by Jacques Berlinerblau | Nov 9, 2026 | culture, elections, Opinion
Given the prominence of religious Christian Democrats who rode the blue wave to victory this midterm election, one might be forgiven for questioning whether lawmakers who often ground their politics in their deeply held Christian faith will continue to weaken the crumbing wall of separation between church and state.
But the truth of the matter is much more complicated.
Newly elected senators like James Talarico and Adam Hamilton have a major opportunity — and challenge — when it comes to defending church-state separation. Their task is fraught; they are not only mounting a defense against red state conservatives, not only against the John Roberts Supreme Court, which has worked to dismantle the wall brick by brick, but against Obama-era orthodoxies as well.
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Democrats catch ‘white whale of Texas politics’ with Talarico, Hinojosa wins
November 3, 2026 / 10:07
That Democrats fielded religious candidates isn’t all that new. After all, Black Democrats have historically used their Christian faith to guide their politics. But what’s new here is the emergence in red states of a small cluster of white Democrats who are deeply committed to mainline Protestant traditions and who link their theological convictions to liberal policies — often to remarkable effect. Their views on church and state issues, while still evolving, may mark a break with Democrats’ recent approach to this issue.
Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian, trounced Republican Ken Paxton as Texas turned blue. In Kansas, Methodist megachurch pastor Hamilton defeated GOP incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall. Two ministers in Iowa, one Lutheran (Sarah Trone Garriott) and one Presbyterian (Lindsay James), are now House members-elect. (The Hawkeye State’s incoming governor, Rob Sand, is a Bible-quoting Lutheran layperson.)
Not every
by Andrea Pitzer | Nov 9, 2026 | Civil Rights, Opinion
Following the Republican Party’s defenestration in the midterm elections, President Donald Trump initially made conciliatory noises. But on Friday, Americans learned that Stephen Miller — the architect of the administration’s brutal mass deportations — will become White House chief of staff. Summoning Miller shifts the administration into an even more antagonistic stance.
Given Miller’s demagoguery about everything from vaccinations to “invasion” by foreigners, he appears to feel very much at home in that position. The choice also suggests that the White House is growing even more detached from reality. On Friday at Mar-a-Lago, Miller said that Trump has made the Republican Party “stronger, more popular, and more resilient than ever before.”
DHS cannot be reformed. Camp bureaucracies don’t shrink or vanish on their own. Ones left to fester frequently grow more lethal over time
Driving Trump’s immigration agenda for a decade now, Miller has done staggering damage to democracy. While his new position may add only nominally to the authority he’s long exercised, it nonetheless emphasizes the administration’s willingness to double down on cruel and lawless detention. That’s why now, more than ever, Congress must dismantle the Department of Homeland Security.
Labeling Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention apparatus a concentration camp system might surprise those who don’t know the history involved. But as I’ve written before for MS NOW, our current system fits cleanly in the model I documented in my book on the global history of concentration camps: mass detention of civilians without due process on the basis of their identity. DHS personnel have beaten and shot citizens, noncitizens, men, women and even teens — often without accountability — on our streets.
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Republicans ‘very
by Austin Sarat | Nov 9, 2026 | Civil Rights, elections, Opinion
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement on Nov. 5 of a universal clemency for the 548 people awaiting execution in his state marks an important turning point in American politics. It signals the end of law-and-order politics as a determining factor in the calculations of likely presidential contenders.
Newsom, an ambitious politician who is almost certain to run for president in 2028, reportedly weighed the impact that commuting hundreds of death sentences — including those of some notorious killers — would have on his political prospects.
That Newsom went ahead with the mass clemency tells us a lot about the salience of tough-on-crime positions in the present political moment. Opposition to capital punishment is no longer the death knell for people aspiring to be president.
This is not to say that Newsom won’t face backlash, either in California or elsewhere in the country, for his clemency decision. As the New York Times notes, “Those against Mr. Newsom’s move are expected to file a challenge arguing that he violated the law with a blanket commutation and that each case must be considered on individual merits.”
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The Bulwark: Some 2028 Democrat hopefuls are ‘quietly courting campaign staffers’
September 1, 2026 / 07:34
The Times reports that “Marc Klaas, the father of Polly Klaas, whose kidnapping and murder prompted an era of tough-on-crime policies in California, is livid at the idea of Mr. Newsom granting mercy to his daughter’s killer, or anyone else sentenced to death.” Klaas told the Times that he was aghast at Newsom “putting his energy” into commuting the death sentences of “serial killers, spree killers, cop killers, baby killers. We’re talking about absolutely the worst people
by Anthony Coley | Nov 8, 2026 | Opinion, White House
Chuck Schumer should prepare to step down as Senate Democratic leader. Obviously not because he failed during last week’s midterm elections, but because his party won.
On Tuesday, Schumer helped lead Democrats back to a Senate majority despite an electoral map that favored Republicans. He’ll never have a better moment to plan his exit, and he should announce now that January 2028 is the time to make it.
Schumer’s victory gives him a rare opportunity: the chance to pass the baton to a new generation from a position of strength.
Schumer’s victory gives him a rare opportunity: the chance to pass the baton to a new generation from a position of strength.
There’s something to be said for going out on top. John Elway won back-to-back Super Bowls and retired. Oprah Winfrey ended her talk show after 25 seasons, still the queen of daytime. George Mitchell gave up his job as Senate majority leader and went on to help bring peace to Northern Ireland.
Schumer has spent a lifetime mastering the Senate. Now he has a chance to master something far more rare in Washington: the art of knowing when to step aside.
But first, we should give Schumer his due. He has shepherded landmark legislation through a narrowly divided Senate, he recruited candidates who won in states Republicans expected to hold and just pulled off a rout few saw coming.
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Schumer speaks out after Dems win Senate: ‘Relief is on the way’
November 4, 2026 / 06:40
Schumer has his critics within the Democratic caucus, and not without reason. But this isn’t an argument about his past shortcomings. It’s about an opportunity before him: to leave his party
by Lauren Harper | Nov 8, 2026 | Congress, Investigations, Opinion, Trump Administration
With Democrats’ decisive midterm election wins, incoming committee chairs are promising a blitz of investigations. Targets include potential abuses of power by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a culture of self-enrichment without precedent in modern American history.
This is an appropriate reaction to two years of nearly unchecked executive power. But these investigations can be only as good as the records that agencies and the White House have preserved, and the effectiveness and independence of the system charged with releasing them. Lawmakers will be stymied if the records they demand have been destroyed or have vanished into encrypted, auto-deleting apps, or if agencies continue to weaponize their classification authority.
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Top Oversight Dem Rep. Garcia posts: ‘LAWYER UP.’
November 4, 2026 / 01:35
This anti-accountability obfuscation is poised to play out on two fronts.
Across federal agencies, there is little reason to believe political appointees who regularly stonewall will begin complying with congressional inquiries. Secrecy has been the norm in the second Trump administration. We are likely to see agencies refuse to respond to committee requests for information, ignore Freedom of Information Act requests on investigative topics and continue to scrub government websites of public information. All this is compounded by the administration’s systematic purging of career inspectors general and replacement of those independent professionals with political loyalists so far unwilling to investigate waste, abuse and potential destruction of evidence.
There is little reason to believe political appointees who regularly stonewall will begin complying with congressional inquiries.
Inside the White House, secrecy tactics could grow even more brazen. To ensure that critical records — from President Donald Trump’s working papers to the communications of high-level appointees,
by Nicholas Mitchell | Nov 8, 2026 | elections, Opinion, Politics
To win his U.S. Senate race in Texas last week, Democrat James Talarico, who’s white, had to mend some fences with Black voters after he defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who’s Black, in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. There were already hard feelings between Black voters and Democrats left over from 2024. Some prominent party members had blamed Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to Donald Trump on “wokeness,” which Black voters rightly read as code for “Black issues.” Also, because Black women have so reliably voted for Democrats, many of them in Texas were offended at the seemingly reflexive claim by some Democrats at the start of the primary between Crockett and Talarico that he was the more electable one.
The lingering bitterness from Black voters forced him to engage in what can be described as a racial reconciliation-oriented campaign strategy.
Talarico had won the majority of white Democrats and Latinos in winning the nomination, but the lingering bitterness from Black voters forced him to engage in what can be described as a racial reconciliation-oriented campaign strategy to make up with Black voters without losing the support among of the groups he carried to win the nomination. His victory over Republican Ken Paxton to become the first Democrat to be elected to the U.S. Senate from Texas in 36 years, proves his strategy succeeded.
Democrat Abdul El-Sayed didn’t defeat a Black candidate on his way to winning his party’s nomination for U.S. Senate in Michigan, but he did have to appeal to Black voters who felt that Harris lost Michigan because Arab and Muslim voters punished Harris for President Joe Biden’s Gaza policy.
