Meaghan Murphy
The New Republic
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Past articles by Meaghan:
Antonin Scalia’s death has already dramatically tilted the Supreme Court to the left.
This was evident in the Court’s split vote today on Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a major case that, with Scalia on board, could have gutted the financial viability of public-employee unions. The immediate result of this deadlock is that such unions can continue collecting fees from non-members.Friedrichs is ostensibly concerned with the free speech r... → Read More
The Black Lives Matter movement scored a big electoral win in Chicago.
Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez has been decisively voted out of office. The well-funded incumbent lost her primary with just 29 percent of the vote. Challenger and former prosecutor Kim Foxx pulled through with 58 percent.This is mostly thanks to the #ByeAnita campaign, led by young black activists who creatively combined direct action with electoral strategy. They ousted Alvarez ... → Read More
The Black Lives Matter movement scored a big electoral win in Chicago.
Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez has been decisively voted out of office. The well-funded incumbent lost her primary with just 29 percent of the vote. Challenger and former prosecutor Kim Foxx pulled through with 58 percent.This is mostly thanks to the #ByeAnita campaign, led by young black activists who creatively combined direct action with electoral strategy. They ousted Alvarez ... → Read More
Young black organizers in Chicago have made the Cook County State’s Attorney one of the most important races tonight.
It took State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez over a year to charge a Chicago cop with first degree murder for the October 2014 shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Now, Alvarez is up for reelection in what is seen as the first referendum on the city’s handling of the entire case (Mayor Rahm Emanuel will be much harder to remove).One of Alvarez’s challengers, Kim Foxx, has union suppor... → Read More
Does Friday’s Trump Mayhem Bode Well for Bernie Sanders in Chicago?
He doesn't need to defeat the Democratic machine in Chicago—just peel off enough Hillary supporters. → Read More
Jorge Ramos is not messing around.
Not that he’s been going easy on Bernie Sanders, but at the Democratic debate moderator Ramos has hit Hillary Clinton hard. When Ramos brought up her email scandal, Clinton gave the same answer she’s been giving for months, insisting that she’s in the clear and that “it was permitted.” But then Ramos raised her one, asking her if she would drop out of the race if she were indicted. Clinton br... → Read More
Hillary Clinton attacked Bernie Sanders on the auto bailout again.
Tonight’s debate has focused heavily on immigration policy, but after a pointed punchline from Sanders on that issue (“Madam Secretary, I will match my record against yours any day of the week”), Clinton dredged up the auto bailout."The money that rescued the auto industry was in that bill. Senator Sanders voted against it.” —Hillary #DemDebate— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 10, 2016… → Read More
After her loss in Michigan, Hillary Clinton says she’s ready for a primary “marathon.”
The first question for Clinton at tonight’s Democratic debate was about Bernie Sanders’s upset victory in the state last night. And it looks like it she has made a considerable adjustment, preparing herself for the long primary season. “I was pleased that I got 100,000 more votes last night that my opponent and more delegates,” she said. “So this is a marathon, and it’s a marathon that can on... → Read More
Bernie and Hillary demand that officials lose their jobs over the Flint water crisis, starting with the Republican governor.
At the opening of tonight’s Democratic debate in the Michigan city, both Clinton and Sanders demanded that Michigan Governor Rick Synder resign over the crisis, and later said that culpable officials at the EPA and elsewhere should lose their jobs—and perhaps even go to jail.The alarm for Snyder’s resignation has been sounded by everyone from Matt Damon and Michael Moore. Sanders ha... → Read More
The new Ghostbusters trailer features zero words spoken by a man.
Rebooting the classics can run the risk of leaning to hard on nostalgia. But as we saw with Ryan Coogler’s work reviving the Rocky franchise with Creed, a light touch and some smart casting choices can reenergize dilapidated properties. The new Ghostbusters is directed by Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, The Heat, Freaks and Geeks), who has a pretty good track record working with hilarious w... → Read More
Decency prevails in South Dakota.
Governor Dennis Daugaard was initially supportive of a bill that would have prevented transgender students from using the bathroom of their gender identity. But meetings with advocacy groups and transgender students—not to mention the likelihood of expensive Title IX lawsuits—seem to have changed his mind.The bill passed in the South Dakota Senate 20-15, and 58-10 in the House.... → Read More
John Kasich had an actual strategy in Vermont, but Trump won anyway.
He won narrowly with 32.6 percent of the vote, compared to Kasich’s 30.7 percent, with 87 percent of precincts reporting. Marco Rubio fell just short of the 20 percent delegate threshold, dooming him to zero delegates.Kasich invested time, resources, and a certain amount of faith in both Massachusetts and Vermont, trying to spin his second-place in New Hampshire into New E... → Read More
Hillary Clinton wins Massachusetts, thanks to wealthy suburbs.
Massachusetts seems like a state that’s pretty easy to figure out. Predominantly white with a progressive streak, bordering Vermont and within range of the New Hampshire media market? Many would have predicted a win for Bernie Sanders. But with 82 percent of precincts reporting and NBC calling the race, Hillary Clinton has pulled through with 51 percent of the vote.Sanders did mobilize progre... → Read More
Donald Trump wins Massachusetts, and that shouldn’t be a huge surprise.
Trump’s support in the liberal, liberal state of Massachusetts has been puzzling people for days. But it actually does make sense.John Kasich and Marco Rubio both made gestures towards Massachusetts Republicans, but the problem is that the “Massachusetts Republican” hardly exists. Democrats outnumber Republicans three to one. In January, 20,000 people left the Democratic Party, many... → Read More
How Donald Trump hurts Bernie Sanders in Massachusetts.
Recent polls show Hillary Clinton up in Massachusetts—a state that is predominately white, generally progressive, borders New Hampshire and Vermont, and voted for McGovern. You’d think that Sanders would have an easy path to victory in a state so blue and white. But Clinton has shored up the establishment endorsements, save for Elizabeth Warren, and has ramped up her advertising.Massachusetts… → Read More
Is Trump’s deportation policy all about the art of the deal?
Back in January, Donald Trump sat down with the New York Times editorial board to try and win the paper’s endorsement. Part of that session was on-the-record, but a portion of that meeting (along with official transcripts and recording) remains off-the-record. That’s all within standard journalistic practices, but a line in a New York Times op-ed by Gail Collins got BuzzFeed Editor-in-Ch... → Read More
Rubio insults Trump and immigrants for being bad spellers, while proving he can’t read.
Rubio is coming off of Thursday night’s debate with new energy. The candidate was in Dallas on Friday morning, reading a string of #meantweets penned by Trump to a thoroughly entertained crowd. The now deleted Trump tweets accused Rubio of being a “lightweight choker” and “looking like a little boy on stage.” Rubio was having a blast, reading them out loud to his supporters, calling out Trump’s… → Read More
And so the Bush dynasty comes to an end.
After coming in fourth in New Hampshire with a slim 11 percent of the vote, Jeb Bush needed a strong performance in South Carolina. The Palmetto state didn’t come through, even with cameos on the campaign trail by George W., and Jeb conceded defeat tonight in a speech to supporters. His campaign suffered a huge blow on Wednesday when South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley gave her endorsement to... → Read More
Clinton supporters are going after Bernie Sanders’s role in the civil rights movement.
Representative John Lewis, the civil rights icon, said this of Sanders today, as the political arm of the Congressional Black Caucus endorsed Clinton for president: I never saw him, I never met him. I was chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee for three years, from 1963 to 1966. I was involved in the sit-ins, the freedom rides, the March on Washington, the march from Selma to ... → Read More
Maybe Hillary Clinton shouldn’t take the black vote for granted.
Michelle Alexander, law professor and author of The New Jim Crow, expanded her critique of Clinton in an article in The Nation on Wednesday, arguing that as the campaign moves on to South Carolina, black voters would do well to brush up on the Clintons’ record. Addressing Hillary and Bill as a singular political brand, she asks, “What have the Clintons done to earn such ... → Read More