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For 31-year-old Sierra Parker, who has worked as a janitor for four years, the impending decrease makes her feel as if Missouris lawmakers have robbed workers of their voices. Parker said that when the wage went up to $10, I was feeling like, Oh finally they are concerned about the citizens of Missouri, the hard-working people. Parker, who is also studying business in school, was hoping to transition from janitorial work to the non-profit sector to fight homelessness, having been homeless herself for many years. If they take the $10 minimum wage, Im right back where I started from, she said.

In St. Louis, wages have gone up for white-collar workers even when factoring in rising housing costs. But they have fallen for blue-collar workers, according to one study. The higher minimum wage would have helped to remedy this.

While the battle over health care repeal and tax reform has taken center stage at the federal level, the scourge of Republican-led preemption bills is a reminder that many of the Democratic Partys biggest problems remain local.

Its a good sign, then, that the Democratic National Committee has finally begun to invest in state parties, as they announced earlier this week. Starting in October, the DNC will give state parties $10,000 a month, while also launching a $10 million State Party Innovation Fund. Its a step that may help turn back the well-funded tide of Republican domination over the past decade. A full 32 state governments are now entirely under Republican control. An even more harrowing stat: Over the course of Barack Obamas two terms, Democrats lost 960 seats at the state legislative level.

But many of those seatseven in deep red districtsare starting to look winnable. Just this week, Democrats achieved a surprise victory, flipping two GOP-controlled state legislature seats in special election races in Oklahoma. The emerging sentiment on the left is that Democrats have to show up and compete everywhere. It is no longer feasible to rely on the partys lopsided strength in big cities, and initiatives like Fight for $15 have to be wrapped in a larger, coordinated program to make inroads in rural areas and win back state legislatures.

For people like Rogers, Straughter, and Parker, who are going to feel in the most intimate way the effects of the partys losses in recent years, this has become a necessity, not a choice.

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Republicans Are Coming for Your Minimum Wage Hike - New Republic

Concerns about free-speech suppression on campus shouldnt be dismissed out of hand, and liberals should speak out against any excesses within their ranks at colleges and universities. Yet the conservative medias incessant coverage of these controversies undoubtedly inflates their significance, suggesting a systemic problem in higher education that doesnt exist. But the belief that it exists, though largely confined to the right, has consequences for us all.

The conservative narrative about colleges and universities has several common complaints: Theyre inhospitable to conservatives. Liberal professors indoctrinate their students. And left-wing students have become snowflakesbut also militant social justice warriors. In every instance, the evidence against these claims is stronger than the evidence for them.

On the question of liberal professors indoctrinating their students, the consensus is clear. Yes, professors lean left (although with some caveats), Inside Higher Eds Scott Jaschik wrote in February. But much of the research says conservative students and faculty members are not only surviving but thriving in academefree of indoctrination if not the periodic frustrations. Further, the research casts doubt on the idea that the ideological tilt of faculty members is because of discrimination. Notably, some of this research has been produced by conservative scholars.

One such example is last years Passing on the Right: Conservative Professors in the Progressive University, written by Jon Shields, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College, and Joshua Dunn, a political science professor at the University of Colorado. As two conservative professors, they wrote in The Washington Post, we agree that right-wing faculty members and ideas are not always treated fairly on college campuses. But we also know that right-wing hand-wringing about higher education is overblown.

Dunn told me he thinks conservative students do face social pressure from their liberal peers. For your average conservative student going about their daily life, he said, my guess is that politics isnt going to come up that often for them, if only because they often choose majors in the hard sciences or in business. He argued the issue is much more salient for sociology or political science majors. At the same time, he cautioned, One thing I think happens is that conservative students go into college expecting the worst. Its just not a healthy attitude in general.

Dunn hopes that schools will take this opportunity to promote intellectual diversity and civil discourse, and that campus conservatives, instead of inviting right-wing provocateurs like Milo Yiannopoulos, will bring in more speakers like Princetown professor Robert George, who has joined with Cornel West in promoting healthy debate. I do think that conservative media could help. Of course, its not terribly newsworthy if a speaker comes to campus, gives a talk, people ask pointed but polite questions, and then everyone goes home without a YouTube-worthy video being captured, he told me. People smashing windows makes for better television than an egghead in a frumpy suit giving a talk. But they could do things that highlight how individuals that strongly disagree with one another can nevertheless work to promote civil discourse and even friendship across ideological lines.

Woessner worries about a lack of ideological diversity among faculty, and he is troubled by what he sees as attempts to suppress speakers with alternative points of view. It borders on fascism when we try to use physical threats or attempt to disrupt people from having a conservation that may be unpopular, he said. And yet, he stresses that part of succeeding in higher education is not having a victim mentality, and the right shouldnt create a self-fulfilling prophecy about being discriminated against on campus. The more conservatives overplay the narrative that theyre being persecuted and oppressed, the more they will check out of higher education, and that makes the imbalance worse, he said. I think conservatives have more to gain from higher education than liberals do. Liberals dont have their ideas challenged as often, and that makes it harder for them to grow intellectually.

Kelly-Woessner says liberals need to make changes, too. She said her research shows this generation of young people is more politically intolerant than previous cohorts. At the same time, she said, its a few instances that get blown up and then represent what colleges and universities look like. She notes that campuses dont get media coverage when host conservative speakers without controversy. We dont have the same visceral reaction to conservatives on campus, she said of Elizabethtown. In fact, weve had quite a few on campus, and nothing ever happened.... Of course were going to have slanted perspective on the magnitude of the problem, because nobody reports on the dog that doesnt bark.

The conservative media has painted a distorted portrait of academia, and their customers apparently are adjusting their opinions accordingly. But even if the decline in Republicans regard for higher education is largely attributable to right-wing hysteria and hyperbole, liberals cant afford to ignore it. The Pew poll has serious implications, for instance, for the funding and independence of public colleges and universities, which is increasingly under attack by Republicans. Consider Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and North Carolina Governor Pat McCrorys respective wars on public education in their states. Low public opinion of colleges and universities will only embolden more Republican governors to do the sameand to provide them cover when they do.

The GOPs newfound negativity about academia, Woessner told me, erodes the public support of higher education in state legislatures. If conservatives have a false impression of the state of higher education, and they believe in the open persecution of conservatives, there will be less support for the public financing of higher education. That hurts professors and students of all political stripes.

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Liberals Can't Ignore the Right's Hatred for Academia | New Republic - New Republic

French President Emmanuel Macron will host US President Donald Trump on Thursday and Friday for Bastille Day talks which coincide with the 100th anniversary of US involvement in World War Two. The meeting, between two leaders vastly different in age and political philosophies, will be intriguing for the common ground that they seek to find.

Trump has referred to his great relationship with Macron, and it is true that they share political positioning as perceived insurgent outsiders with a business background. Moreover, the two have a number of shared international objectives, including in countering international terrorism with France, for instance, the second largest contributor to the US-led coalition in Syria.

Yet, while both Macron and Trump have political reasons to court each other, the context for the meeting is the stark policy divergences. Already the two presidents have clashed...

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Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron embody the ongoing war between liberals and populists - Telegraph.co.uk

President Donald Trumps son-in-law and close adviser was already in the congressional crosshairs before this weeks revelation. | Getty

Jared Kushner has become the top target of Democratic outrage over the Trump campaigns ties to Russia, with congressional Democrats ramping up their calls for his security clearance to be revoked.

President Donald Trumps son-in-law and close adviser was already in the congressional cross hairs before this weeks revelation that he attended a controversial meeting with a Russian lawyer.

Story Continued Below

Trumps eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort also attended last years meeting, which was pitched as a chance for the Russian lawyer to provide damaging information about Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to help the Trump campaign.

But neither Trump Jr. nor Manafort are currently serving in the White House with a high-level security clearance and therefore, unlike Kushner, are not privy to sensitive national security secrets.

That has made Kushner a top target of Democratic ire.

His security clearance must be revoked immediately, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) declared on Thursday.

Also Thursday, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) put forward two appropriations amendments designed to strip Kushner of his clearance, but both were blocked by Republicans in party-line votes. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter this week to Trump urging Kushners clearance be suspended pending a full investigation.

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And Rep. Bill Flores, a Republican, urged the president to stop mixing family and politics.

"I'm going out on a limb here, but I would say that I think it would be in the president's best interest if he removed all of his children from the White House," Flores told a local television station in his home state of Texas.

But even before this week's revelations, there were major concerns about Kushner having a clearance.

Kushner omitted meetings with foreign officials, including a top Russian diplomat and businessman, on his initial security clearance application forms. He has since updated his forms to include more than 100 contacts with foreign officials, The New York Times reported.

One expert in the security clearance application process said shes never seen an employee with such egregious omissions continue to retain a clearance.

It doesnt make sense, said Joanna Friedman, an attorney with the Federal Practice Group, who has represented employees seeking security clearances for a decade. Well have clients who, you know, have 2,000 dollars worth of debt that they did not disclose they pay it off during the investigation and they still dont get approved for security clearance.

Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said his panel had received documents from Kushner and would be receiving more.

The Virginia senator, whose committee is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into Russia's meddling in last year's presidential election, said he wasn't ready yet to call for Kushner's security clearance to be revoked. But, Warner added, "We now have three examples of meetings that he omitted or forgot."

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), also a member of the intelligence panel, said he was exceptionally troubled about the Kushner revelations.

I do not think in light of what has been discussed that he should be allowed to handle national security matters and materials, Wyden said.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, too, has come under scrutiny for failing to note foreign meetings on his security clearance application. House Judiciary Committee Democrats on Thursday called for a review of Sessions' fitness to hold a clearance. But they saved their harshest calls for Kushner.

A handful of House Democrats, led by Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), began calling for Kushner's clearance to be revoked in April, when it was first reported that Kushner omitted foreign connections on his security clearance application. A month later, the number grew to 50 House Democrats after reports indicated Kushner had attempted to set up a back channel to the Kremlin in one of his undisclosed meetings with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Sarah Ferris contributed to this report.

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Kushner becomes chief target of Democrats' Russia anger - Politico

Notwithstanding predictions of a Democratic Senate bloodbath in 2018, Heidi Heitkamps favorability rating in North Dakota is 60 percent, while Republican Jeff Flakes popularity in Arizona is underwater. Photo: U.S. Senate

Perhaps as a tonic for the troops at a time when Senate Republicans are being engulfed by chaos of their own making, veteran spinner Karl Rove devoted a Wall Street Journal column to a baleful assessment of the reelection prospects of Senate Democrats running in states carried handily by Donald Trump last year.

Theres a certain dated quality to Roves analysis; he writes as though these senators are fresh from gazing in awe at Trumps 2016 victory and are trying to decide whether to fight back or run for the hills. In reality, these pols have for the most part chosen to oppose every unpopular thing Trump and the congressional GOP have proposed this year, which fortunately for red-state Democrats is nearly their entire agenda. Still, the 2016 numbers are indeed daunting for some:

The 25 Democratic senators who face re-election in 2018 are already gearing up for a fight. Their latest quarterly fundraising reports, released over the past two weeks, show impressive totals, ranging up to $3.1 million. But for the 10 Democrats from states carried by President Trump, a well-stuffed war chest may not be enough.

This is especially true for six senators in states where Mr. Trumps victory last November was huge. He won Joe Manchins West Virginia by an astonishing 42 points; Heidi Heitkamps North Dakota by 36 points; Jon Testers Montana by 20; Joe Donnellys Indiana and Claire McCaskills Missouri by 19, and Sherrod Browns Ohio by 8.

Rove goes on to make a very dubious assertion that we are going to hear a lot from Republicans between now and November of 2018:

They must all keep an eye on the presidents favorability ratings. On Election Day, Mr. Trump was viewed favorably by 37.5% of voters and unfavorably by 58.5%, according to the RealClearPolitics average. As of this Wednesday, his ratings stood at 40.4% favorable and 53.6% unfavorable.

Mr. Trump is likely to be more popular in states he won than his national average: The larger his margin in those states last November, the better he stands now. If this trend holds through 2018, Democrats in states Mr. Trump won by double or nearly double digits could face stiff re-election contests.

This argument ignores the rather pertinent fact that Trump was running against a rival who was almost as unpopular as he was. In 2018, Republicans wont have the luxury of running against Hillary Clinton. Instead, they will be up against well-known Senate incumbents with their own public profiles, and in a midterm environment where there is usually a wind blowing against the party controlling the White House.

So while we should indeed keep and eye on the presidents favorability ratings, those of the senators in question are even more relevant. As it happens Morning Consult just released an update of its home-state favorability assessments for all 100 U.S. senators, and the very Democrats Rove thinks are in inherently deep trouble are actually doing quite well. Joe Manchins ratio is 57/31; Heidi Heitkamps is an even more impressive 60/28. Jon Tester (50/39), Joe Donnelly (53/25), and Sherrod Brown (50/29) are at or above the magic 50-percent level that often connotes future victory, with limited unfavorables, and Claire McCaskill (46/38) isnt exactly plumbing the depths of unpopularity, either.

In fact, the one senator up in 2018 whose favorability numbers are underwater is a Republican, Jeff Flake of Arizona (37/45).

Another problem for the GOP is that it is struggling to find credible challengers to theoretically vulnerable Democrats in some states (as in Missouri, where consensus GOP favorite Representative Ann Wagner decided not to take on McCaskill), and is facing potentially fractious Republican primaries (as in Indiana, where Representatives Luke Messer and Todd Rokita are already attacking each other) in others.

There is plenty of time for things to change in the months ahead, and nobody on the Democratic side has any reason to feel complacent about holding onto Senate seats in one of the more lopsided landscapes in living memory. But for now, a Democratic red-state bloodbath in 2018 looks unlikely. And if congressional Republicans continue to flail around in the clumsy pursuit of an unpopular agenda, the odds of survival for Democrats in Trump Country will only go up.

Peter W. Smith was found dead with a suicide note shortly after talking to a reporter about his plot to get Russian-hacked Clinton emails.

The favorite lost the yellow jersey, and things are getting interesting.

Sebastian Gorka says the White House may give back Russian diplomatic compounds that the U.S. seized to punish the Kremlins election interference.

Hes also not kidding about those solar panels.

Six Senate Democrats running for reelection in states easily carried by Trump last year are benefitting from strong popularity and GOP fecklessness.

I already know where you live, Im on you. You might as well call me.You will see me. I promise. Bro.

Ed Rogers: lobbyist, Washington Post columnist, and Trump defender.

By giving conservatives long-term Medicaid cuts and then telling moderates they wont be implemented, McConnell may be too clever for his own good.

He addressed the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian law firm that advocates against LGBTQ rights.

John Roberts set a very favorable precedent for the former State Assembly speaker, who was sent to jail for public corruption.

At a press conference in Paris, he couldnt escape the big controversy here at home.

It has a few extra tweaks, but the essence remains intact. And, like its predecessor, it seems dead in the water.

The Trumps Paris trip begins.

Its asking Donald Trump Jr. to testify about his meeting with the Kremlin-connected lawyer, possibly as early as next week.

He revealed at an event in D.C.

Ahead of Trumps visit to Paris, the French president says that the Western world has been cracking up since the American election.

This is the worst episode of Schoolhouse Rock! weve ever seen.

An appeals court used a recent Supreme Court precedent to say the jury had been given incorrect instructions in the case.

Originally posted here:
Things Are Looking Up for Democratic Senators in Trump Country - New York Magazine