont see him back down to Cruz either, which is what the GOP wants.

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