Mediaboss Marketing

MIAMI The Trump campaign events keep coming.

President Donald Trump has made Florida central to his re-election, holding nine campaign rallies in the state since he was elected and zeroing in on Hispanics.

Vice President Mike Pence has also been spending an ample amount of time in Florida. He just wrapped up a rally in Kissimmee as part of the Latinos for Trump coalition, pledging to the largely Puerto Rican crowd the administration will support the island after the earthquakes and touting the strong U.S. economy.

In addition to the rallies, Trump has held numerous events in the state addressing its diverse groups, such as Venezuelans and Cuban Americans.

At one of the events, on Jan. 3, Trump launched the Evangelicals for Trump coalition from a South Florida megachurch attended by thousands of Latinos.

Mauricio Tamayo, 52, a member of the congregation, said he didn't like Trump at first.

I wasnt used to his style. I thought he was arrogant, but he grows on you, he said, as audience members raised their hands in prayer.

"He speaks what's on his mind," according to the government employee and Colombia native, who said his 401K has grown "exponentially."

Trump won Florida in 2016 by less than one percentage point and most likely needs to carry the state to win re-election. Its the state where Trump has the greatest amount of support among Latinos, at around 34 percent.

Florida is critical, Mercedes Schlapp, a Trump campaign senior adviser, said.

"Were investing resources early, were building our ground game, and we have a tremendous focus on building up our Latinos for Trump coalition, the Cuban American native of Miami said.

The efforts by Trump and Republicans to focus on Latino voters who make up over a quarter of Florida's population and over 16 percent of its electorate worry several key Democrats in the state who are concerned that their party isn't being aggressive enough.

I feel we have taken the eye off the ball of the Hispanics that are necessary to win, said former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who lost a tight gubernatorial race in 2018.

Pushing back on Pence's visit, the Florida Democratic Party unveiled a bilingual billboard this week in the largely Puerto Rican area of Kissimmee, in Central Florida, showing a large image of Trump throwing paper towels at Puerto Ricans after the destruction of Hurricane Maria. The billboards say "Never forget" and in Spanish, "Prohibido olvidar" the lyrics of an old salsa song some voters may recognize.

Last week, Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Prez held a roundtable discussion with local leaders in Miami on the administrations efforts against Obamacare and its impact on Latinos. Florida has the nation's highest number of Affordable Care Act enrollments and nationally, Latinos made the highest gains in coverage under Obamacare.

The Morning Rundown

Get a head start on the morning's top stories.

In contrast to Trumps and Pence's massive rallies, the event was small and held in a conference room at the Borinquen Medical Center, which serves the community.

When asked if he was worried about the Republicans Latino outreach in Florida, Prez said, Talk is cheap his silence in the aftermath of the earthquakes (in Puerto Rico) has been deafening. This is a president who said, 'Im going to help you Venezuelans.' If he cared about the Venezuelan people, he could enact Temporary Protected Status tomorrow."

Juan Pealosa, executive director of the Florida Democratic Party, said the party has learned lessons from Trumps Florida win in 2016 and the state's midterm losses.

I dont think we did our job taking the election seriously. I think that has changed drastically, he said.

Pealosa recently told NBC News the party had hired the largest staff of any Democratic state party in the country, with more than 91 employees. They have completed 37,096 volunteer shifts in 2019 compared to 3,023 in 2015.

In the past, he said, Democrats have lacked well-trained surrogates across the state to help carry their message in the Spanish-language media something the Republicans have been doing for years. The party now has a Hispanic communications director who is training and booking Latino Democratic surrogates to be on Florida television and radio shows. They have also put more money in Spanish-language media buys and launched a weekly Spanish-language radio show in South Florida.

The Democrats lost five of six statewide races in Florida, including the gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races.

Republican Rick Scott, the states former governor, beat Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, after nearly two decades in office. Ron DeSantis won the governors mansion after embracing Trumps message during the campaign, even releasing an ad with his daughter building a wall out of blocks. Democrats did flip two House seats, however, in heavily Latino South Florida.

But there's been frustration and anger after the losses. Part of the reason for the Republican wins was their active courtship of Latino voters.

Annette Taddeo, a Democrat and a Colombian American state senator from the Miami area, is worried Trump could be making inroads with the growing number of Latinos who register with no party affiliation. And what are we doing? Nothing, she said.

Taddeo cited Scotts extensive Latino engagement when he was running for the Senate, saying he was everywhere." Scott attended the swearing-in of Colombia's president in 2018, visited Puerto Rico numerous times after Maria and set up help for families coming to Florida. Post-election data showed Puerto Ricans in Central Florida helped Scott win office.

Eduardo Gamarra, a Florida International University political science professor, said Republicans "understand diverse groups more than anyone else Democrats are behind and they have to do a better job of identifying and targeting those groups and they have to have a message."

In Florida, that means speaking to the state's growing Puerto Rican community about the administration's sluggish response following Maria, mobilizing Cuban Americans opposed to Trump's increasingly hard-line policies against Cuba including more travel restrictions and reminding Venezuelans that Trump still has not given them TPS.

Days before Thanksgiving, Trump held a homecoming rally in South Florida after changing his residence to the Sunshine State.

Before the rally, Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuez, a Cuban American from Miami who is the national co-chair for Latinos for Trump, sat with Schlapp and John Pence, the vice presidents nephew, for a conversation about socialism that was televised on a giant screen and streamed live on social media.

Trump and Republicans constantly equate Democrats with socialism, but nowhere does that message get amplified more than in Florida, where a large concentration of Latinos have fled socialist countries.

Socialism is a strong, powerful message, Nuez told NBC News. She said that every time Trump says at a rally that America will never be a socialist country, thats the line that gets the most applause, its the one that gets the most reaction.

Democratic lawmakers, especially in Florida, have been very vocal about their opposition to Venezuela's government.

But Taddeo said there are candidates that are not doing us any favors with some of their comments, tweets and inexperience when it comes to Latin America, and Bolivia is a perfect example.

Recently, presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., drew criticism from some for tweeting that he was concerned that Bolivias former socialist president Evo Morales, who was pressured to resign in the wake of massive protests over a disputed election, may have been the victim of a coup.

Gillum, who was branded a socialist by Republicans during his campaign, warned that on issues like Venezuela, Democrats have to speak out forcefully against these types of authoritarian regimes or I fear it does a disservice to give Republicans something to hit us over the head about.

Democrats also have to boost their voter turnout, says Gillum, who has been focusing on this through "Forward Florida Action," his political action committee.

Prez said that when it comes to Trump, "people are smart, and you can't gloss it over with a few rallies here and there."

But Gamarra notes that Trump has the advantage of incumbency in resources and money, and the Republicans know the election outcome "is going to be less than 2 percent."

"The Democrats should be doing a lot more in Florida," Gamarra said.

Follow NBC Latino on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Here is the original post:
Trump and Republicans are courting Florida's Latinos. Democrats in the state are worried. - NBC News

A customer browses imported Soviet-era books at a store in Golpark, India, in 2017. | Anuradha Sengupta / The Hindu via Twitter

After the triumph of the Bolshevik Revolution, John Reed, famed author of Ten Days that Shook the World, wrote, The thirst for education, so long thwarted, burst with the Revolution into a frenzy of expression. From Smolny Institute alone, the first six months, went out everyday tons, car-loads, train-loads of literature, saturating the land. Russia absorbed reading matter like hot sand drinks water, insatiable.

According to Vijay Prashad in his introduction to the collection of short essays that constitute The East Was Read: Socialist Culture in The Third World, The literacy campaign was not conducted in Russian alone, but in the languages of the many nationalities of the USSR. Thirty years later, despite the ravages of two world wars, it was announced that all [Soviet] citizens could read and write. This was a considerable feat.

The East Was Read isnt just about literacy or the production, distribution, and consumption of books in the Soviet Union, though. Its goal is considerably more ambitious, despite being only 153 pages.

The goal of The East Was Read is two-fold: to [pay] homage to the lost world ofSoviet books, their impact across the globe, and to highlight socialist culture in the Third World.

As Prashad notes, Generations in the Global South grew up with Soviet books on our shelves. If we could afford books, they would be lavishly illustrated Soviet childrens books, then a volume or two of Tolstoy, and then, finally, perhaps a few volumes of Lenins writings. It is these books, from novels to primers in mathematics, that flooded the continents of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, providing precious knowledge to places that did not have the capacity to publish such a range of what became world literature.

The Indian author, Pankaj Mishra, recalled the impact the magazine Soviet Life had on him as a young boy. When a new issue slipped through the mail slot, I would smell its glossy pages and run my fingers across them. I lingered longest over the pages with pictures of Young Pioneers, the communist childrens organization, perhaps envisioning adventure and comradery with other youth across the world.

For millions of young readers in the Third World, Soviet and Eastern European literature was an inexpensive window into a world largely beyond reach.

But it wasnt just Soviet-produced books, magazines, journals, and newspapers that Mishra recalls. The Soviet Union had [also] helped set up and then subsidize publishing houses and bookshops across much of what was then known as the developing world, a contribution to literacy, education, and revolution largely lost with the demise of socialism in Eastern Europe.

Another essay, by Rossen Djagalov, an Assistant Professor of Russian at New York University, briefly touches on the history of Progress Publishers, based in Moscow. According to Djagalov, In the history of publishing, there has probably never been a press so linguistically ambitious as Progress.

By 1991, Progress Publishers was a behemoth publishing yearly close to 2,000 new titles with a print run approaching 30 million copies, in every language imaginable. Many around the world fondly remember Progresss cheap, high quality editions of otherwise unavailable Marxist literature, Djagalov concluded.

In The East Was Read, you will not only learn about Soviet domestic literacy campaigns and Progress Publishers; youll also read about the Foreign Language Publishing House, the first Soviet press to publish works for the non-Soviet world. But most importantly, you will get a sense of what the cheap, high quality books and magazines meant to the millions of people across the globe who were inspired by them.

Another contributor to the collection added, in a time when foreign was really distant and thus especially exotic, these books brought the tundra home, eliminating several emotional, political, social, and physical geographies.

The East Was Read, though, isnt just about books; it is about culture geared towards liberation. Another chapter discusses the early 1968 Cultural Congress of Havana, a colossal event, considered of pivotal importance not only for Cuba, but for the Third World project as a whole. There are also chapters on Socialist Cinema and poetry.

As a short book, The East Was Read is a huge accomplishment. The individual chapters consumed as a whole succeed to painting a unique pictureof nostalgia, yes, but also of the possibilities inherent in the human capacity to grow, evolve, and build solidarity across continents and generations, all towards the goal of constructing a literate, educated, socialist community of nations, a project that has unfortunately largely been forgotten with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European states.

The East Was Read reminds us of the possibilities of another time and place and thereby provides hope for the future as well. It is highly recommended.

The East Was Read: Socialist Culture in The Third World

Edited by Vijay Prashad

LeftWord Books, 2019, 153 pages

See the original post:
How Soviet books brought literacy and socialist culture to the Third World - People's World

About half of Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters (47%) describe their own political views as liberal, including 15% who describe their views as very liberal, according to an average of Pew Research Center political surveys conducted in 2019.

The share of Democratic voters who describe their political views as liberal has changed little over the past few years after increasing steadily between 2000 and 2016.

Liberals outnumber moderates (38%) and conservatives (14%) as a share of Democratic voters. Yet combined, conservatives and moderates continue to make up about half of Democratic voters (51%).

This analysis of changes in the self-identification of ideology among Democratic registered voters over time is based on a compilation of 239 phone surveys conducted by Pew Research Center from January 2000 through September 2019. These surveys were combined into a single, large file that allowed us to analyze data across a range of demographic characteristics, with comparisons made across different time periods. When combined, the 239 surveys represent over 150,000 interviews with Democratic or Democratic-leaning registered voters, or more than 8,000 interviews with this group each year. Yearly averages are calculated by combining all surveys for the calendar year, with appropriate weights applied.

While the ideological composition of the Democratic coalition is not much different than in 2016 when liberals constituted 45% of Democratic voters liberals make up a larger share of Democratic voters than they did in earlier presidential election years.

In 2012, when Barack Obama was reelected, a somewhat larger share of Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters called themselves moderates (40%) than liberals (37%), while 19% described their views as conservative. And in 2004, when George W. Bush was reelected after defeating John Kerry, just 30% of Democratic voters called themselves liberal, while more than twice as many (66%) described themselves as moderate or conservative.

The subset of Democratic voters who describe their views as very liberal has similarly increased since 2000, though they remain a relatively small group within the party. In 2000, just 6% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters said their political views were very liberal. By 2019, 15% of Democrats described their views this way.

White Democrats remain more likely than black or Hispanic Democrats to describe themselves as liberal. In 2019, a majority (55%) of white Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters identified themselves as liberal, an increase of 27 percentage points since 2000. Among white Democrats, 19% called themselves very liberal in 2019, compared with 6% in 2000.

By contrast, more black Democratic voters continue to characterize their views as moderate rather than liberal. In 2019, 43% of black Democrats called themselves moderate, 29% called themselves liberal and 25% called themselves conservative.

Since 2000, the share of black Democrats who describe their political views as liberal has changed little, while liberal identification among white Democrats has nearly doubled.

Among Hispanic Democratic voters, 38% described their political views as moderate in 2019, while 37% called themselves liberal and 22% conservative.

A majority of Democratic voters with postgraduate experience (62%) described their political views as liberal last year, as did 56% of college graduates with no postgraduate experience. The share calling themselves very liberal was 19% among those with a postgraduate education and 18% among those with a college degree.

Fewer Democratic voters among those with some college experience but no degree (43%) and those with no college experience (34%) characterized their political views as liberal or very liberal in 2019. Just 13% of Democrats with some college education and 11% of Democrats with no college education described their own views as very liberal.

Americans descriptions of their political views are distinct from, but strongly related to, their attitudes on specific issues. Most Americans continue to express at least some mix of liberal and conservative attitudes, but the share with either uniformly liberal or uniformly conservative attitudes has grown in recent years.

Note: This is an update of a post previously published Sept. 7, 2017.

Read the original here:
Liberals make up the largest share of Democratic voters, but their growth has slowed in recent years - Pew Research Center

Clerk of the House Cheryl Johnson and House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving deliver the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill, January 15, 2020. Following are impeachment managers House Judiciary Committee Chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Rep. Sylvia Garcia, Rep. Val Demings, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, and Rep. Jason Crow.(Tom Brenner/Reuters)

In a column published at Law.com in December, one commentator argued that senators who refuse to be impartial should be disqualified from participating in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. A few days ago, an ethics lawyer from the George W. Bush administration called Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) a perjurer for taking the oath to do impartial justice in the trial after saying he would not be an impartial juror. They might want to reconsider their position.

If these people really mean what they say, of course, any senator who has taken a position on the presidents guilt would have to bow out. In that case, say goodbye to Senator Kamala Harris (D., Calif.). On Monday, Jan. 13, she spoke on the Senate floor and stated, as a fact, that Trump pressured a foreign nation to interfere in our elections. Thats an almost word-for-word recitation of the first impeachment article, which states that Trump solicited the interference of a foreign government . . . in the 2020 United States Presidential election.

Harris went on to say that it is unacceptable for a president to shake down a vulnerable foreign nation for personal or political benefit. This too echoes the first impeachment article, which claims that Trump used the power of his office to obtain an improper personal political benefit.

If publicly accusing a defendant of the specific offense for which he has been impeached, in virtually identical language as that impeachment, is not refusing to be impartial, what is? Harris, however, is far from alone.

Senator Mazie Hirono (D., Hawaii), who had rejected the presumption of innocence during the confirmation process for Justice Brett Kavanaugh, has said she would vote to convict unless Trump could actually exonerate himself. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) says that the impeachment articles are supported by a wealth of undisputed facts. And Senator Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) was even more direct, say that the case is clear: President Trump tried to trade away our national security for a personal political favor. As if reading directly from the same talking points, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) says that President Trump put our national security at risk in order to obtain political favors. And Senator Christopher Murphy (D., Conn) insists that the bottom line is this: President Trump abused his authority by using taxpayer funded aid to pressure a foreign government to help him win re-election in 2020.

Senate minority leader Charles Schumer, (D., N.Y.) has similarly attacked McConnell, accusing him of refusing to be impartial. Yet, as CNN has reported, leading up to President Bill Clintons impeachment trial, Schumer repeatedly said that the Senate is not like a jury box. Indeed, when running for the Senate in 1998, he asked people to vote for him precisely because he would be a vote to acquit Clinton.

Impartiality, anyone?

House Democrats rigged the rules to guarantee a pre-determined impeachment result. Now Senate Democrats are trying to rig the jury pool by trying to exclude senators not likely to convict. We all know how this is going to end. Try the impeachment and lets move on.

See the article here:
Liberals Keep Using the Word Impartiality, but It May Not Mean What They Think - National Review

Forty years ago, the federal Liberals were keeping their leader inside a bubble that their opponents wanted to burst.

That's because Pierre Trudeau and his party were in the midst of an election campaign, which saw them leading in the polls with a month to go before Election Day.

And the party was employing a so-called "peekaboo campaign" strategy that was seeminglybuilt around limiting Trudeau's exposure something Peter Mansbridge said wasamarked change from the previous election cycle.

"This year, with an apparent big lead, things are a lot different," Mansbridge reportedon The National on Jan. 18, 1980.

"Trudeau quietly reads from a prepared text, he rarely answers questions and his party platform still lacks detail."

Alan Frizzell, a pollster at Carleton University, said the lead the Liberals held did not ensure their eventual victory at the polls.

Noting the shift in thepolls that had then favoured the Liberals, Frizzell said a fickle electorate could easily movein a different direction.

"If it can swing one way, it can swing the other," he said.

The election outcome would all come down to what voters decided, of course, including whether they approved of the Liberals' campaign strategy.

"Surely, leaders can be judged on the basis of their unwillingness to speak to the issues and that's the risk they take if they choose a tactic that doesn't permit the voters to make an informed judgment on the basis of issues," said Fred Fletcher, a political science professor at York University.

The Liberals' strategy had been under some scrutiny before the campaign had reached its mid-point, however.

Earlier in January of 1980,CBC had reported on the Liberals'decision not toparticipate in a televised leaders' debate, leaving PC Leader Joe Clark and New Democrat Leader Ed Broadbent without a platform to square off against Trudeau.

Liberalstrategists had confirmed that doing so was a purposeful part of their campaign strategy.

Broadbent called the decision to skip the debate "the height of arrogance" andClark had then suggested the Liberals were "trying to induce Canadians to forget what Pierre Elliott Trudeau did during the 11 years he was prime minister."

Before 1980, Trudeau had led his party through four elections, winning three of them and serving as Canada's prime minister for almost allof the 1970s.

But the 1979 election saw the Progressive Conservatives take power in Ottawa as a minority government and Trudeau eventually stated plans to step down from politics.

His plans changed when Clark's government was defeated, triggering the 1980 election that returned Trudeau and the Liberals to power.

Excerpt from:
The 'peekaboo campaign' the Liberals hoped would return them to power - CBC.ca